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Acquired Contemplation Full THE ART OF ACQUIRED CONTEMPLATION FOR EVERYONE (Into the Mystery of God) Deacon Dr. Bob McDonald ECCE HOMO Behold the Man Behold the Man-God Behold His holy face Creased with sadness and pain. His head shrouded and shredded with thorns The atrocious crown for the King of Kings Scourged and torn with forty lashes Humiliated and mockingly adored. Pleading with love rejected Impaled by my crucifying sins Yet persisting in his love for me I see all this in his tortured eyes. So, grant me the grace to love you As you have loved me That I may lay down my life in joy As you have joyfully laid down your life for me. In the stillness I seek you In the silence I find you In the quiet I listen For the music of God. THE ART OF ACQUIRED CONTEMPLATION Chapter 1 What is Acquired Contemplation? Chapter 2 The Christian Tradition Chapter 3 The Scriptural Foundation Chapter 4 The Method Chapter 5 Expectations Chapter 6 The Last Word CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS ACQUIRED CONTEMPLATION? It will no doubt come as a surprise For the reader to be told that acquired contemplation is indeed somethinG that can be “acquired” and that it is in Fact available to all Christians in all walKs oF liFe. It is not, as is commonly held, an esoteric practice reserved For men and women oF exceptional holiness. It is now Known to possess a universal potential which all oF us can enjoy and which has been larGely untapped by lay Christians For niGh on 2000 years. It is however, not widely Known that an anonymous monK in the 14th century dared to suGGest that acquired contemplation was available to everyone, yet it still remained the preroGative oF monastics and saints until the 20th century when adepts such as Dom John Main and Thomas Merton cleared the way and oFFered this prayer method For anyone who Felt called to it. This booKlet is desiGned to help all those Christians, who are attracted to contemplative prayer, to embarK on this excitinG journey and to provide clear and loGical Guidance based on experience. It is precisely this guidance which avoids all sorts of well-meaninG but erroneous practices which a novice can so easily Fall into. So, what is this prayer Form all about? Acquired contemplation is the art oF approachinG God in silence and stillness without words unliKe other Forms oF prayer which involve the use oF words such as the Rosary, the Chaplet oF Divine Mercy and prayers in spiritual booKs. The Catholic Encyclopedia distinguishes between two Forms oF contemplation: acquired contemplation also called centerinG prayer and inFused or passive contemplation. Acquired contemplation is a deliberate act oF love oF God by means of which man reaches out to God. InFused contemplation is the lovinG action oF God reachinG out to man. CenterinG prayer is available to all Christians in our day, unliKe For past centuries where it was conFined to the monasteries and was reserved only For monks and reliGious sisters. InFused contemplation, however, is in Fact God’s decision and is outside oF our human control. In other words, man acts and God reacts iF he sees Fit to do so. The latter is a special GiFt and is given by God only to a select Few, but we, in silence can open our hearts and our whole beinG to God and we do that by constant attentiveness to a prayer word of our choice. We thereby acquire the early staGes oF contemplation in so Far as it is humanly possible. It is important to understand that acquired contemplation is NOT meditation. The OxFord dictionary states that meditation involves exercisinG the intellect and the mind with a speciFic topic oF our choosinG. In other words, we ponder upon somethinG such as a passaGe oF scripture and we draw upliFtinG conclusions From it. But it involves deliberate discursive thinkinG on our part. Acquired contemplation, however, is the very opposite oF meditation. There is no intellectual ponderinG or activity oF any Kind. It is in Fact the emptyinG oF the mind oF ALL thouGhts or ideas or imaGininGs. The sad truth is that all oF us have as it were, a radio commentator talKinG incessantly in our heads. Our consciousness is constantly bombarded by words which is why it is so oFten diFFicult to enter into a state oF true mental rest. This proFusion oF words and ideas eFFectively prevents us From reachinG out to the inFinite and totally Formless spirit who is our God. Any ideas or imaGes we have Formed about God must by deFinition be Flawed and woeFully short oF the reality oF our Creator. Many oF us still hold onto the childish imaGe oF God as an old man with a lonG beard. This is clearly not the case, yet we are still trapped in such childlike errors. God is not reachable by means oF our imaGination and it is only by emptyinG our mind oF all preconceived notions of our Father God that we can ever hope to enter into his august presence. We do this by means oF utter silence. This does not mean that we cannot encounter God in other Forms oF prayer such as the Rosary, but these are in Fact meditations and not contemplation. With the Rosary we Formally meditate on the whole life of Jesus. On the contrary, acquired contemplation abandons all discursive thouGht and enters into a state which St. John oF the Cross described as NADA meaninG nothinGness. It is in the vast nothinGness that we come to rest in the arms oF God. In pursuinG nothinGness it is important to understand that we are not implyinG that God is nothinGness. Not at all. God is everythinG. But we deliberately embrace nothinGness in order to encounter the God who resides in our soul and so we choose to abandon the day-to-day busyness oF our mind. God is oF course already in our soul, but we are prevented From accessinG him Fully by our intrusive thouGhts, ideas and imaGinations. In puttinG these aside For a time, we prepare ourselves For God’s loving condescension, whereby he allows himselF to be “KNOWN”. Many writers insist on borrowinG instruction From Hindu or Buddhist Forms oF so-called meditation. But this is an oxymoron since these practices do not involve meditation at all. In efFect we need no instruction From Eastern reliGions since we already have a 2000 yearlonG rich Christian tradition oF centerinG prayer. The eastern objective is to reach what they call nirvana which is nothinG more than a humanly enliGhtened state oF mind. Christian contemplation is not interested in nirvana because we are seeking a state of union with a person, and that person is the Creator of the Universe who is God. Also, there is no demand in the Christian tradition to adopt the lotus position or any other difficult posture. All that is required is to sit upright in a comFortable chair. Nor should we reFer to our prayer word as a mantra. That too is borrowed From Hindu practice and is totally unnecessary and misleadinG. Not only that, but in Transcendental so-called meditation, the Maharishi allocates mantras according to the age groups of his clients. But what is not well known is the Fact that these mantras are actually the names oF Hindu Gods. We Christians must shun these invocations oF false Gods. We need to Focus our attention on our Father God and in restinG in his presence with the holy view that we can have a deeper relationship with him who is our personal creator. We do not need to be immersed in Hindu theoloGical practice wince we have always had our own theoloGy For 2,000 years, a theoloGy which taKes us into a deeper connection with our Triune God and him alone. There is no room For idolatry in acquired contemplation. As the decaloGue instructs us, “Thou shalt not have False Gods beFore me”. Acquired contemplation then needs to be pure in its objective which is to enter into the quiet and listen For the music oF God. An anonymous ascetic monK in the 14th century wrote an inFormative treatise which he called, “The Cloud oF UnKnowinG.” He describes acquired contemplation as a process by which we enter into this cloud of unknowing and we do this by erasing all thought and entering blissful silence. In penetratinG the cloud we place ourselves in the presence oF God but as the monK points out, we cannot push through the cloud of our own volition. That is God’s preroGative and if he did allow us to penetrate the cloud that would be inFused contemplation. All we can do is rest in the NADA, the nothinGness and patiently wait on God. As stated earlier, acquired contemplation is available to every Christian but sadly very Few even Know there is such a thinG and oF those who do Know Few are willinG to spend the time and the eFFort to acquire it. Yet the truth is that acquired contemplation is a simple exercise. That is not to say that it is easy. It is not but it is quite simple to put into practice and by perseverance and Generously GivinG oF one’s time to encounterinG God, one can reach the experience oF true NADA and ultimately enjoy the beneFits which accompany it. HavinG said that, there is always the problem that modern man is up to his eyeballs in busyness. One only has to thinK oF the worKinG mother who has a younG Family.
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