Contemplationwww.contemplativerudder.com/ContemplationII.pdf www.contemplativerudder.com/ContemplationIII.pdf www.contemplativerudder.com/ContemplationIV.pdf www.contemplativerudder.com/ContemplationV.pdf www.contemplativerudder.com/ContemplatiionVI.pdf www.contemplativerudder.com/ContPostlude.pdf From WikiversityJump to: navigation, search
Contemplation Lesson 1 (What Contemplation is and is not) Introduction [edit]This Lesson will offer an introduction-to, and overview-of … a thousand-year biographical history of "Infused-Prayer" by setting-forth, in bold-relief, the writings of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. Purpose [edit]This Lesson will...
Hints [edit]As you read the Sources, look for the following:
To undertake study of this Lesson, go to: http://www.contemplativerudder.com/ContemplationIA.pdf
Retrieved from "http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Contemplation"
Category: Philosophy "Sacred Silence" Lesson 1 (Contemplation) INTRODUCTION: This Lesson will offer an introduction-to, and overview-of … a thousand-year biographical history of "Infused-Prayer" by setting-forth, in bold-relief, the writings of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. PURPOSE: This Lesson will... 1) Identify the single, radical distinction between Oriental Mysticism and Christian Contemplation. 2) Expose the oft-ignored difference between the Desert Fathers of Syria and the Fathers of Egypt. 3) Put "Prayer of the Heart" in bold-relief by citing carefully-selected excerpts of John of the Cross’ writings. 4) Set a stage for Unit Seven's attempt at a common-sense / five-part teaching on Contemplation. LEARNING HINTS: As you read the Sources, look for the following: 1) The critical difference between Oriental Mysticism and Christian Contemplation. 2) Root-cause of the critical difference between the Desert Fathers of Egypt and those of Syria. 3) A sense of the absolute richness of John of the Cross' Inner Life. 4) A grasp of essential characteristics in the growth-stages in Contemplative Prayer. ASSIGNMENT: 1) Re-read # 1 (A & B only) 2) Re-read # 2 3) Re-read # 3 4) Re-read # 4 PASTORAL THEOLOGY 601: Unit 7 ("Sacred Silence") / Lesson 1 (Contemplation) 1. What is Contemplation? A. Mosaic: It is commonly imagined that contemplation is for cloistered Monks and Nuns, not Plumbers ...: "One reason so many people assume that Contemplation is reserved for a select few is that they imagine it to be what it is not." (Thomas Dubay) <> "Sometimes contemplation is like balancing on the edge of a razor blade, with a meadow full of wildflowers on one hand, and madness on the other." (Brother Roger of Taize) <> "There is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues." (Thomas Merton) <> "[Contemplation] is being poured-out through. Solitude is ordinary life, normal life, though my ordinary is not your ordinary." (Brother Roger) <> "The gaps are the thing. The gaps are the spirit's one home. Go up into the gaps. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil ... and unlock ... a universe." (Annie Dillard) <> "Initial infused prayer is so ordinary and unspectacular in the early stages that many fail to recognize it for what it is." (Dubay) B. Oriental Mysticism: While Contemplation is a love communion with God, Oriental Mysticism is, in accord with what Masters themselves say of their Contemplation, a state of impersonal, neutral awareness. Be it Buddhist contemplation, Hindu transcendental meditation, Zen contemplation, or Yoga contortion, there is never claim to "a knowing-loving that we cannot produce but only receive" (i.e. as is the nature of Christian contemplation). When a Zen Master was asked about the meaning of Buddhism he replied, "If there is any meaning in it, I myself am not liberated." In Hindu or Tao, "The spiritual man tends toward an absorption of his proper personality in a deity which is, itself, impersonal." (Louis Bouyer) Nowhere does Oriental mysticism speak of the wordless awareness and love that man, of himself, can neither initiate nor prolong (i.e. as in Christian Contemplation). C. Jung and Oriental Mysticism: This father of much of modern-day Psychiatry had grave reservations about the wisdom of Westerners giving up their religious traditions and embracing those of the East. He wrote, "The spiritual development of the West has been along entirely different lines from that the East, and has therefore produced conditions which are the most unfavorable soil one can think-of for ... repressing and controlling the unconscious, and least of all by imitating methods which have grown up under totally different psychological conditions." 2. Christian Contemplation in Early Christianity. A. The Desert Fathers: In the Fourth Century, groups of Christian men and women literally moved into the deserts of Egypt and Syria. There they sought to "climb the tower beyond time, consciously." They were described as "men intoxicated with God." Impelled by the same Holy Spirit who drove Jesus into the desert, they sought to pray always, to push their mind into their heart (i.e. into the deepest level of consciousness). In their hearts He reigned progressively [more and more] as the desert hermits strove vigilantly to, "bring every thought and imagination under captivity and in obedience to Jesus Christ" (2 Co. 10:5). These Athletes of God, in their attempt to reach the state of integration they called a p a t h e i a (i.e. passionless passion), subjected themselves to fasting and vigils through the night.... This rugged profile, however, is only half the story! For, while in Egypt (it being the center of Greek culture in exile) Platonism and Stoicism had become the philosophical carriers to articulate a form of Christian life for the monks of the desert, in the deserts of Syria, Semitic Christianity was the vehicle. The resulting differences of "method", the residual influences on Christianity … are both profound and of great and serious import into the present day. B. Egypt: Plato taught that we can separate the mind from the body. Stoics counseled a self-imposed Gulag (i.e. harsh discipline) to bring the body under control. The merging of these seminal influences produced an Abba Agathon (considered a giant among the Egyptian Fathers) who believed that, "there is no labor greater than praying to God ... in order to pray, a man must struggle to his last breath." Neo-Platonism taught that one must empty the mind so as to make the soul a mirror reflecting the ever-present Light of God. From this same [Platonic] influence came the Jesus Prayer * which demands voluntary synchronization of a continual mental recitation with [involuntary] breathing-in and breathing-out. After studying volumes of writings by these [Egyptian] Fathers, one is compelled to ask: "Where is the 'wordless awareness and love that man of himself cannot initiate or prolong' ... as taught by the John of the Cross / as experienced by so many present-day Contemplatives?" * The Jesus Prayer is: "Lord Jesus Christ … Son of the living God … have mercy on me a sinner." C. Syria: The Monastery of St. Catherine of Mt. Sinai was built in the 6th Century. It was characterized by personal, warm, contemplative devotion to Jesus. The [Semitic] Desert Fathers of the 4th & 5th Centuries had seen contemplation as something beyond human reason. In the tradition of Moses, they were prepared to hear God on His terms (i.e. as did Moses hear from the Burning Bush). For them, the mere name of Jesus, coupled with silence of heart and lips (i.e. the reduction of all cares to only the essential one) brought the wordless awareness of God's love. Macarius, rooted in a Semitic (Syrian) "Spirituality of the Heart", emphasized the feeling consciousness of the Presence of Jesus dwelling within the heart, the deepest level of awareness where one encounters God as "the ground of human being." St. Theophan the Recluse expressed all of Semitic understanding of Contemplation in this manner: "Stand in the heart, with the faith that God is also there, but how He is there do not speculate." 3. Christian Contemplation in the Middle-Ages A. John of the Cross: We know very little of this Spanish mystic's activities but know much about his deepest-self. John seldom used the personal pronoun "I" in his writing, but few men or women in history have possessed such an extraordinary talent for describing an immensely rich inner-life. While his teaching is the unvarnished Gospel, John so loved nature that he enjoyed going outdoors and praying immediately from the Book of Creation which lay before his eyes. John, in his supernatural natural-ness, stood in the stream of Semitic spirituality... B. Brief excerpts of John's writing. Note: selections are arranged that the Student might use them as brief meditations for days of the week. 􀂾 "Loving substantial quietude, where nothing is understood particularly, and in which they like to rest .... A secret and peaceful and loving inflow of God." 􀂾 "... aware of the delight of love, without particular knowledge of what he loves ... the thirst of love ... a loving thirst ... [the] urgent longing of love." 􀂾 "A secret inflow of God ... a ray of darkness ... a bright ray of His secret wisdom ... a divine and dark spiritual light." 􀂾 "A tranquil reception of this loving inflow ... the touch of burning in the will ... the touch of understanding in the intellect ... an inflaming of love." 􀂾 "A secret inflow of God into the soul ... so delicate and interior that the soul does not perceive or feel it, even though occupied with it." 􀂾 "... remaining in God's presence with a loving attention and a tranquil intellect ... you will find, little-by-little ... a divine calm and peace with a wondrous, sublime knowledge of God, enveloped in divine love, infused into your soul." This final note on John the Man, and the transformative nature of Contemplation: We are told that, in a crowd, John could easily be missed and passed over. Yet, "once seen and spoken to alone, he could never be forgotten." (E. Allison Peers, The Spirit of Flame) 4. Contemporaneous Contemplation A. Tabernacle Prayer and Infused Contemplation: The Institute has urged the Student to rigorously pursue the Tabernacle in the Desert pattern for Thirty Days (cf. Lesson 3). Afterwards, the "wheat" (vs. inevitable intellectual and imaginational "chaff") of that discipline should become instinctual (i.e. should require very little effort of the mind or will). "Infused contemplation is the normal, ordinary development of Discursive Prayer. The former gradually and gently replaces the latter when reasoned thought has run its course as a method of communing with the Lord." (Thomas Dubay) B. Traits of Growth: “Beginning” Contemplative Prayer is usually delicate and brief. “Advancing” Contemplation becomes burning, powerful, absorbing and prolonged. While Contemplation even in the beginning stages is transformative of life, Advanced Contemplation culminates in the "Transforming Union." C. Order and Content of Unit Seven: While this Unit in no way presumes it can lead the Student to the gift of Infused Prayer, it does attempt a progressive and comprehensive presentation of the topic, as understood by a contemporary Spiritual Director of great stature, Father Thomas Dubay (see Lesson Four, # 1). Thus: Lesson Two focuses on the Fourth of Teresa's "Seven Mansions". This "Mansion" is the crux of a transition from Discursive to Infused Prayer; Lesson Three examines Teresa's understanding of the conditions for growth in Contemplative Prayer. Note: Nowhere in the writings of either Teresa or John is there a single sentence that speaks of methodology: Conditions? Yes! Methodology? No! Lesson Four illustrates "Fire in the Nights", wherein the Lord first discloses, then burns away, the unredeemed clingings of our soul; Lesson Five introduces the "Transforming Summit", a union / communion which has come to maturity; Lesson Six proclaims the Universal Call: Jesus invites all, without distinction, to come to this living water (John 7:37). <<>> MEDITATION: Growing up in a Parish manned by The Blessed Sacrament Fathers made Adoration a part of life. Through Grade School and High School there were numerous opportunities for us to tackle an hour on the prie-dieu under the watchful eyes of one of the priests. We quickly found respect for their ability to do two hours a day, seven days a week, fifty two weeks a year, through all hours of the day and night. We learned the wisdom of carrying the Gospels or some other spiritual reading to focus our easily distracted minds. Great men had touted the advantages of hours before Christ in the Monstrance but, in truth, He did not easily reveal Himself to His fledgling worshippers. Learning to pray, learning to be before the Lord, neither came easily nor quickly. The first thing we needed was to learn to show up with a degree of fidelity… That has not changed. Physical quiet was easy enough. Mental silence was another thing. It still is in this world. (G.M.) RESPONSE: 1) If you have had experience in one or the other form of Oriental prayer,* please script a few observations that would either confirm of contradict the position taken in # 1 of this Lesson. * Very much in vogue in the Sixties and Seventies, it is likely that many Christians of the West took a stab at this. The Mentor himself seriously attempted Yoga (openly / with others … in Seminary / it was recommended !) and Zen (in Korea / in the late 60's and early '70's Roman Catholic Missionaries – and not a few Bishop’s were caught up with it)! 2) Discuss the ancient root & modern flower of "Desert Prayer" (i.e. Egypt vs. Syria: is Prayer of the Heart a methodology or a sovereign gift?) Minimum: 150 words; 3) Contrast John of the Cross' writings with, a) the nature of Oriental mysticism and, b) the present-day influence / impact (i.e. among R.C. spiritual writers) of the Desert Fathers of Egypt (250 words). <<>> SAVE For the remaining Lessons of this Unit, go to: SILENCE www.contemplativerudder.com/ContemplationII.pdf www.contemplativerudder.com/ContemplationIII.pdf www.contemplativerudder.com/ContemplationIV.pdf www.contemplativerudder.com/ContemplationV.pdf www.contemplativerudder.com/ContemplatiionVI.pdf www.contemplativerudder.com/ContPostlude.pdf |