Cataphatic "contemplation" is God-initiated, "supernatural," infused contemplation concerning the mysteries of faith, experienced mainly after arrival at the illuminative stage of the spiritual life, i.e., the second stage between the initial Purgative and the most advanced Unitive Ways. Cataphatic contemplation is passively "received" wisdom and understanding, involving a divine perspective, coming from the action of God, rather than insight coming from the active, natural operations of the intellect through meditation illumined by grace. One practicing the presence of Jesus and His Holy Face would feel inclined to let go of natural efforts, becoming more passive than active, as the Image of Jesus and the Divine Presence become alive with charity, wisdom, and understanding under the initiative of the Holy Spirit. Such contemplation begins and ends at the pleasure of the Holy Spirit, and our natural faculties and efforts cannot bring it about nor control it. Our efforts are limited to maintaining a loving receptivity of the intellect once it begins. It illumines the Mysteries of the Depost of Faith through actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, with loving wisdom in the will, and understanding in the intellect, in faith, through the divine actuation of the Holy Spirit, rather than natural intellectual efforts on our part, including those natural operations assisted by grace, with emphasis on the supernatural "Gift of Understanding."

But the question may arise how cataphatic contemplation, like imageless apophatic contemplation, can assist one on the road to divine union, the goal of contemplation, since, as St John of the Cross teaches, "faith" is the proximate means for such union, and cataphatic contemplation involves the presence of images and intellectual content? The answer lies in understanding that the content of the whole of Catholic doctrine which we accept is believed on the basis of supernatural faith, as our intellect is moved by grace through the will, and accepts the whole of it on the authority of God, or faith, rather than on the basis of our natural intellectual analysis.

St John tells us the Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Bk. II, that:

… “in order for the understanding to be prepared for this Divine union, it must be pure and void of all that pertains to sense, and detached and freed from all that can clearly be apprehended by the understanding, profoundly hushed and put to silence, and leaning upon faith, which alone is the proximate and proportionate means whereby the soul is united with God;. For, even as God is infinite, so faith sets Him before us as infinite; and, as He is Three and One, it sets Him before us as Three and One;” (Ascent, Bk. II, Ch.IX)

We might also add, that the same faith sets before us the mysteries of the life, death, and resurrection of the “Word made Flesh,” Who dwelt amongst us, the content of Revelation connected with cataphatic contemplation, equally consented to by the intellect, on the authority of God, and received in the same obscurity and darkness of supernatural faith rather than through the light coming from efforts of the natural understanding. For in cataphatic contemplation, just as in apophatic contemplation, the spiritual faculties are pure and void in terms of “attachment” of the will to all that pertains to sense, and from all that can be clearly apprehended by the discursive operations of the natural understanding. The faculties are in a passive, receptive state. And this detachment is the key to the purity of faith as the proximate means for Divine union. For the purity of faith is based on the freedom of “consent” of the detached will, accepting the deposit of faith solely on the authority of God. It remains an act of faith even in the presence of images, or intellectual content, to which we may assent, but which do not comprise the basis for such assent. The basis for such assent is the grace of God moving our will. Therefore, in both apophatic and cataphatic contemplation, the soul is transformed in divine union by the same proximate means, which is faith in the intellect and the perfection of charity in the will.

As we said above, cataphatic contemplation works mainly through the Gift of "Understanding." Fr. Jordan Aumann tells us:

“The gift of understanding produces admirable effects in the soul, and all of them perfect the virtue of faith.(Fr. Jordan Aumann, O.P., Spiritual Theology, Ch. 10, The Theological Virtues)

“The essence of the gift of understanding is a penetrating intuition, and this constitutes the specific difference between the gift and the virtue of faith. Faith provides a knowledge of supernatural truths in an imperfect manner (modo humano), which is proper to, and characteristic of, the infused virtues; the gift of understanding makes the intellect apt for the profound and intuitive penetration (modo divino) of those same revealed truths. Simply speaking, this is a type of infused contemplation, a simple and profound intuition of truth.”(Ibid, Spiritual Theology)

Cataphatic "prayer," in general, as opposed to cataphatic "contemplation," is natural, Christocentric prayer, in which we come to God through the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ and mysteries related to His Incarnation. This is prayer connected with words(vocal prayer), images(meditation), and concepts, such as the truths of the Catholic Faith delivered by God's Self-revelation. It is characteristic of the Purgative stage, but practiced at all stages.

Cataphatic contemplation discloses the hidden meaning of Sacred Scripture. It reveals the mysterious significance of symbols and figures. It reveals spiritual realities under sensible appearances, e.g., the Loving Presence of God manifested during the Divine Adoration and prayers connected with the divine liturgy and "Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament."

In his excellent book on contemplative prayer, “Fire Within,” (Ch.6, vocal prayer) Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M., points out that St Teresa told her nuns that “while you are repeating the Paternoster or some other vocal prayer, it is quite possible for the Lord to grant you perfect contemplation.”(Way, Ch. 25, p. l70) This perfect contemplation would fall under the heading of cataphatic contemplation.

Fr. Dubay reminds us that Vatican II says the faithful are to ‘taste to the full’ the mysteries they celebrate in the liturgy, and that within the Eucharist they are to be led into ‘the compelling love of Christ’ and to be ‘set afire.”(Vatican II, Constitution on the Liturgy, no. l0) Moreover, he says, “St Teresa sees liturgical worship as the council did, as leading to, and incorporating the loftiest infused prayer.” (Ibid Fr Dubay, “Fire Within,” Ch 6, Vocal Prayer)

Divinely initiated Cataphatic contemplation enables one to contemplate the effects that are contained in causes, and see causes through their effects. It gives us conviction concerning spiritual truths as we see them from the divine perspective through "the Eyes of God." It illumines the Mysteries of Faith with "extrinsic" penetrations of light and love, leaving them still obscure to the natural workings of the intellect, and within the order of mystery and supernatural "faith."

The same Holy Spirit, who transforms our spirits in the purity of faith through contemplative, apophatic unknowing, may, at an earlier moment, have illuminated our spirits with divine wisdom and understanding connected with cataphatic contemplation of the truths of Catholic Revelation. In this instance, one form of supernatural contemplation, the cataphatic, might be raised by God to the other, imageless form, the apophatic.

Cataphatic contemplation involves the passive operation of "the intellect" as it receives infused species and understanding from the Holy Spirit in regard to the truths of the faith. Apophatic contemplation involves the passive operation of the intellect as it receives an infused experience, or semi-experience, of God, Himself, or of His activity, in an ineffable or obscure manner. E. Grebs defines contemplation, which is essentially cataphatic, as follows: "the realization or experience of the soul's union with God through grace, in which, through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the gifts of understanding and wisdom, the knowledge of divine truths is deepened and clarified to the point of simple intuition or contemplation of the truth, the love of God and man is wondrously increased and inflamed, often inflamed to very heroic purposes, and joy in God is intensified to a foretaste of eternal happiness."(E. Krebs, Grundfragen der kirchlichen Mystik (Freiburg i. Br.: 1921), p. 36.)

Cataphatic contemplation discloses the hidden meaning of Sacred Scripture. It reveals the mysterious significance of symbols and figures. It reveals spiritual realities under sensible appearances, e.g., the Loving Presence of God manifested during the Divine Adoration and prayers connected with the "Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament." It enables one to contemplate the effects that are contained in causes, and see causes through their effects. It gives us conviction concerning spiritual truths as we see them from the divine perspective through "the Eyes of God." It illumines the Mysteries of Faith with "extrinsic" penetrations of light and love, leaving them still obscure to the natural workings of the intellect, and within the order of mystery and supernatural "faith."

St John of the Cross reminds us, that on our journey to divine union, we must always cling to God in the freedom and obscurity of supernatural faith, rather than to any form, image, knowledge, or clear understanding coming to us naturally or supernaturally. This would apply to inspirations and illuminations received during cataphatic contemplation as well as to those received from visions. For we will grow in love for Jesus Christ as a result of such cataphatic gifts of understanding, and penetrations of Truth we receive concerning the Incarnation even when we have no desire for such gifts. The growth is automatic, and the increase in love for the Saviour is the reason God gives us such cataphatic illuminations, and the part of the experience St John says we are meant to retain. For when our intellect and will becomes attached to knowledge and forms, it clings to them in a natural manner, and remains bound to the rind, or accident of form and clear knowledge, at the natural level, rather than the substance of the communication, which is the wisdom of love "received" from the supernatural level, in the obscurity of faith. And as we said, such supernatural communications serve to bring about an increase in love and supernatural charity in our souls even when we have no desire for them. This is why God gives them. But our knowledge of the deposit of divine revelation concerning the mysteries of Jesus Christ should always be based on the authority of God, rather than our own intellectual efforts, i.e., through supernatural faith, as taught by the Church, rather than communications of knowledge received from supernatural sources during cataphatic contemplation.

"So, in order to come to the supernatural transformation of divine union, our intellect and will must be unattached to all such natural clingings and, thereby, available for participation in the "freedom" of loving wisdom characteristic of the supernatural Spirit. Therefore all that the soul has to endeavour to do with respect to all the apprehensions which come to it from above, whether imaginary or of any other kind -- it matters not if they be visions, locutions, feelings or revelations -- is to make no account(by not caring if it is present or not) of the letter, or the rind, but to pay heed only to the possession of the love of God which they cause interiorly within the soul:

"I say, then, that with regard to all these imaginary visions and apprehensions and to all other forms and species whatsoever, which present themselves beneath some particular kind of knowledge or image or form, whether they be false and come from the devil or are recognized as true and coming from God, the understanding must not be embarrassed by them or feed upon them, neither must the soul desire to receive them or to have them, lest it should no longer be detached, free, pure and simple, without any mode or manner, as is required for union."(Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Bk II, ch. l6, para. 6)

"From this it is evident that, when the soul completely detaches itself, in its will and affection, from the apprehensions of the strains of those forms, images and figures wherein are clothed the spiritual communications which we have described, not only is it not deprived of these communications and the blessings which they cause within it, but it is much better prepared to receive them with greater abundance, clearness, liberty of spirit and simplicity, when all these apprehensions are set on one side, for they are, as it were, curtains and veils covering the spiritual thing that is behind them." (Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Bk II, ch. l6, para. 11)

Cataphatic prayer, the natural foundation for supernatural cataphatic contemplation, includes prayer through the liturgy, the Stations of the Cross, the Our Father and the Hail Mary, scriptural meditations, vocal prayer, the Rosary, and similar prayers and doctrines of the Faith. It is normally man-initiated, natural prayer, involving activity of the intellect, by which the faithful begin to grow in conformity to the Way of Jesus Christ(transformation) by human effort, under the influence of grace. However, when God so chooses, natural cataphatic prayer, as in the Rosary, may be transformed into God-initiated, supernatural, infused cataphatic contemplation, in the same supernatural category, although at a lesser level, as apophatic contemplation, and which, as one of its effects, allows us to view the Mysteries of Christ through the supernatural gifts of understanding and loving wisdom.

This cataphatic form of contemplative prayer, centering as it does, in faith, on the Mysteries surrounding the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ, at both the natural and supernatural levels, remains the necessary foundation of our spiritual life at all stages, "even when we have been raised to, and regularly practice, the gift of infused unknowing and apophatic contemplation, the most highly transformative type of contemplative prayer."

In the following by Fr. Dubay, St Teresa gives example of cataphatic contemplation:

"We have already noted St. Teresa sees no dichotomy between the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours and other vocal prayers on the one hand and infused contemplaton on the other. As a matter of fact, according to her, vocal prayer should easily lead into infused prayer. ...I know, she says, there are many persons who, while praying vocally, as has already been mentioned, are raised by God to sublime contemplation(without their striving for anything or understanding how). (Fr. Thomas Dubay, "Fire Within," p.92)

Typically, after such contemplation begins during such vocal prayer, one would slow down the vocal part to a quiet, background whisper as the action of the Holy Spirit more and more dominates the faculties of reason and will.. And for some souls, this vocal prayer with cataphatic infused contemplation would be the way they experienced contemplative prayer all the time. St Teresa cites an example of one nun who while reciting the Our Father on a regular basis, so as not to be distracted from her focus on God, "she was experiencing pure contemplation(cataphatic) and the Lord was raising her to be with Him in union." For others, as the infused contemplation became stronger, they would be inclined to give up even the whisper and to adopt a spiritual attitude of "total receptivity," characteristic of apophatic contemplation.

In the quotes below, St John of the Cross explains why infused contemplation of a "cataphatic" kind does not distract us from supernatural prayer.

"For, with respect to the remembrance, veneration and esteem of images, which the Catholic Church sets before us, there can be no deception or peril, because naught is esteemed therein other than that which is represented; nor does the remembrance of them fail to profit the soul, since they are not preserved in the memory "save with love for that which they represent;" and, provided the soul pays no more heed to them than is necessary for this purpose,(loving that which they represent) "they will ever assist it to union with God," allowing the soul to soar upwards (when God grants it that favour) from the superficial image to the living God, forgetting every creature and everything that belongs to creatures.(St John of the Cross, "Ascent," Bk III, Ch.15)

"For that reason we call this detachment night to the soul, for we are not treating here of the lack of things, since this implies no detachment on the part of the soul if it has a desire for them; but we are treating of the detachment from them of the taste and desire, for it is this that leaves the soul free and void of them, 'although it may have them;' for it is not the things of this world that either occupy the soul or cause it harm, since they enter it not, but rather the will and desire for them, for it is these that dwell within it. .(St John of the Cross, Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Bk. I, Ch. III)

Then, in the following comment, St John alludes to a living form connected with Cataphatic contemplation which illuminates the intellect in loving wisdom:

"As the intellect becomes more purged by means of this(contemplative) darkness, it happens sometimes that this mystical and loving theology, besides inflaming the will, also wounds the intellect by illumining it with some knowledge and light so delightfully and delicately that the will is thereby marvelously enkindled in fervor. This divine fire burns in the will - while the will remains passive - like a living flame and in such a way that this love now seems to be a live fire because of the living knowledge communicated. David says in the psalm: My heart grew hot within me and a certain fire was enkindled while "I was knowing." [Ps. 39:3].(Dark Night, BkII, Ch.l2, para.5)

St John continues:

"You may deduce from our explanation that when God infuses these spiritual goods(during contemplation) the will can very easily love without the intellect understanding, just as the intellect can know without the will loving. Since this dark night of contemplation consists of divine light and love - just as fire gives off both light and heat - it is not incongruous that this loving light, when communicated, sometimes acts more upon the will through the fire of love. Then the intellect is left in darkness, not being wounded by the light. At other times, "this loving light illumines the intellect with understanding" and leaves the will in dryness. All of this is similar to feeling the warmth of fire without seeing its light or seeing the light without feeling the fire's heat. The Lord works in this way because he infuses contemplation as he wills.(Dark Night, BkII, Ch.l2, para.7)

Fr. Garrigou Lagrange describes how those proficients who pass through the night of the senses particpate in contemplation we are referring to as cataphatic in nature:

"The beginners in prayer scarcely know God except in the mirror of sensible things. The proficient who has passed through the night of the senses enters the Illuminative Way(contemplative way) in which he gains 'a quasi-experimental" knowledge of God, not only in the mirror of sesible things of nature, but in the spiritual mirror of the mysteries of salvation. ...he goes beyond the sensible aspect of such mysteries as the Incarnation of the Word, the Redemption, and Eternal Life, to what is spiritual in them, and to the Infinite merits of Christ. Then the Rosary is no longer a mechanical repetition of the Hail Mary, but a living thing, a school of Contemplation. The proficient grows increasingly familiar with the mysteries of Faith and through the gift of contemplation the light of the gift of understanding which renders their faith more penetrating and which makes them glimpse the lofty and simple beauty of these mysteries(cataphatic contemplation)...Through the gifts of the Holy Spirit God enlightens our intellect. We begin to know in a truly living manner the Gospel, the Eucharist, Jesus Christ, and the grandeur of the life of the Church. Thus, through the gift of understanding coming with contemplation, simple souls who are clean of heart penetrate the meaning of the formulas of faith much better than theologians who are too satisfied with their acquired knowledge."(Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "Three Ages of the Interior Life, pp.66-70)

For Christianity differs radically from all other belief systems, and stands alone in the history of man, as it confronts all mankind, all ideologies, all man-made philosophy, and all the man-made religious wisdom of the world with this shocking Truth:

"The Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Amongst Us!"

Now, the Unknown God, the depth of whose mystery we will never fully understand, has become somewhat accessible and knowable to us through faith in the self-revelation of the "fullness of Truth" of His Son, Jesus Christ. As Isaiah (Ch 30, v20) indicated, God, who formerly taught in a veiled manner through the prophets, in the days to come would teach openly and clearly the principles of faith (as in the 'Sermon on the Mount'): "No longer will your Teacher(God) hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher, while from behind a voice shall sound in your ears, "This is the Way; walk in it,"

In John 7:14 Jesus tells us that to know Him is to know God:

"If you had known me, you would without doubt have known my Father also: and from henceforth you shall know him, and you have seen him. Philip saith to him: Lord, shew us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus saith to him: Have I been so long a time with you; and have you not known me? Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also."

So in a beautiful way, we are now able to experience the Goodness of God, and to fall in love with Him, as we experience His characteristics in the Personality of Jesus Christ. Although He always remains within the mystery of faith, He is no longer just an unspeakable, unknowable, apophatic, hidden God. Now, on the authority of God, we find His loveableness in the positive traits of a historical Person manifesting the divine life and character in the World. Now we see Him embattled with the spirit of the world, the Flesh, and the devil as He "gives up" all that He has, including His divine rights, as well as His Human Life, for the Love of mankind. And because of the magnanimity of His Sacrifice, we can, today, live with the Light of His Holy Spirit teaching us the Way to Him, and to the Peace of God, through the Holy Church He established to go into all the world, baptizing in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Moreover,in and through the sacraments and images of this Church, created reality takes on an eternal dimension as it becomes the cataphatic, visible vehicle of invisible grace, and as it participates in the Resurrection of the Body, which in, with, and through Jesus Christ, will enjoy Eternal Life.

So through the Incarnation, the creature called man received a gift by which, in human language, he might speak of that which was formerly unspeakable, the unknowable, Triune God. At this point in history, the apophatic was joined to the cataphatic, and the dark emptiness of the Unknown God gave way, through faith, to the Visible Light of Jesus Christ. And in His Light, precept, ritual and sacrament, as well as images, language and concepts, became vehicles leading accurately to the Truth of the Living Spirit of God, and visible signs of invisible, transformative grace. Because of God's self-revelation in the gift of faith, it was no longer correct to say that man could know nothing of God:

"In the mystery of the Incarnation, "God, the Incomprehensible, allowed himself to be ... comprehended. . . . God, the Inaccessible, drew near to us and united himself closely, perfectly and even personally to our humanity" (St Louis de Montfort, "Handbook of Spirituality," TD 157; cf. 57, 1).

"No one has ever seen God," writes St. John, in order to stress the truth that "the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known. This "making known" reveals God in the most profound mystery of his being, one and three, surrounded by "unapproachable light." (Dives in Misericordia, John Paul II, l980)

"Nevertheless, through this "making known" by Christ we know God above all in his relationship of love for man: in his "philanthropy." It is precisely here that "his invisible nature" becomes in a special way "visible," incomparably more visible than through all the other "things that have been made": It becomes visible in Christ and through Christ, through his actions and his words, and finally through his death on the cross and his resurrection.(Ibid)

"In this way, in Christ and through Christ, God also becomes especially visible in his mercy; that is to say, there is emphasized that attribute of the divinity which the Old Testament, using various concepts and terms, already defined as "mercy." Christ confers on the whole of the Old Testament tradition about God's mercy a definitive meaning. Not only does he speak of it and explain it by the use of comparisons and parables, but above all he himself makes it incarnate and personifies it. He himself, in a certain sense, is mercy. To the person who sees it in him--and finds it in him--God becomes "visible" in a particular way as the Father "who is rich in mercy."(Dives in Misericordia, John Paul II, l980)

Fr. R. Garrigou-Lagrange tells us:

"Moreover it(contemplation) is not necessarily accompanied by an absolute impossibility to discourse or to reason. Undoubtedly contemplation is superior to discourse, but precisely for this reason contemplation may inspire it from above, for example, in a preacher whose sermon would spring from the plenitude of the "infused contemplation of the mysteries of Christ,"(this is the general definition of cataphatic contemplation) like St Peter's sermons on Pentecost and the pages which St. Augustine certainly wrote under a superior inspiration."(Fr. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., Three Ages of the Interior Life, "Infused Contemplation," p 317)

And Father Ernest E. Larkin, O. Carm., gives us good advice relating to this matter:

"Spiritual directors, then, need to be careful not to be doctrinaire. No form of contemplative prayer or contemplation should be excluded a priori. We need to be open to the classical form of apophatic, imageless, conceptless prayer of John of the Cross as well as to kataphatic contemplation, even noisy, community-oriented prayer forms in the setting of the Charismatic Renewal. The task of spiritual directors is not to prevene the Holy Spirit by imposing methods, but to help create dispositions that will open minds and hearts and invite the invasion of God. Methods are useful, but they need to be adapted to individuals; the more important dispositions pertain to the heart. The Dispositions for Contemplation Detachment is the key disposition for contemplation. Whatever the name—biblical faith, evangelical poverty of spirit, Ignatian indifference, or the modern yearning for authentic freedom of spirit—it is the way of the spiritual masters. The detachment is basically affective, a matter of the heart, of a yes to God that is more and more inclusive. Effective detachment means material separation and actual giving up of things; this enters in as the reality check for affective detachment. Thus there will always be a place for solitude and silence, for periods of quiet." (Ernest E. Larkin, O. Carm., Charismatic Renewal and Forms of Contemplation)

Fr. Henry Nouwen indicates:

"When our prayer is cataphatic, or centered in the Incarnate Word, rather than in some form of chanting or invisible blankness, our prayer is properly balanced and reaches out to embrace all dimensions of our life, including the transcendent, the human, and the created dimensions. For the Life of Jesus Christ, in word, deed, and action, embodies all these and is the exemplary model for our life in this world."

In discussing prayer, Father E. Larkin tells us:

"...Incarnational flesh and blood must be engrafted on the skeleton of the classical definitions of prayer. Word and Sacrament, as well as human, secular values, supply the bodiliness for encounter with God. Prayer must begin with response to the Word of God that comes to man where he is, in the world. All the dichotomies that separate prayer and action, liturgy and life, the divine and the human, are to be rejected("Prayer as Encounter with the Transcendent God," Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm.)

St. Teresa of Avila, like St John of the Cross, had great respect for the power of imageless, apophatic contemplative prayer to powerfully transform one's spirit and bring it in conformity with Jesus Christ. Indeed, such prayer was the foundation of her reform, as well as her own spiritual practice. However, neither she, nor St John, would allow that Christians reach a point in their spiritual transformation where they no longer need the Visible Image of the Invisible God, Jesus Christ, and can decide to voluntarily abandon Him in favor of a seeming higher prayer practice. In this, she recognized the subtle cunning, and deception of the angelic spirit that set about undermining the value of The Incarnation from the beginning. So she, as a universal doctor of the Church, warned her spiritual children never to adopt this erroneous practice of voluntary separation from the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ.(In apohatic contemplation we may have "involuntary" separation from the Sacred Humanity as a result of God-initiated infused "unknowing.") For it is the path of spiritual blindness, darkness and despair, as we have seen in our own time when many of the faithful no longer attend Church as they see no difference between Christianity and Eastern religions.

Catechism of the Catholic Church: "The sacred humanity of Jesus is therefore the way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray to God our Father."

Catechism 2664 "There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to the Father only if we pray "in the name" of Jesus. The sacred humanity of Jesus is therefore the way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray to God our Father.

Catechism 2666 "But the one name that contains everything is the one that the Son of God received in his incarnation: JESUS. The divine name may not be spoken by human lips, but by assuming our humanity The Word of God hands it over to us and we can invoke it: "Jesus," "YHWH saves."[16] The name "Jesus" contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray "Jesus" is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him."[17]

In preparation for the gift of Contemplation, beginners in prayer should practice detachment and virtue, and meditate on the Life of Christ and the truths of the Church in order to keep their spirituality "centered" in Jesus Christ, God's self-revelation of the completely "True Way." When the time is right, and the "signs" are apparent as defined by St John of the Cross, God, Himself will suspend the faculties through the infused passivity produced by His Spirit in the purity of apophatic contemplation. However, outside of our daily time surrendering to this divine infusion, we are to stay close to our Companion and Good Friend, Jesus Christ, in cataphatic prayer. In the "Way of Perfection" St Teresa comments on the importance of cataphatic vocal prayer in the spiritual life, which God may, when He chooses, raise to supernatural contemplation:

"In case you should think there is little gain to be derived from practising vocal prayer perfectly, I must tell you that, while you are repeating the Paternoster or some other vocal prayer, it is quite possible for the Lord to grant you perfect contemplation...The faculties rejoice without knowing how they rejoice; the soul is enkindled in love without understanding how it loves...It is a gift of the Lord of earth and Heaven, Who gives it like the God He is. This, daughters, is perfect contemplation." (Way of Perfection, Ch. 25)

Compared to apophatic contemplation, cataphatic contemplation, although supernatural, God-initiated, infused contemplation, is less powerfully transformative in terms of the darkness and purity of faith, and due to the less intense supernatural action of the Gifts in the presence of the minimal activity of finite faculties, i.e., the person's intellect and will. However, what starts as cataphatic contemplation may be raised by God to the level of fully purified, supernatural, apophatic contemplation.

St John of the Cross describes one version of cataphatic contemplative knowledge, by which we see throug the Eyes of God, in the Living Flame of Love:

"The soul is conscious of how all creatures, earthly and heavenly, have their life, duration, and strength in Him...Although it is indeed aware that these things are distinct from God, insofar as they have created being, nonetheless that which it understands of God, by His bdeing all these things with infinite eminence, is such that it knows these things better in God's being than in themselves. And here lies the remarkable delight of this awakening: the soul knows creatures through God and not God through creatures." Pope John Paul II describes the Rosary as a vocal form which may become true contemplative prayer in the following. There are those who think he was talking about natural, acquired contemplation rather than supernatural prayer. However, as we have seen above in St Teresa's comments, God may use the gifts of the Holy Spirit to raise our Rosary and vocal prayer to the level where we become more and more receptive, and His supernatural Spirit is granting us infused prayer and praying the Rosary in us:

Pope John Paul II;

"It is worth pausing to consider this profound insight of Paul VI, in order to bring out certain aspects of the Rosary which show that it is really a form of Christocentric contemplation."(Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter on Virgin Mary and Rosary, 2003, see Resources)

"The Rosary, precisely because it starts with Mary's own experience, is an exquisitely contemplative prayer. Without this contemplative dimension, it would lose its meaning, as Pope Paul VI clearly pointed out: Without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without a soul, and its recitation runs the risk of becoming a mechanical repetition of formulas, in violation of the admonition of Christ: 'In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think they will be heard for their many words' (Mt 6:7). By its nature the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord's life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In this way the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are disclosed?.(Ibid)

"I also place my trust in you, theologians: by your sage and rigorous reflection, rooted in the word of God and sensitive to the lived experience of the Christian people, may you help them to discover the Biblical foundations, the spiritual riches and the pastoral value of this traditional prayer.("The Rosary," From the Vatican, on the 16th day of October in the year 2002, the beginning of the twenty- fifth year of my Pontificate.)

The existence of such supernatural prayer connected with the Christocentric images God has revealed to us through the Incarnation, is not meant to undermine the value of apophatic contemplation, or anything taught by that great Doctor of the Church, St John of the Cross. His doctrine, and the spiritual practices of silence and unknowing, will always be the cornerstone of the daily contemplative life.

Cataphatic contemplation concerns contemplative practice in addition to, and outside of, the time spent in apophatic "unknowing." At the contemplative level, cataphatic infused contemplation begins to be regularly possible beginning with the infused action of the Gifts in the illuminative period after the night of the senses, although it may occur at any time in the life of faith. The Gift of Wisdom also plays a significant role in this supernatural understanding. It is a moment of divine illumination of the image, and of transcendent insight in which we gain supernatural understanding of divine truth, or in which we see the Glorious Face of the Incarnate Saviour as God the Father sees Him.

Cataphatic prayer and cataphatic contemplation, due to their participation in the Human Life of the Incarnate Godman, Jesus Christ, and His Life in the Church, continue to serve the sacramental and transformative processes leading from the Old to the New Man, alongside apophatic contemplation, in all phases of our spiritual walk, including the highest stages. And we must recognize their pivotal role throughout the spiritual life in avoiding error and keeping spirituality on target, in the certitude of faith, seeking perfect conformity with the Will of Jesus Christ. Now and eternally, in the New Heavens and New Earth, all of creation shall participate with us in our resurrected bodies, and through them in the Beatific Vision, as we give eternal praise to the mystery of the Love of the Trinity manifested through the life and sacrifice of the Godman, Jesus Christ.

Cataphatic contemplation is implicit in the following words of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange:

"At times contemplation rises toward God by a straight movement from a sensible fact, for example, from a parable such as that of the Prodigal Son to the wonderful vision of the divine mercy. At other times contemplation rises by an oblique movement, for example, from the mysteries of salvation. from those of the childhood of Our Savior and His passion, to the living and profound thought of eternal life." (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Three Ages of the Interior Life, "Contemplative Prayer," p283.)

"This special inspiration of the Holy Ghost given to make us taste the mysteries of faith, uses the connaturality or sympathy with divine things that is rooted in charity. This special inspiration gives rise in us to an act of infused love...which shows us how revealed mysteries, although still obscure, wonderfully correspond to our deepest and loftiest aspirations. These acts of love are said to be infused, not only because they proceed from infused virtues, in this case the theological virtues, but because they suppose a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and because we cannot move ourselves to them with the help of common actual grace. In this case, God moves us, not by inclining us to deliberate, but to acts above all discursive deliberations.(Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Three Ages of the Interior Life, "Contemplative Prayer," p282.)

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Cataphatic contemplation normally takes place in a unified, simplified mind dwelling, or meditating, on a single image or mystery of faith set before us by the Catholic Church. This mind is relatively at rest, and is "not" moving from thought to thought as is characteristic of discursive meditation. By our own efforts, we can neither begin it, nor prolong it. The initiative for this level of infused prayer is solely with God. We can only prepare ourselves to receive this gift through the practice of virtue and meditation, leading to the state of acquired, loving recollection, sometimes called acquired contemplation. Then, when God so chooses, through the actuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, He may raise our prayer to passively received, infused supernatural understanding of the mysteries of salvation, above all acts of discursive deliberations. The actuation of the gifts by the Holy Spirit, rather than the illumination connected with the image, or mystery, provide the supernatural motive power for the transformative action of cataphatic contemplation, i.e., the advancement of the infused virtues.

We find the substance of cataphatic contemplation in such theological statements as the following concerning the Gift of Wisdom by Fr. Jordan Aumann:

"It makes saints live the mysteries of faith in an entirely divine manner. Introduced by charity into the intimacy of the divine Persons, the divinized soul, under the impulse of the Spirit of love, contemplates all things from this center. God is present to the soul in all his divine attributes and in all his great mysteries. In the measure in which it is possible for a simple creature, the gaze of the soul resembles the vision God has of himself and of the entire universe. It is a godlike type of contemplation experienced in the light of the Deity, and in it the soul experiences ineffable sweetness.(Fr. Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology, "Wisdom") As we can see, this is quite different from the purity of imageless, apophatic contemplation, which also may result in ineffable sweetness.

Fr Aumann explains what is meant by seeing through the Eyes of God:

"The Gift of Wisdom is given that we may judge and order all things in accord with God's commands. It is the ability to have the Holy Spirit "see in us" as God sees. "(Ibid.)

The essence of cataphatic contemplation must, therefore, be carefully distinguished from grace given "gratis datae," or such charisms as private revelations, visions, and supernatual words that may be given for the benefit of others, and do not imply an increase in merit for the recipient. Cataphatic contemplation is initiated by God, and involves an increase in the supernatural virtue of charity, connected with the Divine Action of the gifts. Definitions:

("Cataphatic" comes from the Greek word meaning affirmative "kataphatikos," from kataphasko, to make a positive statement, to affirm.)

("Apophatic" comes from the Greek word "apophatikos," meaning negative, derived from "apophemi," to say no, to deny.)

Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M., tells us that the mere presence of images during advanced prayer do not pose a problem:

".....at the summit of prayer finite beings are no longer stumbling blocks on our path to God. They are what in the divine plan they were devised to be: steps to their Origin."("Fire Within," p.l90)

For as St Thomas teaches us, love creates similitude. Therefore advancement toward union with God includes purification of our will from love and sensible attachment to the accidents of created realities and their images, including religious images. In this manner we are able to move our will from the accidents of the image to the spiritual substance they represent. Therefore, in the illuminative state, after the purification of our will from "clinging" to images, during the Night of the Senses, the image becomes a vehicle from which we more easily move to adoration of the Living God, the pre-eminent Source giving value to all religious images. In this manner, the image enables us to worship in Spirit and Truth, the Truth of the Way of Jesus Christ, preserved for us by the Holy Spirit thorugh the medium of His Church.

The Reverend R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., addresses the mystical theology underlying (cataphatic) contemplation in "Three Ages of the Interior Life."

"Moreover, the Carmelite theologians who have admitted the existence of acquired (natural) contemplation have rightly refused to consider it the normal term of spiritual progress on earth. They hold that in generous souls truly docile to the Holy Ghost, it is a proximate disposition to receive infused contemplation normally. ("Three Ages of the Interior Life," Fr. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., p. 311) Fr. Lagrange points out that Acquired Contemplation is the same as what St Teresa calls the "acquired prayer of recollection" in which our intellectual activity is simplified, but not suppressed. When the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are moved by God's action, from the stage of somewhat latent influence during acquired natural contemplation, to full actuation, we have, more passive than active, infused supernatural contemplation of a cataphatic nature, in the presence of of simplified intellectual activity. This same infused prayer can move from this cataphatic state, as our will cooperates through "surrendering love," to the more passive than active infused "unknowing," which involves reduction of intellectual activity and the image, becoming thereby "apophatic contemplation."

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange comments on cataphatic contemplative experiences:

"In contradistiction to acquired prayer, infused ontemplation is generally defined as a simple and loving knowledge of God and His works, which is the fruit, not of human activity aided by grace, but of special inspiration of the Holy Ghost. For example, in a poorly organized, lifeless sermon, which produces scarcely anything but a saying of our Lord which profoundly seizes a soul, captivates it, and absosrbs it. In this case there is in that soul a manifest act of infused contemplation, because it is not in human power to produce this act at will like an ordianry act of faith. Here it is a question of a particular, penetrating, and often even sweet act of faith in which an experienced director quickly perceives an influence of the gifts of understanding and wisdom.("Three Ages of the Interior Life," Fr. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, p.310)

Father Jordan Aumann, in his "Spiritual Theology," explains the role of the contemplative Gift of Understanding in the theology of Contemplation in his discussion of contemplative prayer. It is through infused contemplation, or the acutation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, in a divine mode, perfecting the virtue of Faith. The Faith indicated herein is strengthened in subjective faith, or the promptness with which the intellect assents to the truths proposed to it, on the authority of God:

"The experimental knowledge of God enjoyed during contemplation is not clear and distinct but obscure and confused. St. John of the Cross explains this characteristic of infused contemplation in The Ascent of Mount Carmel. The theological reason for this confused and obscure knowledge is that the contemplative light of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is cast upon the act of faith to illumine it extrinsically and subjectively, but not intrinsically and objectively, since faith is of things not seen. Only the light of glory (lumen gloriae) will give us a clear and distinct contemplation of God and his mysteries, and this occurs in the beatific vision. In this life, however, so long as we live by faith, the knowledge of the contemplative must necessarily be obscure and confused. (Fr Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology, Contemplative Prayer)

Fr. Aumann outlines the characteristics of the gift of understanding which operates supernaturally, and gives us powerful insights during Cataphatic Contemplation. Notice from his summary statement below that he is not talking about the "latent" gift, but about the "actuation" of the gift, i.e., God initiated, true contemplation:

"The object of the gift of understanding comprises speculative and practical revealed truths, and even natural truths so far as they are related to the supernatural end. It embraces everything that pertains to God, Christ, human beings, and all creatures, but primarily to the truths of faith and secondarily to all other things as related to the supernatural end.

"The gift of understanding produces admirable effects in the soul, and all of them perfect the virtue of faith. St. Thomas Aquinas points out different ways in which the gift of understanding enables us to penetrate into the truths of faith.(7)

1. "It discloses the hidden meaning of Sacred Scripture. This is what the Lord effected in regard to the disciples at Emmaus when he opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). In the profound understanding of some scriptural passage, many of the saints found the theme of their whole spiritual life: "The favors of the Lord I will sing forever" of St. Teresa (Ps. 89:2); "Let whoever is simple turn in here" of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (Prov. 9:4); "The praise of glory" of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity (Eph. 1:6). For that reason these mystics find great satisfaction in the inspired words of Scripture, and especially in the words of Christ himself.

2. "It reveals the mysterious significance of symbols and figures. Thus St. Paul saw Christ in the rock that gushed forth with living water to appease the thirst of the Israelites in the desert: "And the rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4). St. John of the Cross explains many of the symbols and figures of the Old Testament that reached their full realization in the New Testament or in the life of grace.

3. "It reveals spiritual realities under sensible appearances. The liturgy of the Church is filled with sublime symbolism that for the most part escapes the notice of superficial souls. But the saints experienced a great veneration and respect for the slightest ceremony of the Church. The gift of understanding enabled them to see the sublime realities hidden beneath those symbols and sensible signs.

4. "It enables one to contemplate the effects that are contained in causes. This is particularly noticeable in contemplatives and in prayerful theologians. After the long hours of meditation and study, everything is suddenly illuminated under an impulse of the Spirit. A word or a statement is then seen in all its depth and meaning.

5. "It makes us see causes through their effects. In an inverse sense, the gift of understanding reveals God and his all-powerful causality in his effects without resorting to a lengthy discursive process. In a simple gaze and by a divine intuition the soul discovers the invisible hidden beneath the visible.

"Such are the principal effects produced in the soul by the actuation of the gift of understanding.(note: Fr. Aumann used the words "actuation of the gift of understanding" which by definition is infused contemplative or mystical prayer) Perfected by this gift, the virtue of faith reaches an astounding intensity. St. Thomas stated: "In this very life, when the eye of the spirit is purified by the gift of understanding, one can in a certain way see God."(8) On reaching these heights, the influence of faith is extended to all the movements of the soul, all its acts are illuminated, and it sees all things through the prism of faith. These souls seem to be guided entirely by the divine instinct as to their manner of being, thinking, speaking, or reacting to the events of their own lives or to the lives of others. (Spiritual Theology, Fr. Jordan Aumann, Part II, Ch. l0, Theological Virtues)

Mystical contemplation is spelled out by Father Garrigou Lagrange as part of the spirituality of the active apostolate. He states, "infused contemplation of the mysteries of the incarnation" is also a large part of the spirituality of souls called to sanctify themselves in the active life, such as St Vincent de Paul. They do not at all doubt that the saints of the active life have had normally rather frequent infused contemplation of the mysteries of the redeeming Incarnation, of the mystical body of Christ, of the value of eternal life, although these saints differ from pure contemplation in this respect, that their infused contemplation is more ordained to action, to all the works of mercy."(Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange,O.P., "Three Ages of the Interior Life," p.22)

Now just as apophatic mystical contemplation includes activity of all the gifts, but emphasizes actuation of wisdom and understanding, and cataphatic contemplation emphasizes actuation of understanding, itself, so in contemplation in the active life God would place less emphasis on actuation of the gifts of wisdom and understanding, and favor more intense actuation of such gifts as counsel, fear of the Lord, and fortitude.

In the following quote from St John of the Cross, he emphasizes the positive role that religious images play duriing meditation, as compared to the use of other low and secular images.

Religious images "serve nevertheless as remote means to beginners in order to dispose and habituate the spirit to spirituality by means of sense, and in order to void the sense, in the meantime, of all the other low forms and images, temporal, worldly and natural." (St John of the Cross, Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Book II, Ch. 13)

For the low forms and secular, or worldly images St John refers to are distracting during contemplative prayer and can greatly interefere with the action of the Holy Spirit. Such images capture the faculties of the soul and lead one away from God. However, the images put before us by the Catholic Church, focus our faculties on the religious object, and put us in mind of the Divine Exemplar of the Image, providing true worship of the Triune God, through the Person of the Word. And these images, such as the internalized image of Jesus, help to keep the soul spiritually focused and free from secular attachments during the many distracting activities outside of apophatic contemplation time. They keep the spiritual journey on target during the time when one is engaged with the duties of one's state, and the many activities, secular and religious, outside of apophatic prayer. And in the service of Love during the apostolate, and in connection with the varieties of prayer, and service one performs for the Love of God, these same images provide created vehicles for the mediation of grace, and they facilitate the ongoing transformation of the spirit in the perfection of charity, outside of apophatic contemplation.

For as St Thomas Acquinas tells us, as a result of the Incarnation:

"The honor given to an image reaches to the prototype," i.e. the exemplar. But the exemplar itself--namely, Christ--is to be adored with the adoration of "latria"; therefore also His image. ... because in the New Testament God was made man, He can be adored in His corporeal image." (Summa Thologica, III, 25)

Finally, Cardinal Ratzinger comments on the need to understand the profound value of Incarnational images and mysteries connected with the Liturgy and Christian spiritual transformation :

"The senses are not to be discarded, but they should be expanded to their widest capacity." He who does not see that sacred images are rooted in the fact that the transcendent God...the I AM of Exodus 3:14...has "become man," in time and space, "misses the point of the Incarnation." Iconoclasm, he says, "rests ultimately on a one-sided Apophatic theology, which recognizes only the Wholly Other-ness of God beyond all images and words, a theology that in the final analysis regards revelation as the inadequate human reflection of what is eternally imperceptible." (The Spirit of the Liturgy. By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. Ignatius. 232 pages )

In conclusion, we listen to what Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger had to say about the connection between respect for the cataphatic in spirituality, as embodied in the image, and solid faith in The Incarnation:

"Only when we have understood this interior orientation of the icon can we rightly understand why the Second Council of Nicaea and all the following councils concerned with icons regard it as a confession of faith in the Incarnation and iconoclasm as a denial of the Incarnation, as the summation of all heresies. The Incarnation means, in the first place, that the invisible God enters into the visible world, so that we, who are bound to matter, can know Him. In this sense, the way to the Incarnation was already being prepared in all that God said and did in history for man's salvation. But this descent of God is intended to draw us into a movement of ascent. The Incarnation is aimed at man's transformation through the Cross and to the new corporeality of the Resurrection. God seeks us where we are, not so that we stay there, but so that we may come to be where He is, so that we may get beyond ourselves. That is why to reduce the visible appearance of Christ to a "historical Jesus", belonging to the past, misses the point of His visible appearance, misses the point of the Incarnation. The senses are not to be discarded, but they should be expanded to their widest capacity. We see Christ rightly only when we say with Thomas: "My Lord and my God!" (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Art and Liturgy, The Question of Images)

CATECHISM OF CATHOLIC CHURCH: Holy Images 1159 The sacred image, the liturgical icon, principally represents Christ. It cannot represent the invisible and incomprehensible God, but the incarnation of the Son of God has ushered in a new "economy" of images:

"Previously God, who has neither a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by an image. But now that he has made himself visible in the flesh and has lived with men, I can make an image of what I have seen of God . . . and contemplate the glory of the Lord, his face unveiled.27

1162 "The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes and subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God."32

"Similarly, the contemplation of sacred icons, united with meditation on the Word of God and the singing of liturgical hymns, enters into the harmony of the signs of celebration so that the mystery celebrated is imprinted in the heart's memory and is then expressed in the new life of the faithful."(Catholic Catechism)

CATHOLIC CATECHISM IV. "YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FOR YOURSELF A GRAVEN IMAGE . . ."

2129 The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: "Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure...."[66] It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. "He is the all," but at the same time "he is greater than all his works."[67] He is "the author of beauty."[68]

2130 Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim.[69]

2131 Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new "economy" of images.

2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it."[70] The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone:

"Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.[71]"(End Catechism)