CONTEMPLATION AND THE MYSTERY OF THE LOVIING PRESENCE OF GOD

"BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD. I WILL BE EXALTED AMONG THE HEATHEN, I WILL BE EXALTED IN THE EARTH."

God speaks to the contemplative soul of all men through the prophet David, above, and commands silence of the chatter of the natural mind and faculties that, in "stillness," one may come to awareness and knowledge of supernatural contemplation-a holy presence received only by those who exalt God by placing the natural man in humble submisssion, awaiting in hopeful expectation for something ineffably greater: the Mystery of the reality of "the supernatural," a Personal, Loving Contemplative Presence beyond the capacity of the natural mind to comprehend, understand, or achieve by its own devices.(Psalm 46). In a sense, we learn more about God through our heart than through our understanding, for that which is hidden from the intellect can be "known," in the Biblical sense, through Love. For Love has eyes of its own which can "taste" the Goodness of God's Being, even when we can't intellectually fathom it.

David knows this Presence and concludes, "The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."

St Augustine speaks of contemplation:

"I entered into the secret closet of my soul, led by Thee; and this I could do because Thou wast my helper. I entered, and beheld with the mysterious eye of my soul the Light that never changes, above the eye of my soul, above my intelligence. It was not the common light which all flesh can see, nor was it greater yet of the same kind, as if the light of day were to grow brighter and brighter and flood all space. It was not like this, but different: altogether different from all such things. Nor was it above my intelligence in the same way as oil is above water, or heaven above earth; but it was higher because it made me, and I was lower because made by it. He who knoweth the truth knoweth that Light: and who knoweth it, knoweth eternity. Love knoweth it."(Aug. Conf., bk. vii. cap. x)

Abbe Poulain explains what is meant by "the experience" of God in contemplative prayer:

"By experimental knowledge it is understood that which comes from the object itself(rather than from our effort to gain such knowledge by our own intellectual effort) and makes it known not only as possible but as existing, and in such and such conditions. This is the case with mystical union: God is therein perceived as well as conceived. Hence, in mystical union, we have experimental knowledge of God and of His presence, but it does not at all follow that this knowledge is of the same nature as the Beatific Vision."(Aug. Poulain, Catholic Encyclopedia, "Contemplation.")

THE SUPERNATURAL ORGANISM, AN INTER-RELATED MYSTICAL COSMOS

"The mysteries contained in supernatural revelation are not simply disconnected truths lying beyond the realm of natural things, but a higher, heavenly world, a mystical cosmos whose parts are united in a living bond. (Scheeben, "Dogmatik", I, 25.) Even in those parts of this vast system that have been revealed to us there is a wonderful harmony. But God, in His essence, remains a mystery which only infinite wisdom can understand, including the designs of Divine Providence and the inner life of the Godhead. In its strict sense a mystery, such as God, is a supernatural truth, one that of its very nature lies above the finite intelligence. In a sense, we learn more about God through our heart than through our understanding, for that which is hidden from the intellect can be "known," in the Biblical sense, through Love. For Love has eyes of its own which can "taste" the Goodness of God's Being, even when we can't intellectually fathom it. That's the secret of the power of contemplative prayer which ultimately unites us with the Spirit of God.

But our finite intellects will never fully solve the Mystery of God, as we might embrace a satisfactory solution to a finite problem or mathematical formula. Even in the next life, with the help of the "light of glory," we will not be able to fathom, with our intellects, the infinite nature of the Beatific Vision. We will certainly share in glimpses of infinite Wisdom and Understanding, and the Mysteries of the Word, Jesus Christ. Such understanding begins in this life as we embrace the truths of Revelation through an act of loving faith. However, we shall never fully encompass the infinite with our finite intellects, and an Eternal "Mystery," ever unfolding, ever new, shall always accompany our understanding of the ways and nature of God." (gloss on Catholic Encyclopedia, "Mystery")

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Through the ages, many saints, like St Bernard, have repeated Jesus' call to all of us, lay and religious, to unite with Him in contemplative prayer:

"Come to me all you who are enmeshed in vice, you who are ensnared by the allurements of pleasure, a captive in exile, fixed in mire, distracted by religious, business, or family responsibilities, afflicted with sorrow from failure, loneliness, or loss of loved ones, and counted with those who go down into hell-every soul I say, standing thus under condemnation and wihtout hope. Turn to me and breathe the fresh air of hope, pardon, and mercy through contemplative prayer. Dare, today, to break forever with these worldly chains of sorrow and declare yourself to be, from this moment forward, dedicated to living in the joy and delight of ever deeper contemplative union with Me in preparation for the nuptial feast with My Holy Spirit, where, even in this life, your soul shall "enjoy all peace, taste all sweetness, and delight in all delight, ever walking in festivity, inwardly and outwardly, bearing on its spiritual tongue a new song of great jubilation in God, a song always new, enfolded in gladness and love."(dev.from St Bernard of Clairvaux, St John of the Cross, and Fr. Dubay, S.M., "Fire Within")

Now you may be one of those who thinks that all "safe" spirituality never leaves the Sacred Passion, as well as the personal pains and suffering that arise, from time to time, in our own life. And to a certain extent you would be right. We are meant to seek God, and not the "pleasures" connected with such seeking. And didn't Christ say, "Take up your Cross and follow Me?" Yes this is the meat and substance of the real spiritual life in this world as a result of the damage done to all of us by Original and personal sin. However, we must not think that this is the end of spirituality; it is not, it is only part way to the goal. We must never forget that the Cross, lovingly borne, blossoms in Resurrection and participation in the Ecstasy of Divine Life. Eeven in this life, our goal is union with God's Spirit of Goodness and Beauty. And as we embrace suffering, and overcome our selfish desires, we simultaneously open our hearts to the delight of the divine infusion of Self-Giving Love.

More and more as we advance spiritually, we live in the supernatural Joy of the Lord. And this is a permanent spiritual joy, filling us with supernatural peace, and happiness, even when the natural world around us shatters. So we must not be afraid to admit that the spiritual life contains joys and pleasures far in excess of those found in this world from erotic pleasures, drugs, art, music, or whatever. For the Spirit of God is "the Source" and "Exemplar," at an Infinite level, of all joys and earthly pleasures, which are but pale reflections of the Ecstatic Glory of His Ineffable Being. So we must not be afraid of this aspect of spirituality and life united with the Good God, and we must never forget that the Cross, and the suffering of the Road to Jerusalem, is not an end in itself, for it leads to the Resurrection, of a New Man in Jesus Christ, and even in this life, to the ineffable Joy abounding in His Kingdom in the Holy City of Jerusalem.

Moreover, those who think such joys are a pious exaggeration have but to read the reports of those saints who have walked in the transforming union, and personally experienced the "Torrent of delight" to which Isaiah refers, given to those "who trust in the Lord, who run and get not weary, and who embrace the ecstatic Beauty of the Living God through contemplation, and are raised up on wings, as eagles!" For God tells no lies. Jesus said He came that their "joy might be full." And the fullness of Joy is just what He delivers. As St John of the Cross tells us in the Spiritual Canticle, and as Fr. DuBay tells us inn "The Fire Within," "the song of the soul, in the transformation that is hers in this life, is delightful beyond all exaggeration."

And what is the contemplative life? The contemplative life is the "happiness" that comes from union with God and His eternal life giving Spirit. It is the ongoing contentment of a life lived in an intimate relationship of Personal Love. It is the spiritual joy that comes from the fulfillment of everything for which we yearn and desire, and for which we were created. "Christ affirms, 'Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.'(Jn l7:3) When the contemplative life reaches perfection in this life, man encounters the "absolute fullness of Good." And that goodness and that fullness become the quality, through adoption, of his very own soul. The contemplative life of union has no limits in time and space, since it is participation in the infinite realm of the eternal. It is partcipation, now, in the happiness and joy of the abundant life Christ said He came to bring, the eternal life of God, Himself, in the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit within the Holy Trinity.

FAITHFUL TO GOD AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFESTYLE WHILE LIVING IN THE WORLD

In the Fifth Mansions St Teresa of Avila describes the prayer of union by saying, "God implants himself in the interior of the soul is such a way that, when it returns to itself, it cannot possibly doubt that God has been in it and it has been in God" (Fifth Mansions,chap. 1) So the sense of "certainty" of the experience of God is profound and brings with it great incentive to move forward toward the fullness of union and spiritual transformation.

For supernatural contemplation is nothing less than God, Himself, raising our spiritual transformation, or growth in the virtues and charity, from the natural level to the supernatural level, and from our own natural pace of development to God's supernatural pace of development. Through contemplative prayer, instead of our virtues being limited to the growth that we can muster through our own human efforts and will, influenced by grace, our virtues and charity grow by leaps and bounds through divine efforts and divine Will. Virtues which seemed impossible before, now take wings and fly. The spiritual sailing ship is no longer powered by the rowing of the oars, now it is powered by the wind of the Holy Spirit.

However, the gift of such prayer is only for those who struggle to remain faithful to their prayer-time month after month, and year after year, in the face of difficulties and temptations to give it all up. For there will be times in which our prayer is bitter and dry. There will be times when the weaknesses of the flesh and our emotions will battle against our prayer. And there will be times when it all seems empty and a waste of time. Moreover, there may be long periods in which nothing seems to be taking place in our prayer time. During such periods, it is well to remember that it is frequently outside our actual prayer time, or during special periods of insight and illumination, that we experience how much prayer is changing our lives for the better. Results of prayer are sometimes only visible over time, as the fruit the good God is planting in our life begins to manifestly blossom. On any particular day, or during a particular period, our prayer results may seem fruitless, negative, painful and misleading. So we must never give up prayer in discouragement because it seems, at the time, like nothing is happening during our prayer or contemplation. As Father Henri Nouwen tells us:

"Often you will feel that nothing happens during your prayer...The movement of God's Spirit is very gentle, very soft-and hidden. It does not seek attention. But that movement is also very persistent, strong and deep. It changes our hearts radically." (Henri J.M. Nouwen)

Our Faith is the gift of God's Love and God's Presence in our lives. We cannot earn it. We must have the humility to ask for it. But in order to understand it, we must ask ourselves a question. How strong is this gift or Loving Spirit of Faith? Christ tells us that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. Why? Because faith is the supernatural overcoming power of Almighty God. It is contact with God, Himself, as filtered through the veil of this life. Everything natural, even suffering and death, give way before faith's absolute overcoming power. It is made perfect in man when it stands absolutely alone in its infinite dimension, bereft of all natural , finite supports of intellect and understanding that would diminish its absolute freedom and sovereignty. (as in apophatic contemplation)

Faith will show its strength when confronted with all manner of natural temptations to disbelief and despair. Such exercise of faith is the process by which man gains merit and becomes an overcomer, imbued with the same qualities and virtues that characterize God's Spirit and the Life of Jesus Christ. For when we are mired in dryness, and want to quit religion because our whole spiritual life seems to belong to Grimm's Fairy Tales, then our abiding faith and love shine forth with the same heroic quality which redeemed the world from the Cross of Jesus Christ. For in darkness God's power of faith and love stand without finite supports, and are made perfect. Jesus pointed out that our Faith must be tested, and that it must be possessed of overcoming charity, when He gave us the example in the wilderness of being tested by temptations of the world, the Flesh, and the devil. For we, by our free-will cooperation, are to manifest the same quality of Faith as He confirmed when He said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life," and "Come follow Me!"

For we are creatures made to love God in this life and for eternity. We are creatures whose love is made in the image of God's Love. In order for us to reflect God's love in our own life, our love must have the same characteristics as divine love. This means our love must be the love of free men and not slaves or robots. Imagine how free or heroic our love would be if we could see God with absolute clarity and certainty, as certain as we know we exist, standing physically next to us from moment to moment and watching every move we made. In the latter case we would be compelled to love, rather than to freely love. It would not be love but rather fear that would compel the unfree choices of a creature made in the image of a slave, rather than the image of God.. Moreover, our love must show the same qualities and absolute overcoming power as that which characterizes God's Love. Therefore, it will prove itself over and over again in this life, as long as we live, as it stands fast during human weakness, testing, and temptation to disbelief and despair. More and more the natural supports will fall away and our faith will shine forth in the freedom of its supernatural splendor.

But you may ask how then does our faith, and our life, differ from those who have no faith. If we suffer the same things and have the same questions about faith they suffer how are we better off then they are? And as St Paul would say, "Why, in every way!" For the most part, our lives will manifest the spiritual fruits of peace and love and joy not found in their lives. But besides this, in order to evaluate the value of faith in our lives, we must not look at temporary crises of faith, our negative moods, or at our suffering, or at temptations, even when they last a long time, but rather at the work and fruit of the Spirit over the long run. For an honest evaluation of the Works of the Spirit in our lives will show that we are incomparably better off than those who do not believe. And then we also have the evidence of those who have believed and then left the faith. The overwhelming evidence is that no one's life is ever improved by leaving the Faith and turning their back on God. For "By their fruits ye shall know them."

As we said above, only free men can meritoriously, and freely, "choose" to love. This quality of being "freely given" is the quality of God's love that ours absolutely must possess. And this is accomplished through Our Faith, or God supernaturally moving us to certitude regarding His Truth and His Love, rather than through our knowledge naturally moving us to certitude of the Truth by clear and complete understanding. In the latter case we would be compelled to love, rather than to freely love. The Faith leaves us the freedom to love or not to love, to choose or not to choose belief in what God has revealed. For the absolute certainty of Faith comes to us by grace joining our cooperative freedom to move our "will" to move our "intellect" to assent. In other words, in the act of Faith, we fall in love with this Jesus and His Spiritual Truth because God let's us see Him through the Supernatural Eyes of Love which eternally dwell on Him through the Holy Spirit.

Our intellect, on the other hand, although certain that the Truth it embraces is highly convincing from the standpoint of evidence, miracles, and Scripture, is not, by natural light alone, capable of the absolute certainty that would come with Infinite comprehension of infinite Truth. Supernatural truths contain supernatural mysteries, and always will. Only God can have absolute comprehension and understanding. So we must live by Faith. And, although our Faith is absolutely certain because of the authority of the Spirit, and the gift of absolute conviction in Revealed Truth God has given to us, and although it is a sin to doubt that upon which God has set His seal, we will always sense a natural lack of complete intellectual satisfaction regarding the inner workings of the supernatural Truth revealed to us. And from this lack of complete clarity in our intellects, our act of Faith will engage in ongoing spiritual warfare against human weakness and temptation to doubt, and will freely and meritoriously transform our faith and our love into the Image of Christ and, as He did on the Cross, we will heroically stand fast in the face of powerful temptations, weakness, and vicious attacks from the world, the weaknesses of the flesh, and the devil.

Now the reality of our spiritual advancement can be tested by the reality of our love of neighbor and the joy we find in all of creation. Now the seeming meaninglessness of time spent in prayer and solitude with God, away from worldly pursuits, pays heroic dividends for all to see. For God begins to "move mountains" and to make the world a better place for all those with whom we come in contact, in us and through us. Earthly suffering is forever diminished as strength and virtue grows from the fires of the dark nights, because the greatest portion of our suffering is due to self-centered attachments which are swallowed up in the fire of God's dark love. And the joys and wonders of advanced contemplation, which is common in the Church today, as it always has been among those religious and laypeople who have held back nothing from God, and have been generous in self-giving and virtue, leads eventually to a life of ongoing joy and even ecstasy for those, in this world, who give themselves completely, in whatever vocation, to God through Jesus Christ.

So we see why Dietrich von Hildebrand makes the following forceful argument in favor of contemplative prayer:

"The true Christian must at any cost conquer a place in his life for contemplation. He must firmly refuse to let himself be dragged into a whirlpool of activities in which he is driven incessantly from one task to another, purpose succeeding purpose, without a pause. The present period of perpetual unrest, in which the machine has come to be the model, the causa exemplaris, of well-nigh all things, in which everything is caught in a process of instrumentalization, in which Leistung ("achievement") with the emphasis on quantity and mere technical perfection, has assumed priority over being in a substantial and meaningful sense - this period of shallow hyperactivity is only too apt to drag us into that whirlpool of outward preoccupations." (Dietrich von Hildebrand, "Recollection," Resources).

If we're serious about placing God first in our life, we will, above all else keep Jesus present in our consciousness throughout the day. His interior image will help us stay recollected. Recollection, as in the Jesus Prayer, is "that state of mind which is meant by the term 'habitare secum,' "dwelling with oneself,"...Dietrich von Hildebrand."

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Now it is necessary, if one would advance in prayer and contemplation, whether a layman or a religious, to simplify one's lifestyle. For one who wishes to make God first in his life must make room in his life for ample time to commune with Him through both prayer and service. And there is no natural conflict between the two. A successful vocation to the married life, to work, and to service flow naturally from prayer and contemplation. Prayer is the soul of marriage, of service, and of the apostolate. However, one must not, except when temporarily necessary, allow work and unnecessary occupations to usurp the time that should be allocated to prayer and communion with God.

This means that one who sets out on the road to contemplation must have a simplified lifestyle in mind as an ongoing goal. And this may also mean that one may have to consider an appropriate change in job, at a future time, or when circumstances permit, in order to avoid total suffocation of one's soul. For contemplation requires a certain solitude of soul even in the life of a layman. Therefore, one must gradually bring all of one's lifestyle in line with the demands of a sane spiritual life underlying one's work and service.

This also means one must eliminate excessive hours of television and movies, excessive time spent in idle gossip, and unnecessary activities not necessary to the requirements of one's vocation, and the loving fulfillment of both prayer and service obligations. We are all called to the perfection of the transforming union. And this is not realistically possible if we fail to make a stand for the spiritual life, and time for God, in a society that has no problems radically overworking you as though you were a machine, or a beast of burden, rather than a man. So this stand for spiritual time with God each day is necessary whether you are a laborer, a journeyman, a professional, an artist, a C.E.O., a bishop, or the President of a nation. If you fail here, you will likely fail everywhere, and be lucky to even maintain the status quo, much less advance in prayer. So never underestimate the importance of this requirement for solitude, simplicity, and time with Almighty God each day. Then, God will be able to work through you, the New Man, to create a New Heavens and a New Earth.

In discussing contemplation, contemplative prayer, or mysticism, in terms of its essential impact in history, and its supernatural power to transform lives of human beings, we should keep in mind that it is really not about "experiences." It is not about systematic studies by scientific types as to whether all cultures have the same experience when they have a mystical experience. It is not about whether each culture molds the same mystical experience into its particular mores and traditions. It is not about progressively more sophisticated levels of direct contact with reality. It is not about oneness, or meditative practices or drugs producing the experience of oneness. It is not about bliss-consciousness from extinction of one's ego. It is not about phenomena associated with consciousness expansion, cosmic awareness, pantheistic visions of nature, or experiences involving simplified, purified knowing. As most of the current psychological and scientific studies of contemplation and mysticism clearly show, one can have all of the above experiences or psychic events, along with reams of scientific data supporting a particular solution to the myriad of possible questions about mystical experiences, and be totally ignorant regarding the nature of contemplative prayer or mysticism.

As we have emphasized before, rather than experiences, contemplative prayer and mysticism are about God's Holy Spirit becoming lovingly manifest in one's own spirit. Then they are about one's own soul becoming imbued with the peaceful fire of God's presence. They are about, therefore, changes in the "will" and character of the soul of man. They are about changes that permanently affect the character and loving, self-giving behavior, and a new capacity to express love toward other human beings. They are about perfecting the virtues, and the transformation of the soul through the purification of the dark nights so as to clear out the impediments to God's action and to produce the participative deification of the faculties in the perfection of sanctity.

For through contemplation, substantial knowledge of God, or of His attributes, which comprise the Triune Spirit of His Unified Being, is communicated to the intellect of the soul in an obscure manner, without the clarity of concepts, images or form. For the human intellect is limited, and is not capable of embracing the Spirit of the Infinite God within the forms with which it understands created reality. So the obscurely received, overwhelming knowledge from the light of God's Being impresses the understanding(passive, intuitive intellect) in an altogether ineffable manner, like bright sunlight which overwhelms the eyes and darkens our vision of the Sun. And as God touches the soul with His Being in such contemplative prayer, the Grandeur, Power, Goodness and Beauty of His Spiritual Being, communicated by this touch and knowledge, generates Love within the soul. And although the knowledge received by the understanding is dark, the Love which is generated thereby is normally clearly perceived. And it is the Love, and the gift of the capacity to overcome evils which formerly controlled one's life, and not the knowledge, which unites the soul with God now and for eternity. For faith in the Being of God is not enough. It is faith informed by Love which is our salvation, and the bond of our perfection. It is the same Love which unites the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,(like the three angles, each of which, in full extension, comprises the total area of the same "one triangle,") in the Unity of the "One God."

And that's why Jesus Christ gave us the same warning about coming to truth by listening to sophisticated arguments and said, rather, the truth is ultimately known and confirmed by one's behavior and lifestyle: "By their fruits ye shall know them!" In other words, don't be seduced by the cunningly devised arguments of the human mind which abound in the world today. Rather, take a look at the quality of the virtue, behavior, and will in the life of Jesus Christ! Do you find any truth there? Most everyone who carefully studies Jesus' Life comes to the following conclusion:

"Jesus is Truth; when we look at Jesus we find pure life without reservation or subterfuge; we find absolute harmony with the living reality of what we understand of God. Those who encounter Jesus, whether they be good souls or evil spirits, encounter the power of goodness, and feel compelled to reveal their thoughts without reserve, to "disclose the secrets of the heart," as Simeon said at the presentation in the temple."(Roman Guardini)

Look at the apostles! Was truth proved in their lives? Look at the thousands of saints who lived the doctrines and practices of the Church! Look at St Francis of Assisi, St Teresa of Avila, St Ignatius of Loyola, Mother Teresa, and on and on! Do we find any truth there and confirmation of what the Church teaches by those who implemented it in their lives, in spite of the failures of some, and the ongoing criticism of the world?

CONTEMPLATION AND THE CHURCH'S TEACHING OF MORALITY ARE BOTH ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED IN ORDER FOR TRANSFORMATION TO TAKE PLACE

The contemplative or mystical experience, i.e., participative union in God's Spirit, is dependent upon, and confirms the one-to-one relationship between morality, (the Ten Commandments, Church precepts, the virtues) and mystical experience. You can't have one without the other. For in one form or another, these commandments effect the cleansing of the soul so that God can move in where evil formerly held sway. And all lead to the perfect freedom of supernatural, self-giving love, which is the experience of union with the God of self-giving love, as distinguished from the slavery of self-centered desires and attachments.

True mystical union will not take place in a soul clinging to serious sin, and refusing to obey God's commandments. The Ultimate Union of Spiritual Marriage, or Transforming Union through contemplative prayer is realized progressively through detachment from sin and the perfection of morality, i.e., the perfection of the acquired and infused virtues and of faith, hope, and charity through the action of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in contemplation. Real contemplative prayer and mystical experience do not take place in individuals whose love is bound up in a proud self-image that refuses to obey, or in an individual who refuses to sacrifice the selfish pleasures standing between himself and the freedom of perfect, self-giving love.

All Christians are called to perfection, and therefore, all are, generally, called to contemplation. And God will give his specific call to each individual when the "signs" mentioned by St John of the Cross indicate one is ready for passive, receptive, supernatural prayer. And most of those who receive this gift of contemplative prayer are souls who are willing to give everything they have to their Beloved Father, even as He has given everything to us in Jesus Christ. To the worldly, they are "radical" people willing to take radical steps to eliminate sin and sinful attachments in their lives. Such loving souls understand perfectly what Christ meant when He said:

"And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: (Mark 9:43)

That's one of the reasons why St Paul said we must "pray always." For this too is "radical." We must make a real change in our negative enemy moods or they will surely overrun our defenses. For failure to stay recollected, study the Faith, and to keep God's truths before one in this world, amounts to gradual surrender. And be assured, it won't be long before such a life is culpably overcome when the mood strikes at the very time the doubts prosecute their life-destroying case. And at such a time, the "choice" to sell Eternal Life for a few bangles and beads is almost automatic.

For evil and suffering won't make allowances for you because you're a person who is open-minded, and spiritually easy-going, who syncretistically looks for the good in all religions, but never gets "exercised" about the significance of this versus that belief. Evil will not give you a second chance because you failed to use the triumphing, overcoming power of the Cross against it, for fear of appearing authoritarian, religiously opinionated, and offensive to your easy-going peer group(consider what happens to a lukewarm priest administering the rite of exorcism). Evil will just look on in mockery and contempt, as it destroys you and tears the soul out of your world.

So let's take a look at a proper definition of contemplative prayer: "Contemplative prayer is the actuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, initiated by God, and usually producing a passive experience of the divine, accompanied by delight, and providing a supernatural modality to the exercise of the infused virtues. The infused virtue of charity, has a direct influence on the act of contemplation by uniting the soul with God and then producing in the will the joy that is the delight of contemplation.(Fr Jordan Aumann, O.P.) Faith and sanctifying grace are, of course, presupposed. And the essential function of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit is to provide a supernatural modality to the exercise of the virtues, but sometimes, as in purgative periods, they fail to produce the secondary and accidental effect, the experience of the divine and delight."(Fr Jordan Aumann, O.P., Spiritual Theology)

As the Gift of Wisdom raises the virtue of Charity to heroic levels of intensity during contemplative prayer, we see how the contemplative act itself results in greater, and greater union and sanctity: "Contemplative prayer is so important to this process because Charity, without such prayer, even though supernaturally infused, and supernatural in its essence, operates and functions predominantly at a natural pace, assisted by grace, at the natural level, under the control of the natural reason." (paraphrase of Fr. Jordan Aumann,O.P.) For these reasons, the life of contemplative prayer is superior to the active life.

For when we engage in contemplative prayer, we invite the Fire of God to enter our spirit, with our cooperation, and to begin the luprooting of evil habits and the transforming spiritual changes that will produce within us a likeness of the Self-Giving Love of Jesus Christ. John of Ruysbroeck comments on the Loving Encounter and the wounds of Love:

"In this storm of love two spirits strive together: the spirit of God and our own spirit. God, through the Holy Spirit, inclines Himself towards us; and, thereby, we are touched in love. And our spirit, by God's working and by the power of love, presses and inclines itself into God: and, thereby, God is touched. From these two contacts there arises the strife of love, at the very deeps of this meeting; and in that most inward and ardent encounter, each spirit is deeply wounded by love.

"These two spirits, that is our own spirit and the Spirit of God, sparkle and shine one into the other, and each shows to the other its face. This makes each of the spirits yearn for the other in love. Each demands of the other all that it is; and each offers to the other all that it is and invites it to all that it is. This makes the lovers melt into each other.

"God's touch and His gifts, our loving craving and our giving back: these fulfil love. This flow and return causes the fountain of love to brim over: and thus the touch of God and our loving craving become one simple love. Here man is possessed by love, so that he must forget himself and God, and knows and can do nothing but love.

"Thereby the spirit is burned up in the fire of love, and enters so deeply into the touch of God, that it is overcome in all its cravings, and turned to nought in all its works, and empties itself; above all surrender becoming very love. And it possesses, above all virtues, the inmost part of its created being, where every creaturely work begins and ends. Such is love in itself, the foundation and origin of all virtues. (Ruysbroeck, "Adornment of Spiritual Marriage," LIV)

And while we must oppose "quietism, and recognize the need for human effort and active, free-will cooperation at all stages of contemplative prayer and spirituality, it is nonetheless true that such prayer changes us from within primarily by "supernatural action," and the intensification of Charity. For time spent in contemplative prayer, will greatly intensify our transformation in Love for God, which is fulfillment of the First, and most important, Commandment. And contemplation, through our vital spiritual response to actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit(Wisdom and Understanding), will provide us with the power and "the inclination" to perform acts of the infused virtues and goodness, characteristic of the other Commandments and the Goodness of God.

As Father Garrigou-Lagrange indicates:

"The growth of charity, of the infused virtues, and of the gifts which accompany it, is obtained not only by merit, but by prayer. We ask daily, in fact, to grow in the love of God when we say the Our Father. ...The mental prayer of the just man...in remaining at times for half an hour in contemplation is at once meritorious and imperating. It gives a right to an increase of charity, from which it proceeds, and by the impetrating power of prayer it often obtains more than it merits."(Fr Garrigou-Lagrange,O.P., "Three Ages of Interior Life," p. 139)

And Father Jordan Aumann tells us:

"Infused contemplation causes a great impulse for the practice of virtue. This is one of the surest signs of true contemplation. The soul that does not leave its prayer with a great impulse toward solid virtue can be sure that it has not enjoyed truly contemplative prayer.(19) One of the marvelous facts of mystical experience is that a contemplative soul sometimes finds that it instantaneously possesses a degree of perfection in a certain virtue it has not been able to attain over a long period of time in spite of its efforts.(Fr Jordan Aumann, "Spiritual Theology," Part II, Section 12)

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange continues:

"The gift of wisdom(actuated through contemplation) perfects charity by giving it the divine modality it lacks so long as charity is subject to the rule of human reason, even illumined by faith...(Wisdom)...raises the virtue of charity to heroism. This is precisely the purpose of the gift of wisdom. Freed from human limitations, charity reaches tremendous proportions...Love of neighbor also reaches a sublime perfection through the gift of wisdom.(Fr. Garrigou LaGrange)

Dietrich von Hildebrand reasons:

"To sum up: it is for three reasons that the contemplative attitude, including that which is related to creaturely objects, excels in rank the attitude of action. First, as against all purposeful activity, it constitutes the deeper and more final form of our mental life. Secondly, it represents the superior form of contact with the object, the only one which - by contrast to all utility - is consonant with an adequate appreciation of the object."

"Thirdly, it is the source of all spiritual fruitfulness and inward wealth, the necessary precondition to all truly valuable activity and the most proper attribute of human nature which, as we have seen, is primarily receptive. Above all, however, it is contemplation alone in which the central theme of our whole being - our union with God - is realized. Though action is necessarily implied by our advance towards that union, its accomplishment takes place in pure contemplation." (Dietrich von Hildebrand,"Recollection," Resources)

"According to St. Bernard (De Consider., lib. I, c. vii), (contemplative prayer) is the highest form of human worship, as it is essentially an act of adoration and of utter self-surrender of man's whole being. The soul in contemplation is a soul lying prostrate before God, convinced of and confessing its own nothingness, and His worthiness to receive all love and glory and honor and blessings from those He has created. It is a soul lost in admiration and love of the Eternal Beauty, the sight of which though but a feeble reflection, fill it with a joy naught else in the world can give -- a joy which, far more eloquently than speech, testifies that the soul rates that Beauty above all other beauties, and finds in It the completion of all its desires. It is the jubilant worship of the whole heart, mind, and soul, the worship "in spirit and in truth" of the "true adorers", such as the Father seeks to adore Him." (John, iv, 23). (Catholic Catechism, Edmund Gurdon)

ADVANCED CONTEMPLATION, IMPACT ON CONSCIOUSNESS

Frequently, in advanced, or unitive stages of spiritual development, the contemplative's consciousness is filled with a powerful, subtle bliss, that arises internally, and is not dependent on anything outside himself, or the nature of the world around him. It is a state of spiritual assurance and delight, which arises following morning prayer, subtly permeates the contemplative day, and gradually subsides as the evening gives way to sleep. It is a blissful consciousness, acutely aware of its own poverty, in and of itself, and joyfully thankful for the spiritual riches it shares due to its relationship of personal surrender participating in the Humility, Love, and Kindness of the Love of a Son for His Compassionate, All Powerful, Father.

There have been many different descriptions of the nature of union with God through contemplative prayer. For the advanced contemplative, the comparison of this union might be described this way. The consciousness of one who is not yet a contemplative, and who still has habits of strong attachment to the things of this world, is like to one living inside a poorly lighted room, feeling physically somewhat weak and dissatisfied with life. And in this negative environment, one views a multiplicity of objects. And one concentrates on this object, and then on that object, and then on the next, and one's state of consciousness varies in a positive or negative direction depending on one's reaction to a particular object. When there are no objects in view, one suffers subtle psychic pain called "boredom," which causes one to make the effort to seek out new objects to relieve that boredom. One's mental contentment comes in discrete units, and varies from moment to moment, depending on the nature of the interaction with discrete objects of reality. And so one is always searching for things that will relieve boredom and provide consciousness with a sense of pleasure and contentment. For the sake of this illustration, this could represent the day-to-day consciousness at the natural level.

Now to describe the contemplative consciousness filled with God, imagine that one walks out doors from the same room to a bright spring day. The pleasant spring sunlight fills one's spirit with feelings of optimism and wellbeing. One is filled with the visual delight of sunlit flowers, trees, clouds and sky. One hears the sounds of singing birds. The smell of roses is in the air. And one is aware that all is right with the world, and that one has a surprising new level of optimism and energy. Then, imagine that, without any effort connected with adverting to any one aspect of this field of experience, one experiences one's own consciousness, and finds it filled with a generalized, blissful quality generated effortlessly by "the spring day." And one's conscious well-being is not due to one thing, but, rather, due to a generalized reaction to a "unified experience" of spring.

This latter state, then, represents the quality of supernatural consciousness infused into the advanced contemplative's spirit by "Almighty God," rather than by "the spring day." It is "received" by the contemplative as an ongoing, unified experience, not dependent on discrete objects in the natural world, and no longer significantly affected by those objects. This unitive contemplation stays with one, even if one returns physically to a poorly lit room. And the advanced contemplative finds his consciousness, and frequently his body as well, imbued with the subtle nuances of this joy, optimism, energy and bliss throughout his every day. And this sense of spiritual well-being is subtlely infused with the quality of the Life of Jesus Christ pouring forth from the Holy Trinity. And this ongoing participation in supernatural consciousness through contemplative spirituality accounts for the supernormal accomplishments of the saints, people like Mother Teresa, Saint Francis of Assisi, or St Teresa of Avila.

For the Contemplative lives in two dimensions, each with own quality, and each with its own language. In the one, he makes the sounds of man, and speaks with words heard in the world of human beings. In the other, he makes the sounds of angels, and speaks with a silence heard in the farthest reaches of the Universe. And although he is physically in this world, the real center of his Life is in another World, in the Transcendent Consciousness of God. His life in the world, unless he is called to a publicly acknowledged program of great spiritual sanctity, is normally lived in relative obscurity, not significantly different from that of other men, like the life of Jesus before his public ministry. And like other men, he suffers, has sickness, and undergoes the normal ups and downs of natural, human life, even though he might be experiencing ongoing delight in the higher regions of the substance of his soul.

And sometimes, like St. Paul, or Paul of the Cross, or certain Mothers and Fathers who have founded spiritual orders and movements, and certain of those who sit in the highest magisterial offices of the Church, a particular Contemplative is called to great sacrifice through sickness, disease, abandonment, or rejection, in order that he may personally share in the salvation of many souls through participation in the redemptive sufferings of Jesus Christ. And as is the case when we gaze intently on Jesus, we cannot gaze upon these souls without becoming aware of an inner goodness, or light, making the Radiance of God's Goodness visible through them.

And like Christ, as the suffering descends upon them, these souls, too, cry out, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done!" And, finally, because of His Great Mercy, Almighty God frequently uses such suffering, as well as the untoward events of the Contemplative's ordinary life, to imbue his natural life, and lower faculties, with feelings of unworthiness, poverty and emptiness. Thereby, ever living in humility, and the truth of his neediness and dependency as a contingent human being, through suffering in his flesh, passions, and sensory faculties, he may, in imitation of the life of the "Man of Sorrows," remain a worthy vessel to be filled with supernatural life, and the riches and fullness of God in the spiritual substance and higher faculties of his soul.

According to Thomas Merton, "Little do we realize the meaning of spiritual poverty, of emptiness, of desolation, of total abandonment in the mystical life. Contemplative experience is not arrived at by the accumulation of grandiose thoughts and visions or by the practice of heroic mortifications. It is not something you can buy with any coin, however spiritual it might seem to be. It is a pure Gift of God, and it "has to be" a gift, for that is part of its very essence. It is a gift of which we can never, by any action of ours, make ourselves fully and strictly worthy. Indeed, contemplation itself is not necessarily a sign of worthiness or sanctity at all. It is a sign of the goodness of God, and it enables us to believe more firmly in His goodness, to trust in Him more, above all to be more faithful in our friendship with Him. All these should normally grow up as the fruits of contemplation. But do not be surprised if contemplation springs out of pure emptiness, in poverty, dereliction and spiritual night." (Thomas Merton, ?New Seeds of Contemplation?. New Directions Publishing Co. 1961, p. 185.)

And, in spite of the reality of his suffering, like Christ, Himself, the Contemplative draws an over-arching strength and joy from his spiritual union with the supernatural dimension, no matter what's going on in his bodily, physical life. "Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. (2Corinthians 4:16).

And that Love, feeding him from that dimension, makes him gladly endure it all, the suffering, the sickness, the good and the evil, in his natural life. For, in the midst of his suffering, he is spiritually rich, and mercifully aware that He shares in the Love, the Joy, and the Embrace of a Glorious Companion, Who did it all before, many years ago, on the Road to Jerusalem.

And, not surprisingly, in the end, like St Paul, this Contemplative citizen of two worlds readily testifies that, while not seeking glory, if he did, "he would glory in nothing but the Cross of Christ." For, in truth, the Contemplative knows he has nothing of his own to glory about. And he is the one who says, "I have no virtue." For he is profoundly aware of the reality of his own poverty, and he knows that all his talents and virtue are given to him when needed, but are rightly the possessions of the Spirit living within, and that to claim them as his own would be a lie, and would be an insult to the Love of One Who lets him share in His Treasures and His Glory.

And the Contemplative knows that everything in the Universe reflects the Beauty of Infinite Being, giving glory to God by its very existence; and he knows that all of life is completely within the Providence of the Infinite Spirit, which moves all things through Love. And he knows, also, that True Life, with purposeful activity, is lived at a human, loving pace, within the measured beat of Love's Compassionate Providence. And, on the other hand, he is well aware that any activity, based soley on human designs and effort, will ultimately come to naught. Therefore, he disdains "busy-ness" and the frantic activity characteristic of "the spirit of the world," undertaken by those who are never at peace with themselves, and who are on a ceaseless quest for more and more. Such frenzied imitation of life suffocates the human spirit in an endless seeking for the treasures it already possesses in the Transcendent Love offered to its spirit from within. For the Contemplative lives in the wealth of the Rich Father who is ever preparing a banquet of Love for His prodigal son.

As a result of the gift of contemplation, the contemplative will often see the world through the "Eyes of God." To see objects and people through the Eyes of God means to see them as they are known in the Eternal Dimension, through the Consciousness of God. God raises us to share this Consciousness through contemplative prayer, thus restoring "a hundredfold" all we have given up for Him:

"Then I withdraw, as far as the center of my consciousness is concerned, from my actual life, emerging towards the world of genuine and ultimate things which I now see ordered in the perspective of eternity, located as it were in their topos uranios ("celestial place"). I ascend, so to speak, a high peak soaring above my actual life and beyond the level of time experience. From that point of vision I perceive all things in their remoteness and their timeless being, independent of their real presence, penetrating their essence entirely at rest, in a specifically contemplative mode of consciousness. In this form of the contemplative attitude the aspects of tranquillity and timelessness, of a pure and undisturbed intellectual devotion to the inward logos of the object, are particularly preeminent.(Dietrich von Hildebrand, "Transformation in Christ")

And this new "spiritual joy" in the "being," rather than the "using," of the object is now available through contemplative vision from every object and person that exists. However the Real Power and Center of our Love remains in God, and even though we can enjoy "the hundredfold" objects in this New Order inestimably more than when we desired them selfishly, our happiness is not substantially affected if they are taken from us. For the fullness of our love has previously been taken from persons and objects and redirected to our center imbued with God. In like manner, the fullness of our joy comes from Him, the One inhabiting this center, and the presence or absence of created being does not substantially affect this joy. This is part of the peace of God and stability of soul which the contemplative acquires as changing events become peripheral, and unable to move him in the center of his being, anchored as it is in God.

So, wherever he looks, whether in the First World, or the Third World, the contemplative finds the mystery of goodness, beauty, and the promise of transforming love. And while the natural man may recoil from the lives and problems of those living in the Third World, the Contemplative, like Mother Teresa, sees them with Christ's Love, well aware of his own poverty, and the world's spiritual blindness. For he knows with certainty of God's Providential Plan, and that, when the time is right, the Wisdom of God will make foolishness of the judgments of man.

Moreover, the Contemplative spirit doesn't dwell on God's Justice, or Hell, or sinful behavior, or the evil that men do to one another in the name of profit and progress. For the supernatural life he shares, within, carries the positive, overcoming attitude of Jesus Christ, more than a match for the problems of a world which is passing away. And he always retains a balanced perspective by remaining closely attuned to the dictum, proved over and over in his own life, that "God brings good out of evil." He does what he can to make the world a better place without participating in the dehumanizing frenzy of "the spirit of the world." The rest he leaves to God.

And in imitation of Jesus Christ, the Contemplative finds significance and purpose in those very things which the world contemns as useless and meaningless in the grand scheme of things: a hug, a smile, holding someone's hand, an arm on a shoulder, an act of kindness, a kind word, relieving someone of their burden, a flower in bloom, an animal, a cloud, a rainstorm, sunshine, going two miles when someone asks you to go one. And, energized by supernatural prayer, these "foolish" activities, which make up the "meaningless" day in the life of Contemplatives, sometimes catch fire in a Supernatural Conflagration of Christ's Transforming Love, which produces world-acknowledged saints, and changes the world forever.

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