What is Contemplative Prayer?
Gregory the Great calls contemplative prayer a true listening that is rooted in the heart; it is all about listening to the heart and surrendering the heart to God. In this prayer you are the true you being simply present and given to God.
Contemplative prayer or contemplative praying is a prayer form in which we are simply hollowed out for God, just being there, without words or images, quietly gathered in God’s presence. In essence contemplative prayer is a wordless, trusting, opening of the self to the divine presence. It is a way of being with God “In whom we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Often people have the idea that to pray means to use words, to be in conversation with God. That is one way of prayer, but prayer is not only the words we speak to God aloud or silently. In contemplative prayer we open our self to God, in silence. As John of the Cross said, “Silence is God’s first language.”
Contemplative prayer is a simple gaze toward God who loves us. Br. Lawrence calls this a “loving turning of my eyes to God.” It’s a move from communication with God through speech to communing with God through the gaze of love, in silence. In contemplative prayer we make ourselves available, having an inner disposition that is receptive to the grace of God.
Contemplative prayer is an attentive turning toward God in faith and openness and the rest is up to God. In Christian tradition, the experience of what is most often referred to as “contemplation” is an experience that is said to be pure gift given when and as God chooses. It is described as a sheer experience of loving presence.
There are various pathways to contemplative prayer, some examples are:
“Centering Prayer,” “Christian Meditation”, “The Jesus Prayer”, “The Prayer of Presence”, “The Breath Prayer,” and “Rosary Prayer.” The thing to remember is that contemplative prayer is not a “technique.” Contemplative practice simply disposes us to make ourselves present to the Divine who is always and everywhere present.
Contemplative prayer often leads to a whole way of contemplative living, which consists of holding contemplative attitudes, including being open, present, and aware to what is, at a given moment. These ways of being allow us to be more available and receptive to God, awake and aware, openly alive to God in everything just as it is. Evelyn Underhill called the human person “a capacity for God,” and through the means of contemplative living we can redirect our desires and actions, to the single purposes of God.
(Prepared by Suzanne Kurtz for the small group, Anam Cara.)
(Sources: David Benner, Cynthia Bourgeault, Tilden Edwards, Thomas Keating, Martin Laird, Gerald May, Richard Rohr, Marjorie Thompson, Evelyn Underhill.)
Suggested books about Contemplative Prayer:
1. The Power of the Name, by Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia (Kallistos Ware).
2. Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, by Cynthia Bourgeault
3. The Naked Now, by Father Richard Rohr
4. Open Mind, Open Heart: (20th Anniversary Edition), by Father Thomas Keating
5. Heaven Begins Within You: Wisdom from the Desert Fathers, by Anslem Gruen
6. Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality, by Anthony De Mello
7. The Desert Mothers: Spiritual Practices from the Women of the Wilderness, by Mary C. Earle
From the Rector
Worship Services
We offer 3 Sunday Services:
- 8 am - Traditional
- 9:15 am - More informal and family-oriented
- 11:15 am - More formal with classical chior