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Contemplative Prayer
L.M.: The Gospel of John.
E.M.: Especially, in the Last Supper talk-we're talking about chapters 14, 15, and 16 of John, where Jesus gives us the final discourse of the Last Supper.
There we have the nucleus, the heart of the Christian tradition of mystical, contemplative prayer. Jesus speaks there of being led from discipleship to friendship, and into a more intimate relationship. The person of the Trinity who our Lord emphasized as crucial and central was the Holy Spirit. In any presentation of Christian prayer, the Holy Spirit is essential. There have been over the centuries various methods of meditation. For instance, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, introduced a form of meditation that is like the threshold of contemplative prayer.
L.M.: That would be more reflection, spiritual reflection.
E.M.: Reflection, meditation—it follows reading. One goes from the reading of sacred texts to meditation.
L.M.: Lectio divina.
E.M.: Yes, lectio—and meditation, pondering on the word of scripture. This is an active type of contemplation in our Christian tradition; most types of Catholic prayer can be classified as active contemplation. Passive contemplation is really, strictly speaking, contemplative, or Centering, prayer.
In contemplative prayer, we are not praying so much to God, as we do in the liturgy. The four parts or elements of the liturgy that we find in the Mass are petition, adoration, reparation, and thanksgiving. They are easy to remember as “part."
L.M.: Right, “part."
E.M.: With the celebration of the Eucharist, that is still active contemplation; one uses words, gestures, and so forth. Contemplative prayer is, in contrast, wordless and nonconceptual. That is hard for a Westerner to deal with; we're so conceptual and analytical in our Western culture. The average Westerner has to divest himself or herself of the habitual attitude of analyzing everything and trying to figure it out intellectually.
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