Today is reading day at Marian University, which marks the end of fall semester classes and precedes exam week. A bit of a breather and an opportunity to return to the blog.
Over the break I'm going to be preparing for a talk I'm giving sponsored by Contemplative Outreach of Indianapolis. The title of the talk is "Contemplating Integrity: The Importance of Centering Prayer in the Cultivation of Moral Integrity." As I prepare, I'll share some of my thoughts in this space.
The event will be on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at St. Christopher Catholic Church in Speedway, Indiana. The session runs from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
If you are in Indianapolis (and if anyone is reading this!) and you are interested in attending the talk, please visit the Contemplative Outreach of Indianapolis website for information on how to register for the event. If you do attend the event and heard about it here, please come introduce yourself to me!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Loving God and Letting Go
Is the central task of centering prayer letting go? For that matter, is letting go the central spiritual task? Is letting go simply what we must do to enter into relationship with God? When we say "yes" to God must we say "no" to other things? Maybe "yes" and "no" are not the most helpful concepts here.
But maybe it is helpful to think about letting go in light of Augustine's experience. Augustine was a sex addict. In reading The Confessions, it is clear that Augustine gives intellectual assent to Christianity long before he offers himself fully to God. He recognizes the truth of Christian doctrine and the false doctrine of Manicheism - and he knows that isn't enough. You don't get "OK, what do I have to believe to be a Christian?" from Augustine. He knows that God doesn't care about intellectual lip service. God will not settle for less than Augustine's very soul.
In centering prayer - and as always, in any kind of deep, regular, meaningful prayer - we offer our whole selves to God. We place ourselves in God's presence and dispose ourselves to God's will. Over the years of praying this way, we are changed. It may not always be evident to us but it is usually evident to those close to us. In Augustine's way of explaining it, as we spend time beholding the beloved (sitting intentionally in the presence of God) we become like that which we love. God shapes us in God's image and so disposes us to love what God loves.
I think this has important implications for the moral life. If we love what God loves, we will be disposed to doing what is right because it is the right thing to do. As Thomas Merton might say, loving what God loves is a characteristic of our true self - the self from which moral actions with integrity arise.
But maybe it is helpful to think about letting go in light of Augustine's experience. Augustine was a sex addict. In reading The Confessions, it is clear that Augustine gives intellectual assent to Christianity long before he offers himself fully to God. He recognizes the truth of Christian doctrine and the false doctrine of Manicheism - and he knows that isn't enough. You don't get "OK, what do I have to believe to be a Christian?" from Augustine. He knows that God doesn't care about intellectual lip service. God will not settle for less than Augustine's very soul.
In centering prayer - and as always, in any kind of deep, regular, meaningful prayer - we offer our whole selves to God. We place ourselves in God's presence and dispose ourselves to God's will. Over the years of praying this way, we are changed. It may not always be evident to us but it is usually evident to those close to us. In Augustine's way of explaining it, as we spend time beholding the beloved (sitting intentionally in the presence of God) we become like that which we love. God shapes us in God's image and so disposes us to love what God loves.
I think this has important implications for the moral life. If we love what God loves, we will be disposed to doing what is right because it is the right thing to do. As Thomas Merton might say, loving what God loves is a characteristic of our true self - the self from which moral actions with integrity arise.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Will Power
The struggle to love God above all else is not an intellectual task. If it were it would easy. It is not simply a matter of deciding we want to do it and setting our minds to accomplishing it. We can't set goals and then design tasks for achieving those goals. It IS a task of the will, but it is not accomplished by sheer will power driven by the intellect. Loving God above all else is accomplished by surrendering the will to God. Actually, that is almost a tautology: tantamount to saying "the struggle to love God above all else is accomplished by loving God above all else."
So how is it NOT a matter of will power? Will power is knowing intellectually what is good for you and then using the power of the mind to accomplish or attain it. The mind works against the power of emotion and desire. Anyone who has gone on a diet knows how well this works.
In The Confessions, we see that Augustine already buys into Christianity intellectually. His mind is there. But he knows God doesn't want just his mind; God will only be satisfied with all of us - mind, heart, and spirit. We can only be happy if we give it all up for God. Augustine knows this and knows it means he has to yield his sexuality to God. He wants this with all his mind but his heart isn't there yet. He must count the cost and struggle if he is to truly yield to God.
Isn't this exactly how much of our moral struggle works out? We know what the right thing is; we just don't want to do it. It is the problem of the divided will. We know doing what's right is going to cost us - and our heart demands that we count the cost. Usually we have to go through a struggle before can let go and surrender to God. It is this struggle that Augustine recounts in The Confessions.
So letting go of that which is less than God becomes a central task of the spiritual (and hence the moral) life. We don't just do it once; we do it throughout our lives because we never fully yield everything to God.
So how is it NOT a matter of will power? Will power is knowing intellectually what is good for you and then using the power of the mind to accomplish or attain it. The mind works against the power of emotion and desire. Anyone who has gone on a diet knows how well this works.
In The Confessions, we see that Augustine already buys into Christianity intellectually. His mind is there. But he knows God doesn't want just his mind; God will only be satisfied with all of us - mind, heart, and spirit. We can only be happy if we give it all up for God. Augustine knows this and knows it means he has to yield his sexuality to God. He wants this with all his mind but his heart isn't there yet. He must count the cost and struggle if he is to truly yield to God.
Isn't this exactly how much of our moral struggle works out? We know what the right thing is; we just don't want to do it. It is the problem of the divided will. We know doing what's right is going to cost us - and our heart demands that we count the cost. Usually we have to go through a struggle before can let go and surrender to God. It is this struggle that Augustine recounts in The Confessions.
So letting go of that which is less than God becomes a central task of the spiritual (and hence the moral) life. We don't just do it once; we do it throughout our lives because we never fully yield everything to God.
Monday, August 22, 2011
The Happy Life
Maybe another way of getting at what Augustine is about is to consider his understanding of happiness. As with Aristotle, John Stuart Mill, and Jeremy Bentham, Augustine is a eudamonist - one who considers happiness to be the fundamental end or goal of human life. A key question that must be addressed, though, is what happiness entails. Is it simply pleasure, as Bentham insisted, or do we have to distinguish between higher and lower pleasures - pleasures of the mind vs. pleasures of the body, as with Mill?
Augustine is also intent upon the task of defining and distinguishing between different kinds of happiness. After his conversion, he retreated to Cassiciacum with some friends to reflect upon his conversion. There he wrote De Beata Vita (The Happy Life) where he sets forth what the happy life is: to live in relationship to God as the Summum Bonum (the highest good). To be truly happy, we must seek God and recognize God as that which will make us truly and deeply happy. The human person is hard-wired to seek God - indeed, as we seek that which is less than God we are really ultimately seeking God. God has made us to seek Godself ("You have made us for yourself"); once we realize that and offer ourselves to God, we may be peacefully happy ("Our hearts are restless until they rest in You").
This does not mean we may not take any delight in that which is not God. Augustine recognizes that we need to survive and even to thrive and that means enjoying the good things that God gives. But he also recognizes that the human heart tends to fix itself upon what it loves - to elevate it to the status of God and to become like that which it loves. He really is talking about idolatry here. We make gods of things like money, power, sex, food, drugs. These become more important to us than willing to live "a good and upright life" in relationship to God. We make ultimate what is not ultimate: money, power, sex, drugs, food. But these cannot satisfy the will and the endless pursuit of these finite goods draws us away from God. We pursue these things and become like these things - superficial and self-centered - and less like God.
Augustine is also intent upon the task of defining and distinguishing between different kinds of happiness. After his conversion, he retreated to Cassiciacum with some friends to reflect upon his conversion. There he wrote De Beata Vita (The Happy Life) where he sets forth what the happy life is: to live in relationship to God as the Summum Bonum (the highest good). To be truly happy, we must seek God and recognize God as that which will make us truly and deeply happy. The human person is hard-wired to seek God - indeed, as we seek that which is less than God we are really ultimately seeking God. God has made us to seek Godself ("You have made us for yourself"); once we realize that and offer ourselves to God, we may be peacefully happy ("Our hearts are restless until they rest in You").
This does not mean we may not take any delight in that which is not God. Augustine recognizes that we need to survive and even to thrive and that means enjoying the good things that God gives. But he also recognizes that the human heart tends to fix itself upon what it loves - to elevate it to the status of God and to become like that which it loves. He really is talking about idolatry here. We make gods of things like money, power, sex, food, drugs. These become more important to us than willing to live "a good and upright life" in relationship to God. We make ultimate what is not ultimate: money, power, sex, drugs, food. But these cannot satisfy the will and the endless pursuit of these finite goods draws us away from God. We pursue these things and become like these things - superficial and self-centered - and less like God.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Augustine and Self-Integration I
As a start in understanding self-integration as the integration of mind and heart, it might be helpful to look at St. Augustine.
Of course, all this talk about "integrating" the intellect with the emotions suggests that the intellect and emotions are at odds with one another and need to be brought into harmony. There is a conflict going on. In many ways, the best description of this conflict occurs in chapter 7 of Romans, where St. Paul describes the conflict of the will: "What I do I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate" (Romans 7:15). Our passions and desires do not listen to the reason of the mind.
Augustine in his Confessions describes this same conflict as he struggles with his sexual addiction to bring his moral conversion to Christianity in line with his intellectual conversion. "Make me chaste, O Lord, but not yet!" (Book VIII, Chapter 7). That Augustine had to grapple with his sexual addiction before he could give himself to God is essential here. As Twelve Step programs acknowledge in the first few steps, the antidote to addiction is spiritual - recognition that one is helpless and only one's Higher Power can deliver one from the addiction ("Miserable one that I am! Who will save me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ Our Lord" [Romans 7:25]).
Why is this? Why must it be God? Augustine's anthropology explains and provides a foundation for his moral philosophy. Augustine considers love to be the driver of the human will. But he uses "love" broadly. As the will seeks - whether it is for food, sex, power, esteem - the will is restless, never ceasing in its seeking until it finds what it wants. Augustine notices in himself, though, that even once he got what he wanted - he still felt empty. The will might rest in satiety for a moment, but it soon starts all over again. (Those of you familiar with Augustine can probably tell where this is leading: "O Lord you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you" [Book I, Chapter 1].)
Augustine eventually understood that the only love that could satisfy the human will was love of God. He shaped his moral philosophy around this proposition. God calls humans to love God solely and to find appropriate love of that which is less than God through love properly ordered toward God. God wants us for Godself. God wants our ultimate allegiance to be to Godself. After that, of course, God wants us to have good things that we need. But those good things should never claim our love to the exclusion of God.
The integrated human person is one who has given oneself entirely to God - who has fallen in love with God and whose desires are appropriately ordered in relationship to the love of God. The lesser loves are characterized by a certain detachment toward the lesser goods of human life. We enjoy them for what they are but recognize that they are not God and cannot rule our soul because we are under God's rule.
This is where contemplative prayer comes in. We experience the profound love of God in the depth of the prayer. The regular practice forms us as God's own; we know that we are God's and we desire only to be God's. Contemplative prayer makes us God's own and instills the detachment within us toward that which is less than God.
Of course, all this talk about "integrating" the intellect with the emotions suggests that the intellect and emotions are at odds with one another and need to be brought into harmony. There is a conflict going on. In many ways, the best description of this conflict occurs in chapter 7 of Romans, where St. Paul describes the conflict of the will: "What I do I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate" (Romans 7:15). Our passions and desires do not listen to the reason of the mind.
Augustine in his Confessions describes this same conflict as he struggles with his sexual addiction to bring his moral conversion to Christianity in line with his intellectual conversion. "Make me chaste, O Lord, but not yet!" (Book VIII, Chapter 7). That Augustine had to grapple with his sexual addiction before he could give himself to God is essential here. As Twelve Step programs acknowledge in the first few steps, the antidote to addiction is spiritual - recognition that one is helpless and only one's Higher Power can deliver one from the addiction ("Miserable one that I am! Who will save me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ Our Lord" [Romans 7:25]).
Why is this? Why must it be God? Augustine's anthropology explains and provides a foundation for his moral philosophy. Augustine considers love to be the driver of the human will. But he uses "love" broadly. As the will seeks - whether it is for food, sex, power, esteem - the will is restless, never ceasing in its seeking until it finds what it wants. Augustine notices in himself, though, that even once he got what he wanted - he still felt empty. The will might rest in satiety for a moment, but it soon starts all over again. (Those of you familiar with Augustine can probably tell where this is leading: "O Lord you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you" [Book I, Chapter 1].)
Augustine eventually understood that the only love that could satisfy the human will was love of God. He shaped his moral philosophy around this proposition. God calls humans to love God solely and to find appropriate love of that which is less than God through love properly ordered toward God. God wants us for Godself. God wants our ultimate allegiance to be to Godself. After that, of course, God wants us to have good things that we need. But those good things should never claim our love to the exclusion of God.
The integrated human person is one who has given oneself entirely to God - who has fallen in love with God and whose desires are appropriately ordered in relationship to the love of God. The lesser loves are characterized by a certain detachment toward the lesser goods of human life. We enjoy them for what they are but recognize that they are not God and cannot rule our soul because we are under God's rule.
This is where contemplative prayer comes in. We experience the profound love of God in the depth of the prayer. The regular practice forms us as God's own; we know that we are God's and we desire only to be God's. Contemplative prayer makes us God's own and instills the detachment within us toward that which is less than God.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Transformation and Self-Integration
So from the past few blogs, it is clear that I am approaching all this from two perspectives: my own personal experience of contemplative prayer and also the work I've done on what I call "self-integration" and the motivation of the will in my dissertation.
The idea that contemplative prayer (or any prayer, for that matter) shapes one's moral character is not exactly groundbreaking. Many authors and presenters focus on how the practice of contemplative prayer over an extended period of time transforms the practitioner (1). In fact, one of these writers, Dennis J. Billy CSsR, asks the question in the title of his article "What is Contemplative Ethics?" Still, I'd like to investigate more specifically how contemplative prayer helps us integrate our intellect with our emotion and how that shapes our moral character.
In my dissertation, I investigated the role of self-integration in the moral philosophies of St. Augustine and H. Richard Niebuhr (the lesser known of the Niebuhr brothers but in my opinion the more interesting). I will unpack the definition of self-integration in more detail in subsequent blogs, but for now what I mean by self-integration is the integration of rational and experiential knowledge with more bodily and emotional knowledge. By and large, the Western Enlightenment philosophical tradition has driven a wedge between the mind and the body. Niebuhr and Augustine recognize the need to integrate these. Both recognize that the emotions do indeed provide important knowledge, and if attended to and reflected upon by the intellect, can bring us to a kind of wholeness that each left to its own devices cannot. It is in attending to our emotions - which are mediated through our bodies - and then reflecting with our intellect upon our experience that we achieve integrity and wholeness - responding to what happens to us and not simply reacting.
This has important ethical implications. When we react, we do so unthinkingly and often out of fear. Often we find ourselves in ethically compromised positions when we react rather than respond. We lose ourselves when our emotions have not been attended to. A response in integrity comes from reflection - not just by applying abstract principles but from considering emotions, understanding what they mean, and acting accordingly.
Contemplative prayer is an excellent way to to be still and connect with God and our emotions and bodies. Western society is hopelessly in its head and action-oriented. Contemplative prayer provides a means by which to stop for a few minutes and simply be. We invite God into our whole being and by God's grace reconnect with our deepest nature. Out of this wholeness we respond when confronted with something that seems morally wrong to us - rather than going along out of fear of what might happen if we have the moral courage to speak out.
________________________
1. Dennis J. Billy, CSsR. "What is Contemplative Ethics?" Josephinum Journal of Theology 13:1 (2006):2-16; Fr. John Ettelsohn, OMI. "Transformation: Change That Lets Your Soul Grow Up." Nurturing the Contemplative Spirit Lecture Series. Contemplative Outreach of Indiana. November 12, 2011; Brian C. Taylor, "Changing Your Mind: Contemplative Prayer and Personal Transformation." Sewanee Theological Review 42:2(Easter 2005):182-197.
The idea that contemplative prayer (or any prayer, for that matter) shapes one's moral character is not exactly groundbreaking. Many authors and presenters focus on how the practice of contemplative prayer over an extended period of time transforms the practitioner (1). In fact, one of these writers, Dennis J. Billy CSsR, asks the question in the title of his article "What is Contemplative Ethics?" Still, I'd like to investigate more specifically how contemplative prayer helps us integrate our intellect with our emotion and how that shapes our moral character.
In my dissertation, I investigated the role of self-integration in the moral philosophies of St. Augustine and H. Richard Niebuhr (the lesser known of the Niebuhr brothers but in my opinion the more interesting). I will unpack the definition of self-integration in more detail in subsequent blogs, but for now what I mean by self-integration is the integration of rational and experiential knowledge with more bodily and emotional knowledge. By and large, the Western Enlightenment philosophical tradition has driven a wedge between the mind and the body. Niebuhr and Augustine recognize the need to integrate these. Both recognize that the emotions do indeed provide important knowledge, and if attended to and reflected upon by the intellect, can bring us to a kind of wholeness that each left to its own devices cannot. It is in attending to our emotions - which are mediated through our bodies - and then reflecting with our intellect upon our experience that we achieve integrity and wholeness - responding to what happens to us and not simply reacting.
This has important ethical implications. When we react, we do so unthinkingly and often out of fear. Often we find ourselves in ethically compromised positions when we react rather than respond. We lose ourselves when our emotions have not been attended to. A response in integrity comes from reflection - not just by applying abstract principles but from considering emotions, understanding what they mean, and acting accordingly.
Contemplative prayer is an excellent way to to be still and connect with God and our emotions and bodies. Western society is hopelessly in its head and action-oriented. Contemplative prayer provides a means by which to stop for a few minutes and simply be. We invite God into our whole being and by God's grace reconnect with our deepest nature. Out of this wholeness we respond when confronted with something that seems morally wrong to us - rather than going along out of fear of what might happen if we have the moral courage to speak out.
________________________
1. Dennis J. Billy, CSsR. "What is Contemplative Ethics?" Josephinum Journal of Theology 13:1 (2006):2-16; Fr. John Ettelsohn, OMI. "Transformation: Change That Lets Your Soul Grow Up." Nurturing the Contemplative Spirit Lecture Series. Contemplative Outreach of Indiana. November 12, 2011; Brian C. Taylor, "Changing Your Mind: Contemplative Prayer and Personal Transformation." Sewanee Theological Review 42:2(Easter 2005):182-197.
Monday, August 1, 2011
How Contemplative Prayer Transforms
When I was a younger woman, I was involved in a troubling relationship. I did not handle it well. I also happened to be in a centering prayer group at my parish. I was astonished in the midst of that prayer to experience the gentle presence of God nudging me to extricate myself from the relationship. It was so gentle, so loving - no condemnation, no judgment. Just truth.
I can't say that I immediately ended the relationship and lived happily ever after - although I did eventually live happily ever after! What the experience did do though was give me a deep realization of the depth of God's love and the helpfulness of centering prayer to bring me into the presence of that love.
God's love changes us - almost imperceptibly. First it heals us; then it tempers our spirit to love others. All of this sounds very linear; in fact, healing and tempering take place within us continually.
I was first attracted to contemplative prayer for the peace and healing. I stayed with it because I found I was a better person because of it.
There are those who are sure that the peace of contemplative prayer sinks the pray-er into passivity and quietism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Contemplative prayer is not passive, self-indulgent navel-gazing. Yes, it is pleasurable and comforting. And what is wrong with a little comfort? We need comfort, healing, and peace to be able to act for ourselves, for others, and for God. The healing is necessary if we are to be strengthened for action. Centering/contemplative prayer (I'll use these interchangeably) equip one to act from the center of one's being and in true freedom - because rather than being driven by the pathetic will to power of the ego we are moved by love for and willingness to surrender to God's will.
In the next blog I'll share my experience of how centering prayer tempers the spirit.
I can't say that I immediately ended the relationship and lived happily ever after - although I did eventually live happily ever after! What the experience did do though was give me a deep realization of the depth of God's love and the helpfulness of centering prayer to bring me into the presence of that love.
God's love changes us - almost imperceptibly. First it heals us; then it tempers our spirit to love others. All of this sounds very linear; in fact, healing and tempering take place within us continually.
I was first attracted to contemplative prayer for the peace and healing. I stayed with it because I found I was a better person because of it.
There are those who are sure that the peace of contemplative prayer sinks the pray-er into passivity and quietism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Contemplative prayer is not passive, self-indulgent navel-gazing. Yes, it is pleasurable and comforting. And what is wrong with a little comfort? We need comfort, healing, and peace to be able to act for ourselves, for others, and for God. The healing is necessary if we are to be strengthened for action. Centering/contemplative prayer (I'll use these interchangeably) equip one to act from the center of one's being and in true freedom - because rather than being driven by the pathetic will to power of the ego we are moved by love for and willingness to surrender to God's will.
In the next blog I'll share my experience of how centering prayer tempers the spirit.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Centering Prayer
When I was in graduate school studying religious ethics, the priest at my church asked me how my studies were affecting my faith. I told him I felt as dry and desiccated as a bone. He invited me to join a centering prayer group that he had started at this parish. I count this invitation as one of the four great gifts of my life: life, faith, prayer, and love.
My pastor had been on a 6-month sabbatical at the Trappist monastery at Snowmass, CO, studying with Fr. Thomas Keating, one of the great formulators of the centering prayer method of contemplative prayer. Fr. Thomas tells the story of encountering young people in the 60s and 70s, hungry for a more authentic and mystical experience of God, who were leaving Christianity for eastern religions. Disturbed by this exodus of young people from the church - especially when the Catholic Church has such a rich legacy of mysticism - Fr. Thomas, together with Fr. Basil Pennington and others, developed the method of centering prayer.
Here's how centering prayer works: First, it is important to bear in mind that centering prayer does not replace other forms of prayer, but rather enhances them. In centering we consent to God to be present to and act within us.
The method of centering prayer involves sitting and being silent before God. As we sit we silently invoke a sacred word or phrase (not a mantra). The word can be as simple as "Jesus," "God," "rest," or "peace." A simple phrase can be used, such as the Jesus prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The "word" can even be simply attending to our breathing. We sit in silence with this sacred word, and as we become aware of thoughts, we gently return to the sacred word. We do not try to suppress thoughts. Rather, we let them be and then when we are aware of them, we return to the sacred word. The idea is not to empty our minds of thoughts, but to return our intention back to God when we are distracted by thoughts. As we sit and practice centering, we may experience a profound sense of peace - peace that comes from God's grace and the joy of resting with God.
In the next post, I'll explain why I think centering prayer is important for cultivating moral integrity. In subsequent posts, I'll focus in on the various factors that come into play in connecting prayer with integrity.
My pastor had been on a 6-month sabbatical at the Trappist monastery at Snowmass, CO, studying with Fr. Thomas Keating, one of the great formulators of the centering prayer method of contemplative prayer. Fr. Thomas tells the story of encountering young people in the 60s and 70s, hungry for a more authentic and mystical experience of God, who were leaving Christianity for eastern religions. Disturbed by this exodus of young people from the church - especially when the Catholic Church has such a rich legacy of mysticism - Fr. Thomas, together with Fr. Basil Pennington and others, developed the method of centering prayer.
Here's how centering prayer works: First, it is important to bear in mind that centering prayer does not replace other forms of prayer, but rather enhances them. In centering we consent to God to be present to and act within us.
The method of centering prayer involves sitting and being silent before God. As we sit we silently invoke a sacred word or phrase (not a mantra). The word can be as simple as "Jesus," "God," "rest," or "peace." A simple phrase can be used, such as the Jesus prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The "word" can even be simply attending to our breathing. We sit in silence with this sacred word, and as we become aware of thoughts, we gently return to the sacred word. We do not try to suppress thoughts. Rather, we let them be and then when we are aware of them, we return to the sacred word. The idea is not to empty our minds of thoughts, but to return our intention back to God when we are distracted by thoughts. As we sit and practice centering, we may experience a profound sense of peace - peace that comes from God's grace and the joy of resting with God.
In the next post, I'll explain why I think centering prayer is important for cultivating moral integrity. In subsequent posts, I'll focus in on the various factors that come into play in connecting prayer with integrity.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Defining Contemplative Prayer
So what exactly is contemplative prayer? Many people will use contemplation and meditation interchangeably and associate both with eastern religion. This can cause a lot of fear and misunderstanding. In fact, Christianity has a deep spiritual history of both meditation and contemplation among saints such as Theresa of Avila and John of the Cross.
I understand meditation and contemplation to be different things. Meditation is prayer in which the mind mulls over and considers deeply the meaning and significance of the focus of the prayer (for example, the content of the prayer or an icon or the blessed sacrament). Contemplation, on the other hand, is silent prayer before God. Contemplation is often achieved by means of meditation. So for example, the Rosary is a popular and traditional form of meditation and can lead to deeper contemplative prayer as one moves from the concentration of the mind upon the mysteries of the Rosary to sitting in deep peace before God - "basking" in God, if you will! Many people experience contemplative prayer spontaneously - without really knowing it by that name. They simply experience it as a deepening of their cognitive prayer.
So there it is - a first brief description of contemplative prayer. In the next blog, I'll talk about a specific method of contemplative prayer called "centering prayer." Until then, for more information on contemplative prayer, take a look at this link. It will also describe centering prayer, which was developed by Fr. Thomas Keating and Fr. Basil Pennington.
Just a final note: If you decide to Google contemplative or centering prayer, be forewarned that you will see some sites that condemn the practice as un-Christian and unscriptural. These sites originate with individuals or groups who don't fully understand that contemplative prayer and centering prayer are spiritual practices steeped in centuries of church history and embraced by many saints through the centuries and by devout Christians and Catholics today.
I understand meditation and contemplation to be different things. Meditation is prayer in which the mind mulls over and considers deeply the meaning and significance of the focus of the prayer (for example, the content of the prayer or an icon or the blessed sacrament). Contemplation, on the other hand, is silent prayer before God. Contemplation is often achieved by means of meditation. So for example, the Rosary is a popular and traditional form of meditation and can lead to deeper contemplative prayer as one moves from the concentration of the mind upon the mysteries of the Rosary to sitting in deep peace before God - "basking" in God, if you will! Many people experience contemplative prayer spontaneously - without really knowing it by that name. They simply experience it as a deepening of their cognitive prayer.
So there it is - a first brief description of contemplative prayer. In the next blog, I'll talk about a specific method of contemplative prayer called "centering prayer." Until then, for more information on contemplative prayer, take a look at this link. It will also describe centering prayer, which was developed by Fr. Thomas Keating and Fr. Basil Pennington.
Just a final note: If you decide to Google contemplative or centering prayer, be forewarned that you will see some sites that condemn the practice as un-Christian and unscriptural. These sites originate with individuals or groups who don't fully understand that contemplative prayer and centering prayer are spiritual practices steeped in centuries of church history and embraced by many saints through the centuries and by devout Christians and Catholics today.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Contemplative Prayer and Moral Formation
At a meeting today I was asked "How to you get people to do the right thing?" I heaved a sigh. Indeed, that is the $64,000 question. Why do we still read headlines of financial scandal when business ethics has been taught in MBA programs for decades? Why do we continue to make irrational choices that hurt ourselves, other people, and the environment?
It has become clear that the intellectual approach to ethics taught in most American universities only goes so far. What seems to be needed is an approach that integrates the mind and the heart to motivate the will - an approach I especially resonate with since I addressed a good portion of my dissertation to self-integration in the Christian moral philosophies of St. Augustine and H. Richard Niebuhr. That was all very heady; I want now to explore a more integrated approach to self-integration.
I've been a practitioner of contemplative prayer for about 20 years. It may be dangerous to extrapolate universal truths from personal experience, but everyone does, so I will, too. I think contemplative prayer can play an important role in self-integration and hence to the formation of moral integrity. I would like to spend some time investigating this relationship through this blog.
So over the next few posts, I'm going to "think out loud" about contemplative prayer and how it contributes to moral integrity by integrating the self - promoting self-knowledge and, as I call it, "ethics from the inside out." The next post will explain what contemplative prayer is.
It has become clear that the intellectual approach to ethics taught in most American universities only goes so far. What seems to be needed is an approach that integrates the mind and the heart to motivate the will - an approach I especially resonate with since I addressed a good portion of my dissertation to self-integration in the Christian moral philosophies of St. Augustine and H. Richard Niebuhr. That was all very heady; I want now to explore a more integrated approach to self-integration.
I've been a practitioner of contemplative prayer for about 20 years. It may be dangerous to extrapolate universal truths from personal experience, but everyone does, so I will, too. I think contemplative prayer can play an important role in self-integration and hence to the formation of moral integrity. I would like to spend some time investigating this relationship through this blog.
So over the next few posts, I'm going to "think out loud" about contemplative prayer and how it contributes to moral integrity by integrating the self - promoting self-knowledge and, as I call it, "ethics from the inside out." The next post will explain what contemplative prayer is.
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