Meditation is not merely the intellectual effort to master certain ideas about God, or even to impress upon our minds the mysteries of the Christian faith. Conceptual knowledge of religious truth has an important place in our lives. The spiritual life needs strong intellectual foundations, and reading theology helps us understand faith experience. But meditation itself is neither study nor intellectual activity as such. Its purpose is not to acquire or to deepen our speculative knowledge of God or of revelation. Rather than seeking to know about God, we are seeking to know God directly, beyond all the objects which God has made. We are seeking to experience God's presence with the awareness of loving faith.
A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:
Seek out a quiet place. Find a comfortable, upright position in which you are relaxed but alert, with your eyes lightly closed. Remain as still as possible.
Silently, begin to say interiorly a single word or phrase selected from the context of Christian faith. Listen to it as you say it gently but continuously with faith and love. Do not think or imagine anything, spiritual or otherwise. If thoughts and images come and your attention strays, as soon as you become aware of this, return to saying your word.
(all of the above is taken from Prayer of Heart and Body by Father Thomas Ryan)
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics
I worry that the way we live our lives means we're turning away from contemplative practices. I'm guilty myself of attempting to fill every minute of every day, not taking time to pause, to be quiet; to just be.
Sometimes we just need to stop, which can be really scary as we don't know what we might find in the space when we do, but it could be something transformative.
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