Weekly Reflections
1
God in Everything
All things came into being through him.
John 1:3
Contemplation finds its roots in the concreteness of the created world. The Creation invites contemplation because it bears the fingerprints of the Logos, Jesus Christ. He has shaped everything, whether trees and shrubs or stones and soil – every piece of creation emanated through the Logos like silt flows through a sieve. Flowing through him left the mark of the divine on the whole creation. And, the Creation is good! I look on the new leaves on the maple tree and I see life -- new life – a new creation out of deadness. I gaze at a moon full and golden and I am awed. And these creations seem to be as nothing compared with a human being who bears the image of God – mind, sensibility, will and imagination.
So, there is no lack of ‘created things’ to lead us into contemplation. Every day presents the Created Order in a different light and when we observe it with mindfulness, we likely will see him through the material world. Yesterday I saw him in the helpfulness of a young woman at the airport security check. Her kind can be seen in dozens of places throughout the day. If I notice what is going on around me today, perhaps I will see him in something else like a struggle over a personal call or the healing of abuse.
Today, be alert to the divine reflection in the world around you.
2
Light in Darkness
The light shines in the darkness and
the darkness does not extinguish it.
John 1:5
Contemplation leads into the experience of pure light. This light originates in the Logos, the one begotten of the Father. And because all things came into being through him, the light rubbed off on everything so that all creation reflects the Light. This Light cannot be extinguished by either the darkness of the world or the darkness of my own beclouded soul.
Quakers regularly refer to this imparted light as the “Inner Light” or “that of God within every soul.” No matter how deeply shadowed the soul may be, the Light keeps shining. Light cannot be seen, but it makes everything else visible. I see who I am by the shining of the Light in my soul. The next step on my path appears because the Light shines ahead of me so that I can see. When I find myself in confusion and all my life seems to be chaotic, quiet waiting allows the curtains to be pulled and the true Light to shine. Amazingly, as I make friends with the Light, I become Light. All of us are meant to be Children of the Light. As we are filled with the Light, it shines through us into the world as life and love.
Contemplate the Light until it shines upon you in its lustrous brightness and through you in its compassionate love.
3
Action
My food is to do the will of him who sent me
and to complete his work.
John 4:34
If contemplation does not burst the locks on the cells where monks sleep and oratories where they pray and monasteries where they live, it cannot be biblical contemplation. Jesus himself declared that his food came from doing the will of God. Those forty days of prayer in the desert and the lonely nights of prayer in the mountains and the early mornings of meeting with the Father formed but one aspect of contemplation. The other aspect centered on doing the will of God, completing the divine work in the world.
We do not walk the contemplative path for the solitary reason of preparation to do the work of God in the world; we walk this path to receive the fullness of God. Yet we cannot receive the fullness of God and remain detached from God’s mission on earth. Action itself is food, doing God’s will is food; and doing has its own integrity as a dimension of contemplation. “Inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it unto me!”
Brother Carlo Carretto speaks of this hidden food as “contemplation in the streets.” Mother Teresa knew this active contemplation as she served the poor and dying in the darkest hovels of Calcutta. This uncloistered contemplation enfleshes the will of God and saves us from Gnostic selfpreoccupation.
For the thousands that do their contemplation in the cell or oratory or hermitage, there must be hundreds of thousands who can only be contemplatives in the streets and offices and homes.
Therefore, act your contemplation and contemplate your actions!
4
Seeing and Doing
I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.
John 5:19
Jesus’ life and ministry, like our own, was a participation in the purpose of God. Jesus did what he saw the Father doing. His was an awakened heart and his were enlightened eyes, eyes that kept seeing the Father at work in the world. These enlightened eyes saw the Father calling Israel to repentance in John the Baptizer; these eyes saw the Spirit alive in a dozen followers; and these eyes saw God drawing a lonely woman to faith and hope when she came to Jacob’s Well to draw water.
The eyes to see God at work in the world are eyes that have been opened by the Spirit. These Spirit-opened eyes see God in those who do good in the world despite their label; these eyes see God in the responses of souls seeking meaning and direction in life; these eyes see God in the lives of those who have been broken apart by life’s testing; these eyes have seen mercy extended time and time again in Christian, Muslim, and Jew.
The contemplation of the presence of God in the loneliness, pain and hopelessness of sufferers draws the contemplative into their despair. The magnetism of the Spirit pulls the contemplative into action, the action of compassionate love. Contemplatives live more deeply in the world because they can see more deeply into the world and can join God in what God is doing to relieve the hurt and pain in God’s Children.
In your contemplation in the street, look for evidence of the Presence of God in the world and join in God’s work.
5
Life in the Spirit
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.
John 5:26
The Son of Man has life in himself; he shares in the life of God because God begot him. The Divine Son actually shares in the Life of the Father because he is in union with the Father. To sever this everlasting union would be unthinkable. As the Son has been given life in himself, life that sustains him, he never abuses it by acting independently. He remains with the Father always.
We humans have been made a littler lower than God (Psalm 10) -- the life and the Light of God have been placed in us. Though despoiled by “fallenness” the Son, nevertheless, came to us, awakening us and freshly imparting the Divine to us.
In contemplation our deeper self, which is the image of God, opens to the Spirit of God who unites with our human spirit. As the Father and the Son are one, we humans, too, are made one with God and the Son through the Spirit. By the mercy and love of God, we experience in our own spirit union with God.
Believe that God is in us as life and light! Open to the Light. Open to the Life!
6
Bread
I am the bread of life …
John 6:35
For every Christian, Christ is the mediator of Life. Who is this Mediator? He is the only begotten of God; he is eternally begotten through the Spirit. This eternal begetting constitutes the ground of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. The Eternal Son became flesh and metaphorically his flesh became food – the Bread of Life. In his life and ministry he becomes Bread for the World, and in his glorious resurrection he makes this bread accessible to all. He rises above one place so that he may be in all places. This is the meaning of the Ascension.
Jesus, under the metaphor of Bread, gives us life when we receive him. He awakens and enlivens our true selves. In him our true identity as “child of God” finds its origin and empowerment. When we confess our sins, he is the Bread of forgiveness. When we meditate on him, he becomes the Eucharistic Bread of presence. And, when I contemplate this Eucharistic Bread, he is the Bread of Union. As ground wheat he becomes bread, and communion bread becomes flesh in contemplation. In contemplation he pervades the life of the soul. Christ is the subject of Christian contemplation and through him we become one bread, which is the Bread of Life and Bread for the World.
Dare to become nourishment for the hungry of the world.
7
Flesh and Blood
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood
abide in me and I in them.
John 6:56
The pagans of the first century labeled Christians cannibals and scorned them for their secret gatherings to practice their communion rituals. No wonder! If you take the statements of Jesus literally, the critics had it right.
But the accusers failed to grasp the symbolic and metaphorical significance of eating flesh and drinking blood. When Jesus sat at the final meal with his followers, he took bread and wine and proclaimed them his body and blood. Since that repast, Jesus’ followers have eaten his flesh and drunk his blood in three ways.
Symbolically, the Eucharist of bread and wine has been to millions of persons his body and his blood. Metaphorically, believers have partaken of his body and blood through meditation on his life and passion. Contemplatively, when we encounter Christ in our depths, spiritually we partake of his body and blood.
In these three events we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man. By eating and drinking both eucharistically and metaphorically we abide in him and he abides in us.
To abide in him is like a fetus resting in a mother’s womb. The fetus has her own vital organs, but it is her mother’s blood that comes through her tiny developing veins. By receiving her mother’s food and drink, she draws her life from the mother. She abides in her mother and her mother abides in her. She abides not by demanding or earning, but by receiving graciously and freely.
The birthing of the true self occurs when we abide in the first begotten who begets the whole family of God!
Today, abide in him!
8
From the Heart
Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.
John 7:38
The contemplation of Jesus manifests a dual flow – inward and outward. The metaphorical life-giving water flows out of the believer’s heart to make fruitful the barren desert of the world. The water originates in the heart, the center of Christ, and flows into the world through the passions of the believer.
The passions of the heart are summed up in the virtues of faith, hope and love -- faith that trusts resolutely in God; hope that creates a longed for future; and love pours out compassion along the way. These virtues constitute the water that gushes forth and makes the desert bear fruit. Some days the water springs up in the heart like an artesian well. On other days the water is nothing more than a rivulet under gravity’s pull finding the least resistant path downhill. When the water fails to flow, through tiresome work it must be drawn by a windlass and poured out on parched ground.
Contemplation stills the heart so that it fills with water. As faith deepens, the heart overflows with confidence. Hope blooms eternal and compassion finds ailing souls to heal. When contemplation fills our hearts with love, our eyes can see the despair of a man who has been jobless for a year. When a child wallows in guilt and self-hatred, hope generates a new day. Even in the darkest of night, by faith we trudge on to the dawn of a new day.
Learn to live from the heart!
9
The Light
I am the light of the world.
John 8:12
Jesus lights up the world! A stupendous claim! Light means purpose, beauty and direction. In the beginning when all things came into being through him, his presence was hidden in Creation. When he came into the world he shined upon what he had made so that more easily we could see its order, beauty and purpose.
The seminal characteristic of light is that it makes sight possible. We cannot see light; we see what light reveals. But when we walk in his light, we see the world from the radiance of his light – the order, beauty and purpose that daily unfolds about us. So, we can jubilantly exclaim with the Psalmist: “In his light we see light.”
Because he is the light, he claims the focus of our contemplation. Our eyes turn within to “see” the light in our hearts and with enlightened eyes, we look at the light without to behold the world in its proper proportions.
Indeed, the contemplative task invites us to gaze into the Light that we cannot see but a Light that informs and shapes everything we do see!
Look to the Light until you become light!
10
The Gate
I am the Gate.
John 10:9
Ask him the question; he will answer you with truth. What do you wish from contemplatives; what role do they serve? I am the Gate – the way by which you enter and by which you also exit.
Without me you cannot find your way in and out. Without me you dare not go out.
I am the Gate into silence
I am the pathway to your true self.
I am the opening of the Mystery.
I am the presence and guide in darkness.
By me you enter the deep silence that leads to the self I intended,
the Mystery that allures you and
the darkness that often hides the pathway.
Entering the Gate --
Pursuing the course --
Following to the end --
All take courage and hope.
At the end of your seeking
the gate appears.
When you cannot find your way,
the gate opens before you.
Walk through, my friend, and
I will walk the way with you!
Watch for the Gate to open before you.
11
Get Understanding
Understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.
John 10:38
Union is possible! Even though it may never ever happen to me, it has already occurred in Jesus and it has happened to other humans; at least, they say it has. Jesus made every effort to help his contemporaries realize that he was living the divine life in history; he was the supreme manifestation of the Holy God.
When he met resistance, he appealed to their authority, the Law. “Does it not say that you are gods?” If the law affirms humans as divine, whatever that means, does it not at least mean that God is in them as God was in Jesus?
Jesus also appealed to the authority of his works – look at my deeds and understand that they come from God. He healed. He fed. He forgave sins. Is this not godlike? What does it imply when these works occur through a believer?
Jesus’ words, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” suggest a climax in the unfolding of sacred history, a union of the divine with the human, a union of God and man. Since the dawn of creation, God has come closer and closer to humans: first God came to a people, then God came in the law, and finally God came in the flesh. In the era of the Spirit, God comes to live in a people, the church, and in each baptized believer, in you and in me. Contemplation offers a way of realizing this Eternal Incarnational Intention.
Let God be God in you.
12
Believe and See
Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me.
And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.
John 12:44-45
In the depth of contemplation the person of Christ fades from sight and even from conscious believing. This dimming of the vision of Christ makes possible a way of union with the invisible. Yet Jesus declares that to believe in him is to believe in God, and to see him is to see God. If on the natural plane, he leads us to God, does he not do the same on the spiritual plane? Jesus leads us to God whether in the act of faith or the practice of meditation.
Today when I asked him to set my feet on the path and to lead me to the place of contemplation, he led me into the mystery where sight and believing counted for nothing. In the realm of the Sacred, words and images held no power! As they slipped away, I experienced moments of oneness with God. If we follow Christ, he will lead us into the place of holiness where we are embraced by the wonder of God and words, images, and the exercise of will drop away.
Fear not! In your blindness you will see and in your emptiness you will be filled!
13
The Way
I am the way, the truth and the life.
John 14:6
Yes, it is fact. “I am the way, the truth and the life.” My child, for too many years these words have been received as exclusive, closing out some of my friends while only selecting a few others. I spoke these words as inclusive of all who find the way, believe the truth and experience the life.
Way, Truth, and Life appear most clearly to those who know my Name and deliberately follow me. On the other hand, these words do not exclude those who do not know my name. My kin according to the flesh came to the father before Way was manifest in me.
Those who know my Abba as Allah come to God and to the extent that they find the Way, know the Truth, and live the Life; it is through me whether they know my name or not.
In your contemplation sink deeply enough to find this unity of all things in me! All who find the Way, the Truth, and the Life make this discovery through me.
Find the way; Seek the Truth; Live the Life!
14
The Eternal Unity
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.
John 14:11
The Son’s being in the Father is like the bird being in the air or the fish being in the sea. As the air fills the lungs of the bird and the water fills the gills of the fish, so the Father fills the Son. The Father and the Son are like the fetus in the mother and the mother in the fetus. In one sense they are two but in another they are one.
From all eternity the Son is begotten of the Father; he has always been Son, the Eternal Son. In the days of his flesh the Christ remained in the Father and the Father continued in his Son. Even now the Son has taken into that relationship the earthly experience of humanness – limits, pain, vulnerability. In the incarnation he not only brought God to us, he ascended and took us into God.
Indeed, this initial participation is hidden in the mystery of God. We cannot understand this mystery, but we can contemplate it and thereby enter into it. By virtue of his incarnation and ascension we are in the Son and he is in us as we are in God.
Let yourself become as intimate with Christ as Christ is with God!
15
Another Advocate
…I will send you another advocate … who will be with you forever.
He abides with you and shall be in you.
John 14:16-17
The other Advocate, which is the Holy Spirit, who has come as a gift from the ascended Christ and is the Spirit of Christ, will be present in us forever. In his resurrected humanity Christ is now in the Father; in his Spirit he also abides in our humanity. In both instances we have one who is our Advocate with the Father.
In us the Spirit advocates against our temptations and weaknesses. When doubts arise, Spirit slays them with the sword. When failures and sin leave us with doubt and fear, Spirit assures us that God accepts the broken and the Spirit leads us through our darkness into the light of contemplation.
In our contemplation of Christ we realize that our fallen humanness has been glorified in the presence of God. In God’s presence the Son ever lives to make intercession for us and thus to liberate us to live fully human lives with joy and confidence.
Expect him in every temptation and failure!
16
Dwelling in Indwelling
Do you not believe that I am in the Father
and the Father is in me?
John 14:10
An astounding mutual indwelling! Christ in the Father, the Father in Christ and Christ in me. Clearly he speaks of the divine/human union and Christ stands at the center as the Mediator. (The one who stands between, in the middle, the mediator between God and humans). The holy God on the one side, human beings on the other, and Christ, the God-Man joining both to each other.When we meditate on this mystery, our minds hit a wall in short order; our reason cannot take us very far. Our minds cannot grasp the truth of this mystery. We may seek to grasp it, walk around it, view it, wonder about its profundity, and yet we feel helpless to comprehend it. Our efforts to realize the Mystery in which we live continually staggers our imagination, which remains helpless to comprehend this Mystery. Contemplation may be of some assistance; it takes the way of ‘unknowing.’ What the powers of human reason stumble over, the human spirit realizes. Bowing before the mystery of God in Christ and Christ in me does not yield understanding but transformation. Being present to the mystery, of which I am a part in an inexplicable way, makes me vulnerable to the Holy and consequently change inevitably occurs.
Occasionally, after being encircled and wrapped in the Mystery, I seem to smell the perfume of the divine presence. And, sometimes I recognize that the thoughts and feelings that have arisen in me originate from the incomprehensible fact that he is in me and I am in him.Seek continuously to notice the indwelling!
17
God at Home in Us
“We will come into her (him) and make our home in her (him).”
John 14:23
How utterly amazing that God in Christ, like a robin nesting in a tree, would be pleased to make a home in me. The Advent hymn proclaims this truth – “Pleased as man with men to dwell, O come, O come Emmanuel.” God builds and furnishes a home in humans much like the bird builds a nest -- one stick at a time, one twig at a time, one feather at a time.God’s persistent coming into us extends beyond a casual visit. The dwelling place of God must be more than a beach house visited occasionally to escape the summer heat. To house God in us not only means that God is intentional and regular, but diligent, and unrelenting too. No longer a guest, God in Christ becomes a permanent resident. Even before God takes up full-time residence in us, God dwells within us while the nesting place is being constructed.
Sometimes, in sacred moments I get fleeting glimpses of the effect of the Presence within – like a sudden realization that all the people on the escalator and I are of the same family; like I am part of the rays of the sun and the growth of the tree; or the perception of an invisible hand reaching out in the silence and drawing me into a new level of union with my permanent Guest!Can I learn to be at home in God as God is at home in me?
Never become weary welcoming your guest.
18
The Teacher
“…The Holy Spirit…will teach you all things.”
John 14:26
All of the contemplatives agree on one thing: technique avails nothing in the pursuit of union with God. What we seek, what we long for already has been given to us. Often the gift comes to us through the instruction of the Spirit, who like a faithful guide, takes our hand and leads us down the path.The Spirit teaches us all things and the teaching is personal, immediate and transformative. The Spirit’s instruction begins when we have exhausted the techniques of relaxation, the repetitive word spoken silently, or the act of centering and re-centering our attention. In that moment when we have exhausted our efforts and we do not know the next step to take, the Spirit speaks. So often the Spirit directs in gentle thoughts and leads us beyond words or ideas or feelings to the place where it is no longer “I and Thou,” but I in Thou and Thou in me.
We realize this momentary union with a hasty glance, a passing image that we catch in our peripheral vision. What we long for seldom comes directly like beholding our face in a mirror.
Let us learn to attend more closely the subtle lessons of the Teacher!
19
Peace
“My peace I give to you.”
John 14:27
Peace, the bequest of Jesus Christ to the world. Strange how the Prince of Peace has stirred such unrest, confusion, conflict and war in the world on the one hand, and abiding peace and calm on the other. What is the relationship between these two contrasting consequences of his coming?Contemplation enables the seeking soul to find a peace that permeates the restless spirit and unifies the conflicted soul. Could it be that peace in the world demands peace in the soul? Can the divided heart ever know an abiding peace? If individuals cannot find peace, how can the world ever hope to discover it?
The relinquishment of false attachments, the purification of conflicting drives and the surrender of selfish goals open the door to peace. When, and only when, we are at peace with ourselves can we be at peace with our neighbor and a bearer of peace in the world.
Stop! Claim your peace in every unfolding moment.
20
Unity
“I am the vine, you are the branches.”
John 15:5
Meditation leads to contemplation. On this pathway one turns a corner only to discover that the efforts to muse over gospel images or beloved truths yield little help for the soul. In meditation we read the text, “I am the vine and you are the branches” and we turn the words over in our minds. We reflect quietly and wait for images to arise in our minds and insights to grasp our reason, and then we pray. We bring the fruit of our meditation into our communion with God. Our meditation reveals to us that the Vine precedes the branch, the branch depends on the vine for sustenance and a sense of connectedness. Life in the vine flows into the branches.But our imagination moves beyond the specifics of the various aspects of the interrelatedness of vine and branch. There comes a time that the imagination seems paralyzed. No images appear; no succor comes; and our search yields nothing. This dryness of soul signals the emergence of a new way of realizing God in us. Perhaps, it is the transition into contemplation.
In contemplation the vine and branch is realized in its wholeness, not in separate images but together as a lump. It is held together as a lump to be dissolved in the soul. The soul moves beyond all images and thoughts to engage directly the Reality toward which “vine and branch” can only point. And, in this holy event, even though it is momentary, the unity of the Vine and the branch is realized. Meditation brings us into unity with Christ through the separate functions of the soul, and contemplation leads into an undifferentiated wholeness of union with Christ.Let the life of the Vine flow into the branch!
Attend to the opportunities to become more deeply grafted into Christ.
21
Abiding
“Abide in me as I abide in you.”
John 15:4
To abide means to live in, to remain with the bounds of or to last for a period of time. Where do you abide? Is your house your dwelling place? You may depart but I will remain; I will stay where I am. And, my truth will abide forever, that is, continue into the future. All these insights are valid and yet they evoke different images of abiding. There is another way to grasp the great truth of abiding.On the spiritual journey you abide in Christ by living your life in and through him. We could say with the Psalmist, “I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.” (Ps. 16:8-9)
In another sense, the person abiding in Christ plays within certain bounds. Like the basketball player must stay within the lines to retain possession of the ball, the soul on a spiritual path walks within the bounds of love.To abide in Christ means to take a direction for a period of time, for the full making of the journey. In a person abandoned to Christ every step is a step on the pathway and a move closer to union with Christ.
We abide in Christ both through meditation and contemplation. In meditation the truth of Christ is like a lozenge dissolving on the tongue, and contemplation resembles swallowing the truth whole. Once swallowed, the truth of Christ dissolves in the soul and filters through the whole person. By osmosis the abiding Christ disperses himself through all the spiritual faculties of the soul. At some point the believer can say with St. Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Gal. 2:19-20)Take the truth whole and it will wholly take you!
Repeat the text, “Abide in me and I in you,” and swallow what you can.
22
Chosen
“You did not choose me but I chose you…”
John 15:16
To choose requires a decisive act – awareness, persuasion, and decision. To be chosen requires nothing of me. I do not choose to be chosen because the choice is that of another; his choice of us shows us our worth or desirability or usefulness. Since he has chosen us, we can recognize it, revel in it and trust in the power and rightness of the divine choice.
God’s choice of us provides the foundation of our call to the path of contemplation. Because we have been chosen, God calls us, and this call to attend to his presence and will is continuous. God is always calling! When the sound of his voice awakens the sleeping Christ within us, the first step on the pathway to contemplation has been taken. The soul in search of contemplation may often feel forsaken, struggle to see in the darkness or yearn for greater clarity about what this Way means. In these moments of struggle the awareness that we have been chosen by God sustains us on this journey. We persist because God continues to call. We endure because God sustains us.
I desire to remember that when I walk the way of contemplation, I am always moving in the sphere of ‘chosen-ness.’ Nothing that I have done has gained this relationship; I am a humble recipient. When I realize my role as a recipient, I then recognize the graciousness of God’s call and the marvel of being drawn closer to the one that I love. The intimacy inherent in God’s choice of me becomes an experienced realization in the silence of attending the movement of God in my soul, but it only occurs when I accept this profound decision of God for me.
The chosen-ness of God leads into the Eternal Purpose of God who never chooses randomly or with fickle intent.
Let the unfathomable grace of God’s choice of you drive all your choices!
23
Still He Speaks
“I still have many things to say to you…”
John 16:12
The Christ who spoke to anxious disciples by the sea still speaks to anxious waiting souls today. He spoke to them throughout his earthly ministry – parables, actions, explanations, warnings, and promises. In the final days of his life he still had many things he had not told them. Even after his death, he still had many things to say to his followers, so he sent to them his Spirit.The entire Acts of the Apostles provides a litany of the Spirit speaking for Christ, directing the early Church, guiding witnesses to the proper place and the intended person. This short history of the early days of the Church offers illustrations of more than three hundred times that the Spirit spoke, acted or led. These instances are background to make one strong affirmation.
Still he speaks! I make this claim because I believe that he speaks to me. I have lived a lifetime listening for and responding to this voice. I most often hear his voice after a period of quiet contemplation.
Contemplation clears my mind, stills my spirit and creates receptivity within me. I seem to hear him best when I do not struggle to listen. Perhaps, when I am least expecting it, the Lord is most likely to speak through the Spirit. It is almost like I hear without listening. One Sabbath morning in a land far away, I felt that small shift in my contemplation. At that moment the pain and struggle of a sister came to mind. And then he spoke through a gentle flow of thoughts that I was to pass on to others. He speaks still, not only about us, but also about others.
Think of every experience of the day as an opportunity to hear him speak!
24
The Unfailing Guide
“The Spirit will guide you into all truth.”
John 16:13
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and gives us in our consciousness a sense of the presence of Christ. The Spirit completes the word of Christ who had many things to say to us, things we at first are unable to hear. The Spirit guides us into truth that Christ did not speak when he was in the flesh. This guidance is particularly evident in his speaking to us in the context of our struggles today.Christ did not speak about wordless prayer but when words fail us, the Spirit leads us into an unspeakable intimacy with God. Though Christ experienced the “darkness” on the cross, he never spoke about the dark night of the soul. In the darkness, the Spirit guides us into the light of God’s presence.
But Christ did speak of losing oneself to find oneself, but it is the Spirit who leads us step by step in renunciation and realization. Christ taught that he would be in us and we would be in him, but the reality of mutual abiding only occurs through the Spirit’s guidance. The desire of Christ to guide us in our times of perplexity has been revealed to us in the early disciples’ walk to Emmaus on the first Easter afternoon. Jesus joined two of his disciples who were walking to Emmaus. He spoke with them, questioned them, and responded to their inquiries before they reached their destination. All along the way, he was with them, conversing with them, but they did not recognize him. What a metaphor for us! He joins us, walks with us, and speaks with us about the things that are happening, and we do not know who he is. Then in some “breaking bread moment” our eyes are opened and we realize that he is with us.
Therefore on the way to contemplation pay attention to the impulses of the Spirit – the unexpected thoughts, the small directives, the slight yearnings, the inner confirmations – because these are the subtle forms of the Spirit’s guidance into the things that Christ has yet to speak to us.
In these delicate ways he still speaks to us.
Notice the signals given to you by your experienced Guide!
25
The Spirit’s Aim
“He will glorify me.”
John 16:14
Ever so close is the Spirit bound to the Christ. The era of the Spirit is nothing less than a continuous Advent. He glorifies Christ by showing us Christ’s presence, his acts, and his character. Contemplation is the posture of receptivity to this constant flow of Christ’s communication to his brothers and sisters. Among the last words that Jesus spoken on this earth were:
John 16:12-15
How does the Spirit glorify Christ? By guiding us into the truth about ourselves and our lives, by declaring things that are to come, by showing us the full meaning of Christ and his will for us, and delving into the infinite depth of God and declaring it to us.I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
While I wait in the naked silence, the constant calming of my spirit occurs when the Spirit shows me the peace of Christ. When I weary with the difficult times of prayer, the encouragement that the Spirit gives helps me determine to go on. The Spirit shows me the love of Christ in a friend who seeks fellowship. The Spirit gives me insight into the Body of Christ, after I have been in the luminous presence of the Risen One. In all of these and other ways also, Christ is honored by the Spirit revealing to us the Way of Christ.
As you enter into and return from contemplation expect the “showings”!
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Descent and Assent
“I came from the father…I am … going to the Father.”
John 16:28
Jesus came from God. He is the flesh and blood word spoken by God to the world. He returns to that Eternal Intimacy with the Father, but he leaves the resounding echo of the Father’s speech behind. St. Paul describes the descent as a choice by Christ. Even though he was in the form of God, he did not count this equality with God a possession to be grasped and held. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. As a truly human being, Jesus, the servant, surrendered himself to the cross and to death. At the lowest point, the Father exalted him and gave him a name above every name. (Phil. 2:1- 11) This self-emptying act of Jesus left us with an unfading vision of God who descended from the heights to explore the depths of human pain so in his resurrection he might lift us to God.Contemplate this descent and ascent movement of Jesus – he came down that he might go up. Jesus emptied himself of divine prerogatives that he might take on human peril and pain. The movement of the human spirit is just the opposite. In prayer our spirits ascend to the Father and they descend into the world to permeate every aspect of life.
When we live in harmony with God, the echo of the Son still reverberates in and through us. Beyond this life, when we make the final ascent, we will join all the saints in celebration. Until then our contemplation is one of continuous ascending to God and descending more deeply into Self and into Life. The contemplative life is one of ascending and descending in rhythm with the Risen and Living Christ.
When we enter this rhythm of the Spirit, our lives flow naturally with the intention of God.
Relax into the rhythm and permit the wave of the Spirit to lift and lower you!
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Ultimate Oneness
“As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us …”
John 17:21
Jesus prayed this prayer at the end of his ministry when he was facing death on the cross. He recalled those who had become his companions and who would continue his life and ministry on earth. For these he prayed that they might be drawn into the divine unity of the Father and the Son.This request rises to the apex of what biblical interpreters through the ages have called “The High Priestly Prayer.” In the Holy of Holies, the Great High Priest requests the Ultimate unity of all who believe in him. He prays that they may be in him as he is in the Father and the Father is in him. This prayer has included all baptized from Pentecost to the present moment. Since the followers of Christ have been unable to find this unity through logic or reason or polity or theology, perhaps contemplation offers the one untried route to unity.
Perhaps the attempt to swallow the whole lump of division and diversity would place within us a genuine love and unfailing trust of those whose language, lifestyle, worship and aim sharply contrast with our own. If we could but see them in Christ, in God, and in ourselves, maybe our fear-erected barriers would melt and the unity to which we are destined could appear. Imagine! Christ in the Father. The Father in Christ and all God’s offspring joined to one another in the Father through the Son!
In the midst of increasing diversity affirm your unity with God and others.
28
Clinging
“Do not hold on to me because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”
John 20:17
Contemplation leads us beyond all clinging and stands against every effort to cling to Christ. Clinging to Christ manifests our effort to grasp Christ, draw him to our self and control his presence. Whenever he comes to us, our natural desire is to cling to the wonderful sense of his presence, but to do so would put us in charge of the relationship and this act is just the opposite of relinquishment. We must be clear that in contemplation Christ controls the relationship. He comes when he chooses; he reveals himself as he sees best; he withdraws the intensity of his presence lest we seek to live on the emotion and ecstasy that his presence often generates.And, when he hides himself from us, our urge to grasp him and contain him must be resisted. Just as we must resist the urge to reclaim previous experiences of consolation, letting go of all effort to retain present consolations is also essential. For me this has been particularly hard because of the way that I learned intimacy. My mother had been orphaned before she was five years old; a country doctor uncle reared her. But she never felt accepted in that family and never possessed anything that she felt was really hers. I heard her say many times that I was the first thing that she ever felt was truly her own.
My mother through her need for something that was truly hers clung to me. I responded by clinging to her. Her relationship to me fed something that she had longed for her whole life. As I recall my early years, I often felt drawn into a relationship of dependency and counter-dependence. This mutual dependence did not prove healthy for either of us. Her way of drawing me into herself provided my model for relating; I unconsciously drew others into myself.
Life in Christ demands letting go, not clinging. Christ does not make us dependent but inter-dependent.
Let go of the things to which you are clinging!
29
Living in God
“In him we live and move and have our being.”
Acts 17:28
The world is inhabited by God and it is the environment needed for contemplation. The contemplative world has depth and meaning, life and color, proportion and beauty and it contains mystery too. This enchanted world of the Spirit contrasts sharply with the flat world of the rationalist – accidental, random, and meaningless. Contemplation sharpens our awareness of the God-filled world in which we live. Would a better metaphor be a God-alive world?What a difference it would make in our contemplation if we could recover the reality that the world is immersed in the divine. Our longing for a home in the awareness of the divine reaches beyond the material and it does not turn the world into God. Pantheism is not our dream; God is not everything. Perhaps we long for panentheism – God in everything.
I wish that I could experience God in all things – in the life in a lily or the busy ant or the bird on the wing. Why cannot I see God in the majesty of a mountain or in the vastness of the ever expanding universe? What keeps me from seeing the Presence of the Holy in a stranger I meet or with a friend with whom I spend time? There are moments when I do see God in the world around me, but alas, those moments of awareness come too seldom.Once I did see something of the divine in a beautiful plant. I gazed at its stem and leaf and imagined the life flowing in it. And, I wondered for a moment or two if the life in me was kin to the life in the plant. We both drew life from the same source and is it possible that the life in my soul related to the life in the plant? Both the leaf and I were created and sustained by the Energy of the One in whom we live and move and have our being.
This is the environment of contemplation, and contemplation is the way into a deepened awareness of the One in whom everything lives and moves and has its being.Notice the life in the leaves, the trees, and the universe and realize your oneness.
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Love in the Heart
“God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 5:5
The love of God in the heart lies at the center of our search. It came into us at birth and lay dormant until it was awakened by the Spirit of God. And the Catholic Church holds that Christ is implanted at baptism. In the best circumstances the love of God grows to maturity. In the evangelical tradition the love of God fills the heart of a believer and expands through personal knowledge of Christ and a deeper consecration. Whether in the evangelical or the liturgical tradition, contemplation opens the heart for the outpourings of God’s love.The most profound statement in the New Testament is found in the Apostle John’s first letter: “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” The teaching of the faith identifies love with God and the practice of love as the expression of God. Whether in the Catholic Tradition or the Evangelical Tradition, the Spirit is the agent of filling our hearts with love. This love, which is identified with God, flows freely into the heart of the contemplative in the solitude of silence.
In contemplation the mind becomes still, distractions disappear and a shift of consciousness occurs. The shift is like the turning of a page, like walking through a door into a different room, like stepping on a slanted, slippery floor and gently sliding deeper into the quiet. In these divine moments distractions do not disappear, but they are more easily controlled or even ignored. When we are brought into the divine presence, God fills this inner space of the soul with love. God pours love into us as an unearned gift and through us pours into the world embodied grace.No wonder the mystics emphasize that the heart of contemplation is love.
In your waiting, be patient until the love comes and be persistent when you don’t recognize it.
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United to Him
“If we have been united with him in a death like his,
we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Romans 6:5
Death and Resurrection are powerful metaphors pointing to the redemption and transformation of our lives. These metaphors cannot be exhausted as applied to those who have been reconciled. Engage them, draw on them, appropriate them in your soul again and again and they never diminish in their power.These two profound symbols point to a ground that is deep enough and powerful enough to transform the whole world, the Church of Jesus Christ and every believer and follower of his. At its core transformation always means dying and rising. The old must die so that the new may arise. Old leaves fall from the tree so that new ones may grow in their place. Old social arrangements must pass so that new ones can come into acceptance. Present forms of the Church must dissolve for the new forms to come to birth. The present formation of our lives, like our ever changing bodies, must die so that new forms of being can be born.
The contemplative dies to his or her old ways of being in the world, as well as to the old ways of seeing it. When the soul penetrates the Creative Ground, new life erupts in the soul. God is the God of transformation and newness. We enter this creative depth through the road of ‘unknowing,’ which means death to all of our old ways of approaching God. Sometimes when the soul rests in this depth, newness breaks into the spirit. And often it is after the deep silence when our awareness tingles with a sense of the Holy. When we are least expecting any divine occurrence, the Spirit of new love and hope comes to us from God. Often it comes in the form of new energy or ideas or intuitions, like a resurrection of something that may have died.
Give yourself willingly to the process of death and resurrection!
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Life in the Spirit
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.”
Romans 8:9
The contemplative lives in the Spirit. To be in the Spirit means to be under the impulses of love and trust. It is life lived in attentiveness to God. This God-centered life springs from the presence of God that dwells in the deepest level of human consciousness. This life in God contrasts with life in the flesh, a life held in captivity to the selfish passions of human nature.The Spirit in one sense has been part of our life from the moment of birth; it is part of being human, of having the capacity to sense the Beyond in the Here and Now. Though part of us, this Spirit may go unrecognized for years and in some persons the Spirit never gets attention. To become aware of the Spirit is an awakening of sorts that opens the human Spirit to the Divine, which brings a sense of Transcendence into the common place.
Human imagination often blocks the awakening by expecting the opening of the eyes of the soul to be such a powerful mystical experience that the memory is marked forever. Certainly, this may occur but it is also possible that the Spirit rises within us like warm water in the tub rises to cover us.Living in this Spirit should never be marked with excessive effort. It is more letting go than it is grasping; it is more like floating than swimming. In the deep silence we open our hearts to the indwelling Spirit and trust that this divine presence is transforming us. This indwelling Spirit of God functions in the deep stillness and focuses and unifies us. I believe this Spirit inspires gratitude for my life and for all the good things that have come to me. It is the Spirit that shows generosity to a frail young woman who waits tables in a local restaurant. This indwelling Spirit aches when I see persons I love choosing pathways that will lead them astray. When I appreciate the things of God more than the pleasures, achievements and relationships of earth, I believe the Spirit is at work in me. Does this seem like living in the Spirit to you?
Notice what the Spirit is doing and keep yourself open to the Presence in you!
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Guided
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”
Romans 8:14
The silence that makes us more deeply aware of the indwelling Spirit of God also directs our lives. The guidance of the Spirit does not violate our freedom because God does not take back so precious a gift. Neither does God want from us a compelled obedience. Divine guidance operates in the narrow space between human freedom and the divine will. The Spirit’s guidance neither destroys freedom nor forces God’s will upon us. The Spirit by intuition and persuasion shows us the next step on our journey.I experience the leading of the Spirit as a subtle and very gentle movement like the breath of a child. Sometimes this guidance comes as an idea that at first seems my own, but it returns with a bit of urgency and seems to demand attention. An idea formed in my own mind and expressed in my own words turns out to be guidance. At other times thoughts come with such clarity and strength that immediately I recognize the Voice of God in them. The guidance of the Spirit functions also to help us recognize a temptation before it arrives full-blown. It appears like a cloud floating toward me, and in it I see a diversion from God and I am able to reject it before it arrives.
Sometimes the guidance comes through an encounter with other people. For example, you may be having coffee with a friend who has wished to speak about an issue in her church leadership role. After the discussion the question arises of what “our” church needs. In the course of describing perceived needs, the question of your role in that change arises. Suddenly, you begin to see your role differently. Inspiration comes to you with energy. You decide. When you look back upon the encounter, the conviction grows that the Spirit of God was present directing the conversation and enlightening your mind.The Spirit’s guidance seems to be a joint activity – the urges and disclosures of the Spirit and the discernment and a free response of personal choice.
From the desire of your heart seek earnestly to be led by God!
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The Depth
“…for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”
I Corinthians 2:10
The Spirit searches the depths of God and the depths of the human spirit. Like looking into a bag of treasures and pulling out the good and the beautiful, the Spirit searches the depths of God for only God knows God. The Spirit brings the presence of God into contact with the precise need of the patient seeker at the moment. In a single movement the Spirit reveals God so that the seeker comes to know God more deeply, but at one and the same time, the Spirit uncovers the depths of the human heart so that the person comes to know himself or herself in reality.One day the Spirit showed me that I was a controlling soul. Though it did not seem to me that my ideas and directions felt controlling, in a moment I saw that if the same words were spoken to me, that is precisely how I would hear them -- controlling. When I brought this new awareness to Christ, he smiled. What compassion he must have, and what patience too. In a simple way this text points to the double search – the depths of God and the depths of the human soul!
Within all of us humans there is a degree of darkness. The pioneers of the Spirit affirm that for one to encounter God, he or she must make a journey through darkness. Because the Spirit knows the hidden depths of the heart and because the Spirit seeks to draw us to God, we must pass through the darkness where only faith will prevail. Be assured that though we cannot see God, nor can we feel the work of the Spirit, the searching goes on without our knowledge. To progress on this journey, it is necessary that we embrace the darkness and make our way through it. Beyond the darkness in the depth of human consciousness is the mirror of God through which we see God’s reflection and ourselves.
Press against the darkness making your way into the depths and you will discover treasures old and new.
35
The Temple
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
I Corinthians. 3:16
What image comes to your mind when you think of a temple? Is it the shape of the Jewish Temple, a Hindu Temple, or some particular church? Do you see the temple as a building?The temple, no matter what faith, is more than a mere building. When you come near a temple, you know that you are on holy ground because the temple area is holy. The holiness of the temple, in part, derives from its being the place that worship is offered. Ah, but the holiness of the place and the worship of the place have a degree of holiness because the temple is the dwelling place of God. So more than the ground and more than the worship offered is the fact that God is present in the temple. The temple is the dwelling place of God.
In a letter to the Corinthian Church, St. Paul suggests that the true temple is the human heart by asking, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” God’s temple is not the bricks and mortar of an edifice, but the warm tissues of the heart and the deep recesses of the mind. The God resident within us may be out of reach of the hand or the grasp of the mind, but dwelling in us nevertheless.Not only does God dwell in each person, but God also dwells in the church, which is also a temple – the community is God’s temple. So the embodiment of the Spirit is both corporate and personal – the Spirit dwells in the body of Christ and in the bodies that constitute it. Sacramentally, every baptized person participates in the Body of Christ; the union is created by God’s Spirit. Experientially, the Body of Christ comes alive through meeting God in prayer and silence and in meeting each other member of the community in the Spirit.
Contemplation in community opens the doors for this transcendent meeting to occur for the gathered worshippers. When I attend a gathering, I look upon the community of my fellow-worshippers as an expression of Christ, Christ made visible and tangible. When I sit with them in prayer and praise, I think of one Voice worshipping the one God. And from time to time, it seems that this community is Christ on earth, here and now.Be a temple in the
36
In the Body
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
which you have from God.”
I Corinthians 6:19
Paul gives special emphasis to the locus of the Spirit – the human body. He urges that we glorify God in the body. For many years ascetic contemplation has treated the body as an obstacle to a deep fellowship with God; it has been seen as a deceitful enemy that draws believers away from God.With this view becoming dominant, many serious seekers after God abused the body with fasting, sleeping on cold stones, lashing the body as punishment, and denying all bodily pleasures. This view of the body has roots in Plato and in Dionysus, the fifth century Syrian monk, who for many years was thought to be a companion of St. Paul. This radical rejection of the body as a hindrance to true spirituality denies the goodness of God’s creation and should not be looked upon as the enemy of contemplation.
Let us be clear, God dwells in our bodies; they are not so fallen that God cannot inhabit them. Contemplation includes both an awareness of the body and a tender caring for the body. I want to be aware of the basic needs of the body – food, rest and proper exercise. And, I want to see God in the life and health of my body, both in how I care for and use the body I have received. And I want to glorify God in my body, which belongs to him. The presence of God in my body continues to transform it until one day it is like Christ’s glorious body.Loving and caring for the body is an aspect of loving Christ and serving God. We are our bodies.
Keep in loving awareness of your body and you will likely be aware of God in you!
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Christ Lives in Me
“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I but Christ lives in me.”
Galatians 2:19-20
Consider these amazing paradoxes – crucified but alive, I live but not I, Christ lives in me, I live in him! Words failed the Apostle when he endeavored to describe the mutuality of the Christian life, so he resorts to paradox to force us to imagine what cannot be realized in any other way. His claims stagger reason, but he simultaneously liberates intuition and imagination so that we may receive just a hint of our unity with Christ.The Apostle strongly desires for the Galatians and for us the appropriation of the shared life of Christ in our daily lives. At some point in our journey we begin to make efforts to express the compassion of Christ to those in pain, to bear the burdens of the weak and to welcome the stranger. When we begin to show these virtues, we experience a mutuality beyond human efforts – Christ in us, Christ for us and Christ through us.
The mature believer has become united with Christ so deeply that the life of sacrificial love becomes natural. And, perhaps best of all, the new “I” is aware that the old “I” no longer lives and the I that is in the image of God expresses Christ.
When we consider the aim of Christ to make us one with himself, it is not wearisome to wait for the manifestation of the Spirit in our silence. We can wait. We can listen. We can relinquish all claim to ourselves in order to wait before the God who comes in the silence to prepare us for this glorious union with Christ.
Pray to become so absorbed in him that he lives in you without your notice of it.
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Self-Emptying
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 2:5
What a treasure it would be to have the mind of Christ! Having his mind we would be free of grasping after power or recognition. We would be neither self-exalting nor self-deprecating. The mind of Christ is filled with peace and confidence. He possessed a confidence that despite what happened to him, the compassionate love of God came to him enabling him to triumph. Grant us this mind.We have no way to attain this mind; we cannot climb up to heaven and bring it down from above. We cannot practice a discipline that will create it in us. Even faithfulness through the passing years will not attain the mind that was in Christ Jesus. Yet, we can pray, “God grant me this mind.”
In all our years we have found him faithful and true. Never does he create a desire to tantalize or deceive us. Never has he revealed a grace and chosen to withhold it. Never has he suggested a possibility and permitted me to fall short of it. Let us rest in this confidence until the mind of Christ is formed in us.God grants to the family the mind of Christ in numerous ways – for some a grace, for others a miracle, and still for others an imperceptible transformation. The mind of Christ will be formed in us most fully through contemplation. God grant us this mind.
“Let this mind be in you.” Letting means permitting, an open-thedoor act to let it come in. “Letting” rules out all methods, all techniques, and all rituals. Letting is letting, like pulling the plug lets the water drain from the tub or like placing a bucket under a tap and letting the water fill it. Letting is something less than a self-conscious choice; it is simply recognizing that the “letting” has already occurred and the mind of Christ is indeed in us. Thanks be to God for those times that Christ thinks in our thoughts, discerns through our perceptions, and chooses the lowly place for us. This is indeed the Mind of Christ. “Let the mind of Christ dwell in me.”
Pay attention to your thoughts and wonder if some of them are his! And, attend your feelings also!