Contemplation and Spirituality

Seek in reading and you will find in meditation. Knock in prayer and it will be opened to you in contemplation.

St. John of The Cross Cited in Mystical Hours

Brother Teasdale offers us some expanded thoughts on the meaning of Lectio Divina as a well regarded spiritual practice among Christian contemplatives. He writes these insights for us:

St. John of The Cross beautifully identifies with great simplicity the contemplative method of the monastic tradition called Lectio Divina. The entire method is summed up in this maxim by the Spanish mystic. Lectio Divina in its literal translation means “divine reading” and really is a form of spiritual practice.–

It is reading for the sake of acquiring inspiration rather than information, reading to prepare ourselves for a mystical experience through contemplation. One reads a paragraph, a page, or a few pages until one feels inspired. Then one enters into the second step, that of meditation or reflection.

Reflection seeks a spark for prayer; when its found, the third step into affective prayer begins. This third step, the prayer of the heart, engages the emotions. 

At the end of the third step comes contemplation itself, a resting in the Divine Presence.”

I will readily admit that I am not much of a pray-er… Maybe that comes from my coerecised experiences as a pre-Vatican II Catholic child where strict memorization could fake its way into becoming a prayer, or maybe it was my more intellectual inclinations that were bolstered by a variety of analytic studies before I reached seminary… and then there was the experience of seminary that I had totally anticipated incorrectly! 

In my idealism, I had confused the concept of attending a seminary that taught contemplation, piety, and would offer me mystical experiences versus attending a graduate school of religion that prepares people- more or less- for a traditional Protestant ministry. The shock to my expectations was considerable!

With all that stated and all that experience inferred, I would still affirm the value of applying the teachings and practices of the “ lectio” tradition to any spiritual path, and its inspirational writings that you are sincerely following, or to whatever source of inspiration brings you more in touch with the Sacred and the Divine in your life…

Personally, I have found equal inspirational sustenance from my readings in Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism, Vedanta etc., as I have in a serious contemplation of the Gospel. Not better, certainly not worse…just different streams that feed into the spiritual river of timeless wisdom and truth…

Most often, the practice of contemplative reading that then invites me into a more mystical state of heart and mind has come from poetry and reading other interfaith sources of prayer. Other times I find myself fighting or contending with the Divine for attention, and for the time to be set aside or set apart for such contemplative work. 

Now that can be mythical rather than mystical, as sacred time does not follow a clock or a calendar, though in our practical world, setting aside time each day for spiritual self nurture is a practice that has deep rewards and lasting benefits.

The key consideration or the essence of the practice is to use words to then be able to let go of words… to use ideas, to be able to release them… Somewhere, if grace and time offer it to us, language and thought can disappear.

My consciousness moves below my active mind and out/in beyond my conscious, everyday awareness…However fleeting, and rare, there have been times when I have touched the infinite…

The trap or the prevention that takes us away from contemplative life can be quite convincing, subtle, and sly… You see, and I doubt that I am alone in this, being familiar with a text does not necessarily “breed contempt” as the old saying goes, but it can rehearse a staleness or get stuck in a superficiality that it that can be almost legalistic– aided and abetted– by any personal tendency toward academic analysis… 

Again, at the brink of cliches, “analysis leads to paralysis” so approaching any sacred text in this way acts as a quick and convenient ego defense against insight and understanding. It becomes or takes on the role of being the critic or the expert which gives you sufficient distance and protective detachment from where the timeless words of inspiration and wisdom could take you…

In some of my experiences, music of an inspirational nature can substitute effectively and graciously for any reading I might try.… Other times, it is walking in nature… .

There are no better or worse ways if they truly and honestly work for you… Whatever practices increase both contemplative solitude and a sense of intuitive knowing can be valuable for you…