May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

Nan Merrill

BLESSINGS, dear friends of the heart! The heart: where the Divine Guet awaits our listening silence. May we learn to dele ever more deeply into the contemplative Silence within that links our soul like a vertical beam of light to heaven and earth. Our lives beome more joyful, peaceful, and loving, increasing our reverence and honoring of ALL life.

Contemplating the Indwelling Presence

George Maloney | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

Contemplating the Indwelling Presence, you are given new eyes of faith, hope, and love to see God's grandeur bursting forth... All things cry out to you that God is here. This place is indeed holy! With eyes of a child filled with wonder and joy, you open to God's living revelation in all things. You believe nothing can keep out the loving, presence of God as love in all things. As you act on that living faith, it becomes a reality. Every moment with all your material involvements allows you to become more and more united with the Indwelling Presence of God, the triune community of I-Thou in a We of self-giving persons.

~ from THAT YOUR JOY MAY BE COMPLETE by George Maloney

To live a contemplative life is to be open enough to see

S. Marie Beha | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

To live a contemplative life is to be open enough to see, free enough to hear, real enough to respond. It is a life, and so it has its own rhythms of darkness, of dying-rising. Simply enough, it is a live of grateful receptivity, or wordless awe, of silent simplicity.

See www.jesuits.ca/orientations/deepercall.html

~ by S. Marie Beha

Every age has a need of the contemplative life

James Bissett Pratt | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)
Every age has a need of "the contemplative life," and ours is no exception to the rule. The soul needs a chance for spreading its wings, for looking beyond itself, beyond the immediate environment, and for quiet inner growth.
~ from THE RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS by James Bissett Pratt

The contemplative is a seed of silence planted amidst the jungle of noise

Frank X. Tuoti | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

The world has become noise, silence its orphan child. The contemplative is a seed of silence planted amidst the jungle of noise, one whose harvest will come at a later time, perhaps a later age. The contemplative is a witness to silence, affirming that all things come out of silence and must return to silence to be healed and re-created.

~ from WHY NOT BE A MYSTIC by Frank X. Tuoti

Contemplative life does not have to be seen as a special vocation

Beatrice Bruteau | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

Contemplative life does not have to be seen as a special vocation reserved for some special souls only; it is open to all, and all are invited to enjoy it. You do not have to be in special circumstances to practice it, because it consists not so much in what you do as in the attitude and the perspective in which your ordinary actions are performed. It is a life of wonder. The contemplative is one who look around at the world and marvels at reality. We are living as contemplatives when we are thoroughly alive ourselves and when we are alert and sensitive to the reality of other beings and disposed to appreciate them.

~ from "The Contemplative Life" in "The Roll" by Beatrice Bruteau -- June 1995

Loving infusion of God

St. John of the Cross | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)
Contemplation is a secret, peaceful and loving infusion of God, which, if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the spirit of Love.
~ by St. John of the Cross

Loving regard

Alan Jones | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

If we are designed to be in communion with God, if God is our Lover, then we have to indulge in the things that lovers do. The lover wishes always to be in the loved one's presence, to gaze and behold. The name for this loving regard is contemplation. 

~ by Alan Jones

Silent contemplation

Marian Scheele | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

In silent contemplation, the intellect is bypassed, and we are taken into a transcendent dimension understood only by the spirit. In silence our spirit will recognize the Beloved's Spirit.

See www.tentmaker.org/articles/TheFaceofChrist.html

~ by Marian Scheele

What is the contemplative life about?

Anonymous | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

The contemplative life is about
knowing, loving and listening
to all of life
and to God in it ...

~ Anonymous

Cultivating a listening heart

Molly Vass-Lehman | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

An attitude of contemplation helps us to see the quiet beauty that is all around us in the world, in the faces of the people in our lives or the way a cat stretches, as well as in the mundane tasks that take up so much of our time. We can begin to cultivate the "listening heart." This contemplative way of seeing, hearing, and feeling brings richness and depth of meaning to our lives. It allows us to know what is real and essential. It helps us move toward freedom and wholeness as we see more clearly into the truth of the moment.

~ from SEEDS OF AWAKENING by Molly Vass-Lehman

A mountain is an image of the soul as it lifts itself up in contemplation

Theodore of Studios | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

It seems to me that a mountain is an image of the soul as it lifts itself up in contemplation. For in the same manner as the mountain towers above the valleys and lowlands at its foot, so does the soul of the one who prays mount into the higher regions up to God like an eagle taking wing.

~ by Theodore of Studios, c. 835

Contemplation is a vast space, open on all sides

Henry Corbin | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

It is significant that the Latin word "templum" originally meant a vast space, open on all sides, from which one could survey the whole surrounding landscape as far as the horizon. This is what is meant to CONTEMPLATE: to "set one's sights on" Heaven from the temple that defines the field of vision... The temple is the place, the organ of vision.

~ from TEMPLE AND CONTEMPLATION by Henry Corbin

To be a contemplative

Joan Chittester | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

To be a contemplative we must become converted to the consciousness that makes us one with the universe, in time with the cosmic voice of God. We must become aware of the sacred in every element of life. We must bring beauty to birth in a poor and plastic world. We must grow in concert with the God who is within. We must restore the human community. We must be healers in a harsh society.

~ from ILLUMINATED LIFE by Joan Chittester

Contemplation plumes her feathers

John Milton | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

And Wisdom's self
Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude
Where, with her best nurse Contemplation,
She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings.

~ by John Milton

Contemplative prayer is an exchange of hearts

Thomas Keating | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

Contemplative prayer is not a conversation in words, but an exchange of hearts.

~ by Thomas Keating

Contemplative waiting is consenting to be where we really are

Sue Monk Kidd | May 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 5)

As the conversation turned to waiting, Brother Anthony leaned forward in his chair. "Contemplative waiting is consenting to be where we really are," he explained. "People recoil from it because they don't want to be present to themselves. Such waiting causes a deep existential loneliness to surface, a feeling of being disconnected from oneself and God. At the depths there is fear, fear of the dark chaos within ourselves.

Brother Anthony was exactly right. Ultimately, we are fleeing our own dark chaos. We are fleeing ourselves.

~ from WHEN THE HEART WAITS by Sue Monk Kidd