Ernest Larkin, a Carmelite scholar of spirituality, saw great things in the practice of Christian Meditation, a contemplative form of prayer. He envisioned this method of prayer being the source of renewal of the Church in the 21 st century. At the same time, Pope Francis has laid out a beautiful pastoral plan for our time in The Joy of the Gospel. The message of the papal Exhortation demands a spiritual maturity that calls us into a new future as church members. The more we are in touch with the Spirit by prayer, the more open and more encouraged will we be to embrace the radical call of the gospel in our day. This is where contemplation becomes pastoral and practical. I do believe Larkin’s vision is closely related to Pope Francis’ call for a new day. The message of this blog is offered to individuals, parishioners and pastors. It is one concrete invitation into a future that sees our Christian vocation related to the faith community that goes beyond our personal needs and goals. This why I felt it urgent to begin the search for a pastoral theology of contemplation for our communal Pilgrimage to God.
Carmelite spirituality sees the Christian life as a process of purification, enlightenment and personal transformation. These changes move us steadily toward focusing the hungers in our heart to what God wants. This leads us to a journey away from shallow self-absorption into the center of our being where God dwells. These are truly radical changes. The vehicle of this journey is prayer evolving into contemplation. Contemplation, as a deeper and gifted expression of prayer, brings the love of God to a new and practical maturity in our life. We start to consistently eliminate the limited and selfish patterns of living. Our thinking, our believing, our trust and our actions are transformed. Now our desires are more and more in tune with God’s plans. We gradually live out the consequences in new patterns of behavior.
As this contemplative relationship with God matures, we pray more and we pray more quietly. Listening grows and words diminish. The biggest change, however, transpires in our daily lives. Love becomes the operative mode of action in things large and small. Most of all, we get more real which ultimately means being free in God’s love.
Passage of Purification
In this switch to contemplation, we experience a deep sense of being loved by God. This helps us to accept ourselves in both our brokenness and giftedness. We are more patient in our listening to God. We are more open to be taught by God. The desire to control God continues to lessen. Now our prayer grows in clarity. We petition God to set us free to love with a pure heart.
This experience of purification is both simple and intricate. Distractions and noises develop within the heart and disturb the quiet voice of God. All the events of one’s life, the valleys of darkness and the plains of sunshine, all lead into God’s liberating activity. The struggle is to diminish the interior noises and distractions and enter more deeply into our quiet zone. This is where we hear the voice of God in the sound of the gentle breeze of our personal silence.
To Want What God Wants
This journey is not easy because getting closer to God comes at a price. Teresa says the life of prayer and the comfortable life are in serious conflict. Our lifestyle, which had some previous challenges, now faces new demands of even deeper conversion. Large areas of negotiation in our personal, social and cultural life come into play. While we usually change only one step at a time, we never imagined the price tag on this new journey to God. This all means changes on the way to profound
Personal transformation.
When change does happen, we begin to see beyond the external, beyond our illusions. Our comfortable little world, held in place in good part by the power of our culture and prejudices, begins to crumble. The center of gravity switches. Our awareness begins to recognize and accept what has always been the reality. God is our center. Things get clearer and more real. Teresa is unambiguous. The purpose of prayer is to find and embrace God’s will. This is the driving force of our personal
Transformation.
As we progress on the pilgrimage to God, we grow in our desire to want what God wants. This changes how we live. We do not accomplish this by our own determination. God’s love frees us to gradually welcome the divine will. Progress on this journey helps us to see that our strength is in our weakness. We are losing control and God is taking over.
We must surrender. This submission holds true both in prayer and in our lived experience. The basic shift, to place God in the center of our awareness, leads to new level of perception never possible before. Situations that were locked into a rigid either/or choice now open to several reasonable options. Barriers of race, sexual orientation and culture melt into insignificance. A less self- centered focus lights up the world in all manner of ways that shatter the former darkness. The new mindfulness opens up both the grandeur of God and discloses the consequences of our dependence on God. God’s mercy engulfs our world.
Teresa says we have to get real. She means we need to recognize the only true goal is to be one with God, to have one singular, dominating love. We need to be purified to experience love in its truest expression. When it comes to love, only God can offer the real deal. All other authentic love is only a degree of participation in the divine love. We need to change a lot of things to accept the consequences of the call to transformation and union. Jesus is the fullness of God’s invitation for us. Teresa insists that we place our eyes on Jesus who is the symbol of God’s passionate love for each of us. He is God’s continuing invitation to loving intimacy. In this context, we learn that all of life is of concern for us. There is no separation of the holy and the ordinary. Everything that happens can help us or hurt us in the quest thatis union with God. Life, we learn, is the greatest grace.
