The Contemplation Prayer
Many people have always been asking me many questions about contemplation as a form prayer and how to practice it. I take this opportunity to share my thoughts about this form of prayer.
What is contemplation?
Contemplation is prayer from the heart, without words or thoughts, which simply seeks union with God.
It is not a new form of prayer – it’s as old as Christianity
Since the 3rd century AD individuals and groups of Christians known as monks and nuns (monastics) began living lives whose prayer was contemplative in orientation.
At first they lived alone in hermitages in the deserts of Egypt, and later on in communities, which became known as monasteries.
So while contemplation for newcomers today might seem new, it is only a new and different attitude towards prayer, which incidentally also requires a new and different attitude towards God.
The common attitude of many Christians today may be just one of ‘saying prayers’ and wanting them to be answered by God and as quickly as possible.
This attitude hinders contemplation, as it sees God only as ‘provider’ of personal needs. This attitude we may call utilitarian, or a ‘user’ attitude.
The contemplative attitude towards God is that God is a mystery who cannot be used by anyone to just to get what they want.
God is sovereign omnipotent, and omniscient and beyond manipulation and knows what we want before we ask.
Our prayers do not some how make God ‘wake up’ or ‘hurry up’ , but they dispose us to be united with God’s sovereign will and to let God’s will be done.
In contemplative prayer there is nothing to ‘get’ from God. There are no petitions or intercessions or praises.
It simply requires gratitude of heart and openness to the present sacred moment, in which God fellowships with us.
Contemplation therefore does not require any words. Jesus himself taught this in Matthew 6:7-8.
The Contemplative orientation in prayer.
The contemplative orientation in prayer is towards silence, solitude stillness, simplicity and surrender.
Furthermore it is the orientation of the whole person, mind, body, heart and spirit in one direction only, that is towards the mystery of God.
Our usual attitude of ‘saying prayers’ (which also has its value) comes from a different kind of orientation.
It is one in which the will exerts itself by speaking to God, or by the mind thinking about God or the scriptural texts.
It wants to inform God about something already held in mind, an intention, a need.
In contemplation however we recall that God is already fully present to us addressing us and overwhelming us with love. We don’t need to say anything.
The contemplative orientation in prayer is towards fellowship with God, rather than towards the content or method of prayer.
How do I relate with the One who is divine, who knows everything, who is mysterious yet simple, present yet cannot be grasped? By surrender.
In contemplative prayer there is a shift from ‘what to pray and how to pray, to Whom we pray to. It is a shift from the content and methods of prayer to its essence, to the person of God and the NOW of divine fellowship.
Contemplation leads us out of our false-self
Contemplation changes our attitude to God which changes us too.
As we become more contemplative many other things change, not just the way we pray, but the way we think about God, ourselves and the whole world.
Contemplation, if we persist at it, changes us progressively from within.
It helps us to undermine the false-self structured from the ego and its needs, and frees us to receive God’s unconditional love.
It subverts the ‘performed self’ which is always seeking approval from others.
It deconstructs the ‘strategic-self’ which was bent on ‘survival of the fittest’ and which was always looking for advantages and ‘opportunities’ to get ahead of others in life.
It questions the value of the ‘authoritarian commanding overlaid self’ crafted by the powerful voices of the superego or the conscience, which do not want to be contradicted.
As contemplatives we undergo constant change – conversion and ‘reversion’ to our true identity in God.
Contemplation is therefore an ongoing conversion and formation by the Holy Spirit. It is at the heart of what the Benedictine call ‘converstio muorum’, conversion of life.
Contemplation requires our full presence to God
If God is already fully present to us at all times and everywhere, then contemplation simply means to become fully aware and attentive to the ‘reality of God’.
This ‘reality’ is within and around us, it is in other people, in nature and in the daily events of life. Contemplative prayer is whatever helps us not to be distracted from this awareness and attentiveness.
Imagine if someone were to come and visit you to ask you for something, for your help, or your guidance, or to say sorry for something they did to you, but after speaking just got up and left!
How strange that would be, but also how rude !
Yet that is what most of us do when we pray. After praying we get up and leave God’s presence, just when God wanted to say something to us or be something to us. We have no time. We are gone, gone, gone to the next activity, to catch a bus, or answer the phone or cook food.
Then we wonder why God did not answer our prayers. We were not there to hear the answer.
So we must learn how to be fully present to One who is fully present to us. We should not always be in a hurry to ‘finish our prayers’ and go to do other things.
We need to change our attitude towards prayer and to God. Praying is not just the saying of words and then going away. It is a fellowship, a deep union and communion of hearts with the Trinity, which transforms us.
In conclusion
We must learn to wait, listen, discern and allow a sacred moment when the mystery to passes before us us, like God passed in front of Elijah in the cave, as gentle breeze.
Solitude, silence, stillness, surrender and utter simplicity are the five tools of heartfelt prayer. God’s Spirit does the rest!
Fr. Kakande Stephen Sekayala C.S.Sp