Dear Omar:

The highest form of contemplative prayer is available only to those God chooses to grant this grace. The problem with Centering Prayer is that it tries to cheat. It essentially says to God, "You have not given me this gift, so I am going to steal it by using this method."

But no "method" in itself can bring one to the mystical marriage of infused contemplation.

All of us can practice a form of contemplation in which we quietly meditate upon our Lord and allow God to commune with us and speak to us. The higher forms, however, are only available to those God chooses.

A summary of information about contemplative prayer is found in the Formation lesson for Novices in the Order of the Legion of St. Michael. This lesson is adapted from the formation material of the Carmelite Order.

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One definition of contemplation is that it is an intuition of the truth, which can be either from natural causes or from God. Some suggest (rather simplistically) that supernatural contemplation allows one to watch the Lord in action and put ourselves into the scene (i.e., we are then in the presence of God) or that it is becoming absorbed in the life of Jesus (i.e., entering into His viewpoint).

Contemplation, however, is more a gaze of faith that is fixed on Jesus. "I look at Him and He looks at me;" this is what a certain peasant told the Cure of Ars, St. John Vianney, about his prayer before the tabernacle. (Catechism, #2715).

In our St. Michael Charism, we adopt the Carmelite tradition in which contemplation is passive prayer, the Holy Spirit praying within the person. Unlike some other traditional spiritualities, it is not the person acting but God acting within the deepest core of an attentive soul. It is always totally the gift of the Divine Lover.

There are numerous definitions given for contemplative prayer. For example:

1. Continuously living in the presence of God.
2. God present in my aspirations, in what I think about, in my all.
3. The prayer of being a stance of allowing God to pray within our depths, a covenant relationship established by God within our hearts.
4. A gift from God, a communion of love bearing life for the multitude, to the extent that it consents to pass through the night of faith. (Catechism, #2719)

For those so gifted, this level of prayer is meant to be a gateway to the highest levels of Christian perfection, which can be attained here in this life, but will only be complete when one enters the Kingdom of Heaven.

PERFECTION

Union with God is our goal and God's plan for us. It is not the substantial union God has given us by giving us existence. Rather, it is a transformation in God through grace achieved by a union of wills, that is, by friendship. This is perfectly achieved when our will becomes one with God's Will. It is a union effected through faith and love.

Perfection consists in bringing our senses and our reason into perfect submission to God's will as known to us through faith. Thus we become perfectly docile to His will. This is true perfection (i.e., we living in God as perfectly as He lives in Himself).

This state cannot normally be achieved by human effort alone. The part we play is by "simply disposing ourselves for a state of contemplative prayer."

Disposing ourselves for a state of contemplative prayer means undergoing a process of purification. For some, this may be relatively brief; for others, a never-ending struggle.

THE TWOFOLD PROCESS OF PURIFICATION

St John of the Cross refers to this process as a twofold process, consisting of the Night of the Senses and the Night of the Spirit. Both of these nights have an active part and a passive part.

Night of the Senses.

The active part of the Night of the Senses takes place when a person undertakes the Night only after one has begun to know God to some degree through the lights and consolations of prayer and has become united to God in a love that is now strong enough to endure some difficulty in His service.  Persons begin this Night sooner who are recollected (i.e., those whose minds and hearts are fixed on God).

This purification is actuated by the person in acts of penance and ascetical practice, preparing one to encounter the Lord passively. Meditative prayer is a help here in focusing on God, seeking our good and enjoying happiness in God alone.

The passive part of the Night God begins to take over. In this Night, one often feels that God is out to destroy everything a person thought was good and valuable, which proves how wholly inadequate the person is to accomplish this work of purification.

St. John of the Cross gives three signs which help one to discern when this night begins: (Dark Night L Chapter 9, #2-3 & 8, pp. 377-380. Also Ascent of Mount Carmel II Chapter 13, pp. 189-191). All three of these signs must appear together.

1. an inability to meditate as formerly done; instead, an inclination to remain alone and in quietude: "They must be content simply with a loving and peaceful attentiveness to God, and live without the concern, without the effort, and without the desire to taste or feel Him" (Dark Night I Chap. 10, #4, pp. 382).

St. John of the Cross even speaks of this as the surest sign when he mentions the three signs again in the Ascent (II, Chap. 13, #4, pp. 189-190).

Meanwhile, St. John says: "Accordingly, such persons should not mind if the operations of their faculties are being lost to them; they should desire rather that this be done quickly so they may be no obstacle to the operation of the infused contemplation God is bestowing so that they receive it with more peaceful plenitude and make room in the spirit for the enkindling and burning of the love that this dark and secret contemplation bears and communicates to the soul. For contemplation is nothing else than a secret and peaceful and loving inflow of God, which, if not hampered, fires the soul in the spirit of love." (Dark Night I Chap. 10, #6, p. 382).

2. little or no pleasure is found in the things of God, which now leave one dry, and also in the things of this world which are no longer esteemed or desired;

3. a general longing for God together with a fear that one is falling away from God through one's own fault.

All persons must go through some form of this passive night if they are to come to the state of contemplation. For some, this may last for many years.

In this state, one no longer seeks security in oneself but only in God. The person sees the truth of who God really is and who we are. Sometimes one feels confusion.

Discernment and, most probably, competent spiritual direction are needed.

Three basic fruits of this passive night are joyful humility, confidence and a great growth in faith.

Night of the Spirit.

Both nights of the spirit, (i.e., the active and passive phases), belong to those who have made considerable progress in the spiritual life. These nights are treated in the books by St. John of the Cross,  Books II and III of the Ascent of Mount Carmel and Book II of The Dark Night. They form the passage from the state of one proficient in spirituality to that state of perfection called transforming union in God. This union is the very goal of our spiritual journey.

In the passive night of the spirit, the soul is meant to be receptive. If it is not, it can impede (if not understand) the union desired and begun by God. To benefit from this night, the soul should cooperate with God's action, desire God's action, and pay attention to God's action within oneself.

St. John explains this with an illustration: "If a model for the painting or retouching of a portrait should move because of a desire to do something, the artist would be unable to finish and the work would be spoiled." (Dark Night I, Chap. 10, #5, p. 382)

So: "If individuals were to desire to do something themselves with their interior faculties, they would hinder and lose the goods Chat God engraves on their souls through that peace and idleness." (Ibid.)

Symbolically, the highest experience of union between Christ and the person is called by many classic authors in spirituality: spiritual marriage. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila also add the state of spiritual betrothal to one about to enter into spiritual marriage.

ST.TERESA'S INTERIOR CASTLE

St. Teresa's Interior Castle is an allegorical description of the soul. God dwells in the center of this castle and there are seven concentric series of rooms around this center. They are not equal states but more like rungs on a ladder. There is much variation in going from one mansion to another and in the time spent in each one, the progress too often being a difference in kind. The seven mansions are "stages" in one's journey to God, relative and hard to put into neat little packages.

Blessed Titus Brandsma calls the last four mansions the last four degrees of the mystical life.

Comparisons can be drawn between Teresa's mansions and St. John of the Cross' insights on what happens to the soul as one lives out the contemplative way of life – (e.g., the Process of Purgation).

The following is a brief summary of each of Teresa's seven mansions:

First: This is the mansion of beginners in the spiritual life. Good intentions abound here, but the soul is still very much preoccupied with worldly affairs. One is usually rooted in vocal prayer. Detachment must be learned.

Second: This is a mansion where one is practicing prayer, where one becomes quite involved in meditation and will find delight in prayer, but also where one may complain about aridity. The person must learn courage.

Third: Here is the mansion of exemplary life, where one lives a good life, integrating well one's prayer with worldly necessities. The soul must learn humility in this mansion and be patient with the aridity that often accompanies those in this state of prayer.

Fourth: This mansion is a place of transition to passive recollection. Teresa calls this the "prayer of quiet" The person finds God dwelling within his or her soul, and rests wonderfully in His presence, which gives the soul great spiritual delight and makes the will (in particular) want to remain in this state.

Fifth: This is the mansion of union, as it were, where the soul is blunted to the external life and is carried away in the contemplation of God, as if in a spiritual sleep-the state of spiritual betrothal.

Sixth: This mansion is closely linked with the fifth and seventh mansions. The person is completely immersed in the contemplation and the enjoyment of the object of love: God! Detachment from the world is complete.

Seventh: Spiritual marriage at last! It is here where the soul is living only in and through its beloved, lovingly drawn to God, never to escape again.

NOTE: In the last three mansions, the soul and God become more and more one until in the seventh, they become inseparably one. A difference in these mansions is simply the degree of permanency of the union. Other differences have to do with the type of mystical experiences that the soul has in these states of its spiritual journey.

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Even with this brief discussion of genuine contemplative prayer one can compare with Center Prayer and see how deep the tradition of contemplation is and how shallow Centering Prayer is.

Centering Prayer tries to short-cut through this depth of Contemplative Tradition. To do that it uses non-Christian aspects that cannot be reconciled with our Faith.

For a detailed discussion of the dangers of Centering Prayer see the article by Father John Dreher.

God bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary