Contemplative Prayer
A new, and very dear friend of mine gave me a book a few weeks ago titled, "When the Soul Listens" by Jan Johnson. It is about contemplative prayer, and kind of exposes some of the ruts we are stuck in in our prayer lives, and it explains contemplative prayer and its purpose...Here are a few thoughts from Jan Johnson:
"The purpose of contemplative prayer is NOT for blessing ourselves or for making ourselves happy, but for our spiritual formation."
In my notes (yes, I'm a geek), I have written down:
- Being formed in the image of Christ for the sake of others
- "Contemplation brings the solid food of wisdom made from the finest flour" (Clairvoux)
- With this wisdom, we grow in our love for God and by loving God we love others - to reconcile others to Him.
Contemplating the characteristics of God, His emotions, the man Jesus, the compassion He had for the "throwaways," grows us towards Him, and allows us to know His heart. It allows Him to work in our hearts, implanting His compassion for others and His wisdom within us. Thus, we become "Christlike."
I didn't really think my few feeble attempts at contemplation would yield much spiritual growth. Most of the time I fell asleep on the floor while meditating on a scripture. When I read this, I realized how Christ has indeed been working on me and changing my heart for others. This is apparent at work - my patience with people who are ugly and rude to me - I am overwhelmed at the compassion I've felt for them without even realizing it. I blogged about how my bad days are getting better, and how it's easier to be nice to angry people. Hmmm...today I realized that I have actually thought about motives and looked beyond the act towards the heart. I don't do this often, mind you...but I've recognized those times when I've been overwhelmed by compassion for a patient who is angry and taking it out on me. Most people are not intentionally ugly. Most of our sharp, peircing words are spoken out of emotional outbursts, and most of the time we regret our own words later on. If we could picture the person who is yelling at us now, later worrying and regretting and pouring over their words with sadness - as we typically do, then it is a lot easeir to respond kindly, and to treat them as a human who is a lot like us. WOW.
"Because times of meditation and contemplation detach us from others, we can see people as God sees them."
"It's obedience in a way so natural it seems acidental..."And this is good for people like me; then my obedience does not come about because I am centered on myself and trying hard to be a Christian."
This is me to a "T"!!! It almost seems this book was written for me! ;)
"The purpose of contemplative prayer is NOT for blessing ourselves or for making ourselves happy, but for our spiritual formation."
In my notes (yes, I'm a geek), I have written down:
- Being formed in the image of Christ for the sake of others
- "Contemplation brings the solid food of wisdom made from the finest flour" (Clairvoux)
- With this wisdom, we grow in our love for God and by loving God we love others - to reconcile others to Him.
Contemplating the characteristics of God, His emotions, the man Jesus, the compassion He had for the "throwaways," grows us towards Him, and allows us to know His heart. It allows Him to work in our hearts, implanting His compassion for others and His wisdom within us. Thus, we become "Christlike."
I didn't really think my few feeble attempts at contemplation would yield much spiritual growth. Most of the time I fell asleep on the floor while meditating on a scripture. When I read this, I realized how Christ has indeed been working on me and changing my heart for others. This is apparent at work - my patience with people who are ugly and rude to me - I am overwhelmed at the compassion I've felt for them without even realizing it. I blogged about how my bad days are getting better, and how it's easier to be nice to angry people. Hmmm...today I realized that I have actually thought about motives and looked beyond the act towards the heart. I don't do this often, mind you...but I've recognized those times when I've been overwhelmed by compassion for a patient who is angry and taking it out on me. Most people are not intentionally ugly. Most of our sharp, peircing words are spoken out of emotional outbursts, and most of the time we regret our own words later on. If we could picture the person who is yelling at us now, later worrying and regretting and pouring over their words with sadness - as we typically do, then it is a lot easeir to respond kindly, and to treat them as a human who is a lot like us. WOW.
"Because times of meditation and contemplation detach us from others, we can see people as God sees them."
"It's obedience in a way so natural it seems acidental..."And this is good for people like me; then my obedience does not come about because I am centered on myself and trying hard to be a Christian."
This is me to a "T"!!! It almost seems this book was written for me! ;)
posted by KariBryant @ 2:22 PM
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