The senses, the mind, the heart, and the entire being need to be prepared for this new reality. Our perception and, even more, our experience of God, must undergo a radical makeover. Our self-understanding begins a deep-seated renovation. The mysterious and pervasive changes flowing from contemplation lead us to begin to see as God sees and to love as God loves. This happens as we let go of our deepest attachments and addictions. The false self fights to maintain our illusions and deceptions. The false self sets loose an entire range of mind-games to undercut this passage into the darkness that produces the freedom and light of contemplation.
The immediate result of this whirlwind of change is a feeling of turmoil. Our sense of clarity and security in things spiritual is crumbling before our eyes. This is why surrender and acceptance are the way forward. The question of who God is and how God responds to our expectations is at the heart of this confusion and darkness.
Contemplation evokes deep personal changes leading to a dramatic makeover of the person. This radically new experience is beyond anything possible by mere human effort. In contemplation, God acts in the soul in ways that are totally new. This presence is silent loving communion without images. It is totally beyond our usual manner of reflecting and thinking in prayer. St. John of the Cross says, “Contemplation is none other than a secret, peaceful and loving infusion of God, which if the soul allows it to happen, infuses a spirit of love.” (Dark Night 1.10.6)
God is taking a specific initiative in our prayer through a silent inflow of loving knowledge. Since the mind is as yet unconditioned for God it reacts with confusion to a conversation that takes place in silence. While our thoughts may wander about in the fringes of the castle, Teresa reminds us, ‘the soul is perhaps completely joined with God in the dwelling places very close to the center.’” (Interior Castle IV.1.9)
This new action of God moves one away from the ego and the false self with its blinding control and persistent deception. The journey to the pure heart escalates with novel and unimagined discoveries. In this initial experience of contemplation, there is participation in the life of God never experienced before.
Contemplation is a new and different presence off God, that penetrates one’s whole spiritual life. It enhances every aspect of life: personal social, communal and pastoral.
The Carmelites of the Ancient Observance have this description of contemplation in their Constitutions #17: “Contemplation is a transforming experience of the overpowering love of God. This love empties us of our limited and imperfect human ways of thinking, loving, and behaving, transforming them into divine ways.”
One way of understanding contemplation is that it is a full and generous following of Jesus Christ. It comes from a deep generosity in hearing and responding to the gospel message.
