Prayer and Meditation
Attention On What Matters
Over the last few days I have been encouraging you to spend more time in friendship with Jesus by moving from stage one, vocal prayer, talking to God, to listening in Meditation so that you can reach stage 5, infused prayer or contemplation, which is the beginning of the experience of heaven on earth. The Rosary is a combination of vocal prayer and meditation, but to move to meditation it is helpful to understand what it is…
Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology, p. 318
Meditation is a reasoned application of the mind to some supernatural truth, in order to penetrate its meaning, love it, and carry it into practice with the assistance of grace.
Meditation is to turn your attention to God
To think about what He has said or done
In order to understand it
To love God for the things He has said and done
To form firm convictions
That we will put into practice with the assistance of grace
The Word of God
What do we meditate upon? As Christians we meditate on the Word of God, but the Word of God is more than the Bible. Jesus is the Word of God. The full Word of God is all that Jesus revealed through his life and his teachings. The full revelation of Jesus is handed down to us through Scripture, Tradition and the teachings of the Catholic Church, called the Magisterium. The complete teaching of Jesus, the full Word of God is called the Deposit of Faith. As Christians meditate upon all that is contained in the Deposit of Faith, all that is found in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium. We can use as good meditation material anything from the Old or New Testaments, or the writings of the saints like Augustine, Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux or St. Faustina. And it doesn’t stop there. We can also reflect upon the teachings of the Church, the Magisterium. In fact, the best synthesis or summary of the Deposit of Faith, all that Jesus revealed is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catechism is wonderful to meditate upon. Or consider other Magisterial teachings such as St. John Paull II’s letter on the Christian Meaning of Human suffering. All these things are an expression of the Deposit of Faith or the Word of God. All of these are great things to meditate upon during meditation or the Rosary.
A Habit of Prayer
There is a simple method to meditation. It is like having coffee with a friend. Set a specific time and place conducive to a leisurely intimate conversation. Then Talk and share, listen and understand and finally just enjoy the time together. We have broken it down into 3 R’s which we shared with you yesterday:
Read something from the Bible or from the Tradition, some good writing from a Saint or a spiritual author. As soon as something profound strikes you – stop reading.
Reflect or Think about what struck you
Try to understand what you read
Apply it to your life
Draw practical conclusions for yourself
Talk over all of this with Jesus in your mind and heart
Resolution
Choose something practical and concrete to remember or to do today based on your meditation
Write down your resolution and keep it with you
Reflection and Excellence
The two most powerful aspects of Meditation are reflecting upon the Word of God and the forming of a resolution. These two together, founded on the grace of God, are the transforming powers of meditation. On the first, the power of reflection Jordan Aumann writes: Numerous persons who live habitually in sin continue in that condition simply because they never reflect seriously upon the state of their souls. Some of them do not have malicious hearts, nor do they hate the things of God or their own salvation; they have simply given themselves entirely to purely natural activities and have neglected the things that are of importance to their soul. One of the greatest proofs that their sad condition is due not so much to malice as to the lack of reflection is the fact that when they…attend a retreat or mission, they may experience a complete conversion of life. With good reason does St. Teresa maintain that the practice of mental prayer is necessarily connected with growth in virtue. It is, therefore, a great help for salvation to cultivate the practice of daily meditation. Those who aspire to sanctity by giving themselves completely to the active life while neglecting the life of prayer may just as well forget about Christian perfection. Experience proves that there is absolutely nothing that can supply for the life of prayer, not even the daily reception of the Eucharist. There are many persons who receive Communion every day, yet their spiritual life is mediocre and lukewarm. The reason is none other than the lack of mental prayer, either because they omit it entirely or they practice it in a mechanical and routine fashion. We repeat that without prayer it is impossible to attain Christian perfection, no matter what our state of life or the occupation to which we dedicate ourselves. (Spiritual Theology, p. 323-324)
Keeping Your Promise
The Second Transformational Power of Meditation is the Resolution
A resolution is to choose some concrete and practical thing to remember from our meditation to put into practice that day.
Examples of a resolution are:
Today I will listen more than I speak
I will not gossip today
I complain too much, therefore, today I will practice thanking God for everything.
I become anxious easily, so today I will replace that feeling of Anxiety with an Act of Trust in God. Every time I feel anxious I will say: Jesus I trust in you.
We want to see Results and if we don’t see Results we tend to Quit. The Result of our prayer is that over time we should change. But change does not come about magically and it does not come about by vague generalities. Change comes from the grace of God in combination with our honest reflection on the Word of God and our own life and then committing to a resolution, some concrete step that we will put into practice that day. Therefore if we meditate every day and form a resolution we put into practice, over time one of two things will happen – we will change or we will quit doing meditation. But the fact is, no change can occur without reflection and a resolution. W/O a Resolution we will not change
St Francis De Sales on the importance of a resolution:
The most important thing of all is that you cling firmly to the resolutions you have taken in meditation so as to practice them carefully. That is the great fruit of meditation, without which it is often not only useless but harmful. Why so? Because the virtues upon which we have meditated but not practiced sometimes puff us up so much in mind and heart that we think we are already what we are resolved to be which no doubt is the case if our resolutions are solid and ardent. But when, on the contrary, they are not practiced, they are useless and dangerous. (Introduction to the Devout Life, II Chap 8)