A Prolegomena to Prayer. Part VI-1.

Last updated on: June 15, 2010 at 7:53 am by Henry Karlson

A Prolegomena to Prayer. Part VI-1. 2010-06-15T07:53:33-05:00 Henry Karlson

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Part V

Many writers call contemplative prayer true, or pure, prayer. We must not think that once one has attained such heights, one has achieved all that prayer can achieve. As one becomes a contemplative, one finds that there are many degrees of contemplative prayer. What we begin with tends to be less than where we end up (though, of course, God’s providence can lead someone directly to the highest forms of contemplative prayer, if he so wishes). St John of the Cross, for example, discusses the dark night of the senses which leads to the early stages of contemplative prayer, and then the dark night of the soul which leads to the highest, greatest form of prayer. St Maximus the Confessor suggests similarly:

Two states of pure prayer are exalted above all others. One is to be found in those who have not advanced beyond the practice of the virtues, the other in those leading the contemplative life. The first is engendered in the soul by fear of God and a firm hope in Him, the second by an intense longing for God and by total purification. The sign of the first is that the intellect, abandoning all conceptual images of the world, concentrates itself and prays without distraction or disturbance as if God Himself were present, as indeed He is. The sign of the second is that at the very onset of prayer the intellect is so ravished by the divine and infinite light that it is aware neither of itself nor of any other created thing, but only of Him who through love has activated such radiance in it. It is then that, being made aware of God’s qualities, it receives clear and distinct reflections of him.[1]

To be able to attain such a level of prayer, where one moves outside of oneself and experience oneself in the light and love of God, is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. It is not something one can cause to happen all by oneself. There is no technique one can engage which will necessarily lead to a contemplative union with God. And yet, we do find manuals of techniques which tell us how to pray so that we can attain to this level of spirituality. If this is the case, what is it they are doing and are they reliable? They are helpful and present the path by which the writer has experienced contemplative prayer, a path which others can follow and hope for similar results, because God is a good, loving person. While he cannot be forced to act, he acts according to love, and what people come to know about him can be used to help others get to know him. He is likely to act in certain ways according to how we open ourselves up to him, but of course, we must realize, we are not guaranteed results: he acts according to his own wisdom and inclinations, meaning that an element of our encounter with him is up to him and not us.[2] “When it suits him, he shows himself; and he conceals himself when he wants to. This is what Christ meant when whe said to Nicodemus: ‘The wind [Spirit] blowetheth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and wither it goeth.'”[3]

As an example of what is being said here, let us look at how things work in family relationships. A child will come to know their parents and the way their parents tend to act and react. They will come to know how to engage their parents, and generally, what times would be best to interact with them, indeed, when their parents will have free time to be with them. They might know, for example, they will likely get a chance to talk to their father at the dinner table. But this is not to say it will happen. Their father might have a late night at work. Going to the table for dinner does not mean they will talk with their father, but rather, the probability is better than at other times or places. This is exactly what we must understand manuals of prayer technique are about. They are representations of various discoveries about God, where the writers outline their experiences with God, and what generally leads to a contemplative encounter with God. Nonetheless, God’s initiative is needed, and God might have reasons not to engage someone, even if they are meditating and have perfectly followed what others have told them to do. Indeed, we must also remember, God acts according to what he deems is best, and sometimes, he will even engage someone, even if they have not prepared themselves properly for that encounter, such as we find in the story of St Paul’s conversion.[4]

Thus, in the path toward contemplative prayer, we should develop a heart which longs for God. Sin keeps us away from God and centered upon ourselves, while the virtues open us up beyond ourselves, opening ourselves to that which is good. It leads us to experience the world better, but ultimately, we must keep pressing on, pressing for that contemplative encounter with God, because he is the source and foundation of every good, and therefore, our proper end. In this way, through the development of virtues, and the purification of all shameful passions, our heart and intellect become purified, leaving us completely open to experience the bounty of God’s grace. “All the virtues co-operate with the intellect to produce this intense longing for God, pure prayer above all. For by soaring towards God through this prayer the intellect rises above the realm of created beings.”[5]

We long for that loving embrace from God which takes us and unites us with him as if we have become one with him. This desire is what is brought out and established in contemplative prayer. Such contemplation reorients our relationship with God, as Metropolitan Anthony points out: “Interior contemplation, which is not a form of life but a position vis–à–vis God, a standing before Him in deepened silence; the double and reciprocal presence of God with man and man with God.”[6]

Even with the briefest encounter with God, everything changes; even a short experience of contemplative unity with God leaves us entirely different. We return to the world capable of bringing the grace God has given to us and sharing it with others, but we also know we can only offer it, not force it upon others. We know our repositioning with God leads us to a repositioning with everyone else; some will find the change unbearable and treat us with disrespect, without knowing why; others will be able sense the kind of effect God has left in us, and want to experience it for themselves through us. Nonetheless, we will still be of the world, and capable of being affected by it. Sin, at this stage, will remain a challenge.

In higher forms of contemplative experience, our union with God becomes unceasing, and everything in one’s experience is both in the world and with God; everything is experienced in the glory of God’s eternal presence. “For the blessed souls who have entered into the unity of life in God, everything is one: rest and activity, looking and acting, silence and speaking, listening and communicating, surrender in loving acceptance and an outpouring of love in grateful songs of praise.”[7] This is how one must understand St Maximus: “It is said that the highest state of prayer is reached when the intellect goes beyond the flesh and the world, and while praying is utterly free from matter and form. He who maintains this state has truly attained unceasing prayer.”[8] Maximus is not trying to take us into a gnostic rejection of the world, but rather, a rejection of the experience of the world which is not tied to the constant presence of God in our life and in the world.

Footnotes

[1] St Maximus the Confessor, “Second Century on Love” in The Philokalia. Vol. 2. trans. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware (London: Faber and Faber, 1990), 65-6.

[2] This is not to say that there is no other benefit which comes from such practices; rather, as one opens oneself up for contemplative prayer, one becomes more aware of the world and their relationship to the world. One begins to see the world itself as it truly is. Through such efforts, we are able to appreciate the goodness of the world, to experience it for the beautiful gift it is. This is something mystics from all major religious traditions have experienced, and it is for this reason, they often share a spiritual dialogue in common with each other. Obviously, because the world itself is a gift, the possibility of this experience is itself a gift of God, where he has made us so that we can and should experience the world in such purity. But once we reach this stage, we must remember: we are not to be attached by it. We are to continue on with the method which got us to such a state, and apply it to the state itself – the world is a good, but we must remember it is a relative good, and not treat it as something greater (or less) than it actually is.

[3] Meister Eckhart, “Eternal Birth,” Sermon 4 in Meister Eckhart. trans. Raymond B. Blakney (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1941), 122.

[4] cf. Acts 22:6 -16.

[5] St Maximus the Confessor, “First Century on Love” in The Philokalia. Vol. 2. trans. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware (London: Faber and Faber, 1990), 54.

[6] Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozha, God and Man (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2004), 202.

[7] St Edith Stein, “The Prayer of the Church” in The Hidden Life, 16.

[8] St Maximus the Confessor, “Second Century on Love,” 76

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