Contemplative Prayer by Fr William Meninger

 

Intro to Contemplative Prayer

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The Value of Silence

Three times a day, everything on the hill of Taizé stops: the work, the Bible studies, the discussions. The bells call everyone to church for prayer. Hundreds or even thousands of mainly young people from all over the world pray and sing together with the brothers of the community. Scripture is read in several languages. In the middle of each common prayer, there is a long period of silence, a unique moment for meeting with God.

Silence and Prayer

If we take as our guide the oldest prayer book, the biblical Psalms, we note two main forms of prayer. One is a lament and cry for help. The other is thanksgiving and praise to God. On a more hidden level, there is a third kind of prayer, without demands or explicit expression of praise. In Psalm 131 for instance, there is nothing but quietness and confidence: "I have calmed and quieted my soul … hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore."

At times prayer becomes silent. Peaceful communion with God can do without words. "I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother." Like the satisfied child who has stopped crying and is in its mother’s arms, so can "my soul be with me" in the presence of God. Prayer then needs no words, maybe not even thoughts.

How is it possible to reach inner silence? Sometimes we are apparently silent, and yet we have great discussions within, struggling with imaginary partners or with ourselves. Calming our souls requires a kind of simplicity: "I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me." Silence means recognizing that my worries can’t do much. Silence means leaving to God what is beyond my reach and capacity. A moment of silence, even very short, is like a holy stop, a sabbatical rest, a truce of worries.

The turmoil of our thoughts can be compared to the storm that struck the disciples’ boat on the Sea of Galilee while Jesus was sleeping. Like them, we may be helpless, full of anxiety, and incapable of calming ourselves. But Christ is able to come to our help as well. As he rebuked the wind and the sea and "there was a great calm", he can also quiet our heart when it is agitated by fears and worries (Mark 4). Remaining silent, we trust and hope in God. One psalm suggests that silence is even a form of praise. We are used to reading at the beginning of Psalm 65: "Praise is due to you, O God". This translation follows the Greek text, but actually the Hebrew text printed in most Bibles reads: "Silence is praise to you, O God". When words and thoughts come to an end, God is praised in silent wonder and admiration.

The Word of God: thunder and silence

At Sinai, God spoke to Moses and the Israelites. Thunder and lightning and an ever-louder sound of a trumpet preceded and accompanied the Word of God (Exodus 19). Centuries later, the prophet Elijah returned to the same mountain of God. There he experienced storm and earthquake and fire as his ancestors did, and he was ready to listen to God speaking in the thunder. But the Lord was not in any of the familiar mighty phenomena. When all the noise was over, Elijah heard "a sound of sheer silence", and God spoke to him (1 Kings 19).

Does God speak with a loud voice or in a breath of silence? Should we take as example the people gathered at Sinai or the prophet Elijah? This might be a wrong alternative. The terrifying phenomena related to the gift of the Ten Commandments emphasis how serious these are. Keeping or rejecting them is a question of life or death. Seeing a child running straight under a car, one is right to shout as loud as possible. In analogous situations prophets speak the word of God so that it makes our ears ring.

Loud words certainly make themselves heard; they are impressive. But we also know that they hardly touch the hearts. They are resisted rather than welcomed. Elijah’s experience shows that God does not want to impress, but to be understood and accepted. God chose "a sound of sheer silence" in order to speak. This is a paradox:


God is silent and yet speaking

When God’s word becomes "a sound of sheer silence", it is more efficient then ever to change our hearts. The heavy storm on Mount Sinai was splitting rocks, but God’s silent word is able to break open human hearts of stone. For Elijah himself the sudden silence was probably more fearsome than the storm and thunder. The loud and mighty manifestations of God were somehow familiar to him. God’s silence is disconcerting, so very different from all Elijah knew before.

Silence makes us ready for a new meeting with God. In silence, God’s word can reach the hidden corners of our hearts. In silence, it proves to be "sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit" (Hebrews 4:12). In silence, we stop hiding before God, and the light of Christ can reach and heal and transform even what we are ashamed of.

Silence and love

Christ says: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12). We need silence in order to welcome these words and put them into practice. When we are agitated and restless, we have so many arguments and reasons not to forgive and not to love too easily. But when we "have calmed and quieted our soul", these reasons turn out to be quite insignificant. Maybe we sometimes avoid silence, preferring whatever noise, words or distraction, because inner peace is a risky thing: it makes us empty and poor, disintegrates bitterness and leads us to the gift of ourselves. Silent and poor, our hearts are overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit, filled with an unconditional love. Silence is a humble yet secure path to loving.

source: Taize Community

Life at Taize

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How NOT to suffer

I recently heard a religious leader question the thought that one need not suffer to be holy. I found this very provocative so I decided to review the role of suffering in Christianity.

Jesus is certainly the first person that comes to mind when we think of suffering. His whole life, and ultimate demise, was the prime example to us. It is only through His profound suffering that we are brought into intimate relationship with Him. When we accept the responsibility for His destruction, we are greatly humbled to know the love He has for us is so deep that He choose to die [suffer] to save us. Although His love is beyond human comprehension, we accept that only through Him can we come to meet the Father. Had Jesus had not suffered so intensely for us, would our reconciliation truly be complete?

Next, we consider the saints. Saint Theresa of Calcutta, Saint Augustine, Saint Therese of Lisieux , Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Thomas of Aquinas, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Peter, Saint John the Baptist, and every martyr, all suffered immensely throughout their time, finding little to no peace in their faith life. We can examine each one and see that it was through their suffering that they have become so extraordinary. What saint didn’t provide us with a divine example of the deepest love found through their sufferings?

In these modern times, it is not so easy to find such people as those with the courage and devotion to willing to fully expose themselves to discomfort, condemnation, persecution, or other any other form of personal suffering. Most of us will be happy to avoid it at all costs, questioning the mentality of those who don’t. So I offer these general guidelines to help steer clear of any form of discomfort, persecution, emotional upset, feelings of guilt, injustice, or general distraught in the world.

1. Lead a sheltered life; do not leave your home very much. That way you can safely control your surroundings and limit yourself from witnessing any sort of behavior that is less then desirable.

2. Watch lots of movies and read lots of books. This is a safe way to expose yourself to drama in the form of entertainment, and not have to be directly involved in it yourself.

3. Don’t volunteer for anything. Keeping your contacts limited to a few trusted friends will help you avoid exposure to those unpredictable, needy people that are often served by unpaid do-gooders.

4. Have a good time. Keep your awareness away from the interest of food drives, soup kitchens, fund raisers, the elderly, small children, the low income, the unemployed, large families, those going through divorce, the sick, and the victims of accidents or crimes.

5. Vow to not follow Jesus. Everything he ever did was to help someone who is suffering. His entire message was for us to reach out to help others and give ourselves completely in humble service, especially towards are worst enemies. Not just sometimes, not even when it’s convenient or if when we happen to feel like it at the moment, but all the time!

Follow these guidelines and you will surely limit your personal growth, stunt your compassion for others, as you lose your proper perspective, allowing your imagination to fill in all those experiences that you are missing out on, while learning to overly generalize everyone and everything, and conjure up inaccurate profiles of every type of person.

However, if you happen to be someone who is not satisfied with living for himself, and you take the message of Jesus very seriously, you may find yourself looking for opportunities to hold the hand of someone who is dying, feed a starving family, help pay rent to a father who has recently become unemployed, visit with a lonely senior, smile at a stranger, say thank you often, spread your warmth, make yourself available to anyone who is in trouble, give lots of hugs, all your money and extra time to others, be a friend, be a parent, be a neighbor, be a daughter or son, be a family member, be a initiator, be the one who gets things done against all opposition.

In any of these activities you are sure to find yourself stepping out of your comfort zone and exposing your personal emotions while you help someone in need. You probably suffer as you emphasize with another, or shed a tear when you see someone in discomfort. You may even put yourself at risk when you seek out the less fortunate ,or stop to assist a person in trouble. You may very well run the risk of having an effect on another person that may be life changing, for them and for yourself. And you just might forget about all the little things your “problems” while you are in the presence of someone who is having a very tough time. There will even be times when you are not sure how to process what you are witnessing, and the images may stay with you for days or weeks causing you to struggle with your feelings.

You will suffer both personally and outwardly when you reach out to someone. Your family and friends may not like the risks you take or understand the places you are willing to go. They may become critical of your actions, which makes you suffer even more talking about “those people” in an offensive way. Even if suffering takes the form of private turmoil, our faith will be tested as we have a rare opportunity to accept the will of God in the worst possible of circumstance. We need to accept it because God’s will is always for the best. He will always take care of us and others, if only we let Him. If we understand these painful feelings to be a way for us to stop counting on our self or others, then our faith will deepen, as we realize we can trust God to provide our every need.

After all, Jesus didn’t waste time trying to appeal to the elite or upper class, he went straight for the sick, rejected, condemned, and worst of the sinners. He knew how to love them straight away, because He has nothing but love to offer, and He will give it freely to whoever is willing to accept it. He gives it to us too whenever we go out of our way for another. Though there may be suffering involved, He knows that it is through our own suffering that we can find a connection, a way to love someone else, even a total stranger. That is when the suffering becomes a deepening of faith as we experience real trust in God. No pain can interfere the feeling of His presence, or the love we exchange when our help is accepted by someone who returns the gift of His love, a thousand times over.

The Journey of Meditation