Before you get stressed about another thing you have to do to be a “good” Christian, know that contemplative practices are nothing but an invitation: an invitation into knowing God deeper and seeing him in the midst of your very ordinary life. And they will change you!
We all want to grow as Christians. We want to be more Christ-like, more spiritual, more loving and kind. But relying on our own wills to change is a huge temptation of Christians today, especially American Christians who are told by the world to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. We want control, and it is scary to relinquish that control.
Contemplative practices are especially adept at helping us to loosen the reins and truly encounter God–because of HIS goodness, not ours.
Dallas Willard shares this about our willpower: “You don’t become spiritually or emotionally mature by willpower…You have to learn to use your will, but your will has very little power. You maximize the effect of your will by using it to direct yourself in experiences that will change your mind, and your body, and your social relations, and your soul.”
Contemplative practices are one way to direct your will into these life-changing experiences. And, they can be practiced easily and every day. All it takes is a little imagination and a little faith, and God will certainly meet you there.
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What Is Contemplation in Christianity?
As with anything that has a long, rich tradition in Christianity, contemplation has different definitions and connotations. But, if I may be so bold as to summarize, contemplation is an act of opening yourself up to God’s love and intervention through focusing attention on God’s ongoing presence.
St. Gregory the Great, in the 6th century, referred to contemplation as “resting in God.”
Contemplativeoutreach.org shares these characteristics of contemplation:
“In this ‘resting,’ the mind and heart are not so much seeking God, as beginning to experience what they have been seeking. This state is not the suspension of all activity, but the reduction of many acts and reflections to a single act or thought in order to sustain one’s consent to God’s presence and action.
In this traditional understanding, contemplation, or contemplative prayer, is not something that can be achieved through will, but rather is God’s gift. It is the opening of mind and heart–one’s whole being–to God. Contemplative prayer is a process of interior transformation. It is a relationship initiated by God and leading, if one consents, to divine union.”
We can shy away from practices like this in modern Christianity because we fear that God won’t show up, or because God feels far away, or because it all feels too “woo woo” and spiritual, as our culture focuses on the spiritual realm much less than reality calls for.
But contemplative practices span centuries in Christianity. In fact, Isaac, Joshua, and David are all major characters of the Bible whose meditative practices were a key part of their walks with God.
For instance, David experienced God’s presence, as part of his lived experience, not just in his intellect. This opens so much up for us!
Even though I walk
through the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)
God wants to be close to us. The progression of the closeness of God from altars and then the tabernacle in the Old Testament, to Jesus living on this earth with us in the New Testament, to the Spirit living inside of us, making a home with us as John 14:23 tells us–all of this tells us how close God wants to be and how involved he wants to be in our everyday lives.
The play-by-play, moment-by-moment, experiencing-what-we’re-experiencing-as-we-are experiencing-it kind of involvement. Jesus saw his Father God as extremely accessible and extremely informal. God is just waiting for us to turn to him, he is so close, and so ready for us to experience him directly.
Like many relational tools, there is not one “right” way to use contemplative prayer in your walk with God. But it is so exciting to know the opportunity to meet God, to experience him firsthand, is available to us, all the time.
Here are three different contemplative practices that you can try today.
1. The Centering Prayer
This contemplative practice only takes 20 minutes and is so simple!
In the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council essentially wanted to create new methods for laypeople to experience the kind of contemplation and presence that minks and nuns did–without the isolation or asceticism. In response to this call, three trappist monks came up with the Centering Prayer.
The practice is very straightforward, although still a bit challenging, because it takes mental discipline. But Father Thomas Keating, one of the originators of the Centering Prayer, emphasizes that the practice is about your relationship with God, not the method. So it’s okay not to get it perfect!
Here are the four steps to the Centering Prayer:
1. Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intent to consent to God’s presence and action within you.
This sacred word can be anything. It’s not a spell or anything like that. The sacred word is an anchor, a reminder to bring your attention back to God’s presence and action. It can be anything you want. It might be helpful to choose a word that is one or two syllables to keep it simple: “peace,” “love,” “faith,” “Jesus,” “stillness,” “enough,” are just some ideas.
2. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence.
Father Thomas Keating says that “Once you sit down, then the Spirit has kind of got you.” That single choice to sit down and be still infront of God is such a powerful one!
3. When engaged with your thoughts, ever-so-gently to the sacred word.
Thoughts are going to come, that is inevitable. We are human. “Thoughts” can be anything like inner or outer sense perceptions, memories, feelings, emotions, plans, commentaries, visualizations, etc. They will come, but it’s okay. You don’t need to bat these thoughts away. The only action you should initiate in the Centering Prayer is ever-so-gently returning your attention back to God, using your sacred word.
4. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.
It is up to you how long you would like to sit, but 20 minutes has been recommended. At the end, take a few moments to breathe and acknowledge what God has been doing in you and for you in the time you just experienced together.
Father Thomas Keating shares more specifics here.
This practice is succinct and straightforward, but so very powerful in allowing God to reach you and change you from within! It is something you can incorporate into your Christian walk, every day. Try it out this week and see what God tells you through it.
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2. Lectio Divina
The next contemplative practice I want to share about is called “lectio divina” which means divine reading. It has been a part of Christian tradition since the 6th Century!
Of course, there is not one single perspective on lectio divina, but the general idea is to have God speak to you as you meditate on Scripture.
Here is how to practice lectio divina:
Choose a short passage of scripture and slowly read through it four consecutive times.
On the first reading, you will get a surface-level understanding of the passage.
On the second reading, notice what is coming up in you as you read it. What aspects are sticking out to you? What words are repeating? What themes do you notice?
On the third reading, be open to how God is speaking to you. Reflect and pray about what bearing the passage has on your life right now, and on the life of others.
After the 4th reading, take 5-10 minutes to contemplate what you have read and what God is teaching you, in this moment.
What excites me about this practice is that your brain doesn’t know the difference between vivid visualizations and reality. So as you are slowly reading through these passages, you can imagine yourself to be there, with God or with Jesus, or with any of your favorite Bible characters. And your brain will accept this imagination as something you actually experienced!
So picture yourself THERE. For instance, you could pick a moment in the Gospels and then imagine the sights, the smells, what Jesus looked like, what his facial expressions were, and the sound of his voice. It’s just so powerful knowing that God gave us that mechanism to essentially “time travel”-- to not be bound by time but to imagine ourselves there and being transformed by Jesus the way we would be transformed if we were there, physically with him.
John 1:1 tells us that Jesus is the Word of God, and Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word is living and active. This contemplative practice invites us to interact with the Word and therefore Jesus in such a personal way!
3. The Daily Examen
This practice is over 400 years old and started with St. Ignatius Loyola. He describes the practice in his work, Spiritual Exercises, which he developed to help people deepen their relationship with God. These exercises used to be practiced only on long retreats, but it the Daily Examen is certainly something you can do for a few minutes every day!
The central idea of the examen is to reflect back on your past day and ask the Spirit to reveal to you things about it, like what went well, where the Spirit was working, ways your heart strayed, ways God blessed you and loved you, etc.
It is a way to train yourself to actively look for the ways the Spirit is moving in your everyday life, and to be more aware of God throughout your day.
Here is a version of the Daily Examen that Ignatius practiced:
1. Become aware of God’s presence.
2. Review the day with gratitude.
3. Pay attention to your emotions.
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.
5. Look toward tomorrow.
There are many different prompts that are available for different focuses of the examen, and even an app to guide you through them!
Fr. Dennis Hamm, SJ, a scripture professor at Creighton University, calls the Daily Examen “rummaging for God.” He says it is like “going through a drawer full of stuff, feeling around, looking for something that you are sure must be there.”
I love this outlook because it presupposes that God is active in your life, you just have to find it! Even through a boring day at work, the Spirit can reveal the ways it was trying to get your attention or ways that God worked in your favor.
Of course, the more you practice this, the better you will get at seeing God in your daily life. You’ll even see him in the moment, not just when you look back at your day!
Each of these practices are just that – things to practice. They do not have to be perfect, just like a conversation with your best friend doesn’t have to be “perfect.” Just be present, attentive, and watch what God does in your heart over time.
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