The Big Book of Christian Mysticism: The Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality

by Carl McColman

  Lectio divina is simple so simple, in fact, that it hardly appears worthy of serious attention. It involves reading a passage from the Bible or some other sacred text completely and wholly as an act of slow, deliberate prayer. It is a practice for formation, rather than a means of gathering information. As a spiritual exercise, lectio divina involves opening your heart and soul in order to be formed (and transformed) by the Spirit of God.

  In his essay on lectio divina, Guigo describes sacred reading as the first step in a four-part spiritual process:

  Lectio: prayerful, slow, heart-centered reading of a sacred text

  Meditatio: deliberate pondering of the message in the text

  Oratio: responding to God's message with honest, sincere prayer

  Contemplatio: allowing the prayer to dissolve into wordless, silent contemplation, while simply resting in the divine presence, beyond the limitations of human thought

  Lectio is a subversive activity, because it invites you to surrender your willfulness and control to the leadings and promptings of the Holy Spirit. Thus, it runs counter to the mainstream values of our "can do," Type-A, gottastay-on-top-of-things culture. In the intentional slowness of lectio, you are reminded that Christian spirituality emphasizes God's action and your response not the other way around. Thus, lectio is a practice in which you slow yourself down, creating space in which you can gently learn to seek, and discern, God's presence hidden in the sacred text and in the subtle stirrings of your heart and mind.

  By opening up to the divine presence through the written word, you simultaneously open yourself up to the deeply relational nature of Christian spirituality, which is indeed the heart of the contemplative path. The Christian mystery is not so much about finding the "God within," although that is a crucial element of Christian spirituality and mystics throughout the ages have encouraged us to recognize the presence of God within us. Even more important than that inner gaze, however, is the ultimately paradoxical nature of the divine encounter within lectio divina. This occurs when you read and seek an encounter with God within the word that comes, not from within, but as a gift from outside us (in this case, mediated through the writings of authors who lived many years ago). Finding God in the word given to us does not mean God is not to be found within. But that works the other way around as well. When we encounter God within us, Christianity reminds us that God comes to us through the gift of other people (including the prophets, evangelists and mystics from ages past). Through lectio, you are given the opportunity to celebrate the mystery of encountering the God who is both intimately one with you and simultaneously, paradoxically, wholly transcendent and "other" than you.

  Lectio

  All you need to engage in the practice of lectio divina is something worth reading. Traditionally, lectio was specifically a practice for pondering sacred scripture, and anyone who recognizes that Christian mysticism is ultimately about following Christ will devote at least some of their time for lectio to the writings of the Bible. But there's nothing that says you can use only the Bible when practicing lectio. The writings of the great mystics can richly reward you when you approach them in the slow, meditative style of lectio. If your schedule permits, try to engage in lectio divina twice a day: scripture reading in the morning, and the writings of one of the great mystics in the evening. (For a list of texts you could use in your lectio practice, see Appendix B.)

  Once you've selected your text (or texts), set aside enough time to read the material slowly and deliberately ideally, in a quiet place where you feel comfortable reading and praying. Set aside at least twenty minutes to allow not only for lectio, but also for the subsequent steps of meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio (half an hour to an hour is ideal). It's critical not to rush. Lectio can be a powerful and transformational practice even if you read only a sentence or two! Remember, the goal is not to amass knowledge or information. You can always supplement your lectio practice with other time spent in more informational spiritual reading. The goal of lectio is simply to create a space where God may encounter you via the medium of the sacred word.

  To begin, read a sentence, or a few but no more than a paragraph or two. Then stop. Go back and slowly reread the passage, and perhaps even a third or fourth time, at as unhurried a pace as possible. If you find yourself analyzing the text, gently let it go. Don't rush to figure out the text; just keep an open mind. Let the text read you. Be open to discerning a particular word or phrase that speaks to you with particular meaning or relevance.

  When you encounter such a word or phrase, stop reading. That is your signal to move on to the reflective, meditatio, stage of the practice. In meditatio, ponder thoughtfully what this particular word or phrase means to you, and how God may be using it to communicate with you. Eventually, you may feel inspired to engage in your own verbal, prayerful response to God's word. This is the oratio stage. Pray honestly, simply, sincerely. Remember, you pray not to make a good impression, but simply to be intimate with the One who loves you. Eventually, the words will drop away and the wordless silence will embrace you as you simply sit in God's presence (contemplatio).

  And that's all there is to it. It's simple but deceptively so, especially for Westerners who are used to processing an endless stream of information. Setting aside your mind's tendency to analyze and dissect all that you read is not an easy task. Indeed, lectio divina can be a source of humility in your life as you come face to face with how unwilling you are to embrace silence and unknowing an unwillingness that may appear again and again in your quest to become deeply contemplative. As you seek to engage in the deep silence and openness of lectio, you will inevitably catch yourself indulging in your mind's analytical chatter. When that happens, simply return to reading silently and attentively, focusing on the words in front of you rather than the words that arise in your mind. And, yes, this refocusing is something you will have to do again and again.

  One way to let go of your analytical mind during lectio is to make sure that you have plenty of time for more traditional forms of Bible study in addition to your lectio time. It can be very fruitful to read the Bible or other sacred texts in both a contemplative and a scholarly way. Just set aside different times for each approach; do not try to blend contemplative and scholarly reading. Commit to one approach or the other when you sit down with your text. When you make time to explore both a mystical and a scholarly approach to the Bible (or other spiritual texts), you can discover profound and multi-layered wisdom within the writing.

  Meditatio

  The second stage in the lectio process is meditatio, or meditation. This is perhaps the single most misunderstood element of this spiritual exercise.

  In the popular mind, the heart of mysticism is meditation. This comes from the influence of several generations of Eastern spirituality onWestern culture. Eastern spirituality from the yogi reciting a mantra to the Zen Buddhist's relaxed attention on breath has become the cultural standard by which many Westerners understand meditation.

  In the Christian tradition, however, meditation is not an exercise in moving beyond thought. It is, rather, a gentle process of pondering and reflecting on a holy text or a point of doctrine (like the Incarnation or the Trinity). This process of meditation (which, in the exercise of lectio divina, comes after reading and before prayer) occurs during the pause in which, having read the sacred text, you stop to mull over its meaning and its relevance in your life. This type of meditation, far from seeking to move beyond the cognitive mind, actually involves calm thinking -a meditative thought that moves best when it moves slowly. Just as sacred reading requires you to slow down and lay aside your illusions of being in control, sacred meditation asks you to slow down the normal high-speed chase in which one thought seeks to overcome another in the chattering, endlessly frenetic arena of the mind.

  This frenetic chatter is what Buddhists call "the monkey mind." Eastern meditation is about peacefully quieting, or at least ignoring, the monkey mind. In the Christian tradition, however, meditation
is not so much about silencing the mind as it is about seeking a middle ground between the extremes of letting the mind chatter away and attempting to get it to shut up. In this middle ground, allow your mind a serene freedom, but with the understanding that it remain focused on a point of faith or an insight of wisdom consistent in tone with the gentle, unrushed, God-focused activity of lectio.

  Meditation thus serves as a bridge between the word that is read and the final resting point of wordless contemplation. It is a fulcrum point between the word silently received and our response, gently offered to God in prayer (oratio). As such, it need not be a long or involved process. After a few minutes of lectio, you may spend only a minute or two in meditation, pondering the text that you've read and reflecting on how its message can inform your prayer your efforts to open your mind and heart to God. Prayer, in turn, leads to contemplation (contemplatio), which is the point at which you really do seek to gently shush your monkey mind and just be in God's presence.

  CHAPTER 14

  The Heavenly Conversation

  What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.

  I CORINTHIANS 14:15

  Just as no one comes to wisdom except through grace, justice and knowledge, so no one comes to contemplation except by penetrating meditation, a holy life and devout prayer.

  BONAVENTURE39

  The Christian mystical life can be compared to a long-distance romance. God makes his presence felt in our hearts, but remains shrouded in mystery, and can seem distant, absent, or cloaked in the darkness of unknowing. We look forward to the day of complete and total union with God, but we recognize that such fullness of joy may not come until after we pass the threshold of death. In the meantime, we have to "make do" with the joys of a relationship in which God is both revealed and concealed. Part of this "making do" involves the imperfect, but nevertheless joyful, process of prayer.

  When you communicate with someone over a telephone line, you cannot touch, caress, or embrace the person with whom you speak. Indeed, even hearing that person can sometimes be difficult because of static or interference on the call. Sometimes when the phone rings, you are irritated at the interruption; at other times, you wait impatiently for the call. Sometimes, a ringing phone can be a cause for joy; at other times, it can be an ominous harbinger of bad news.

  The same can be said of prayer. Sometimes prayer is easy you're eager to open your heart and mind to heaven, effortlessly making time and joyfully entering into the silence where you hope to taste the good presence of God. At such times, it's easy to make a commitment to pray regularly, perhaps once or twice a day. But then will come other times, when you may feel duty-bound to set aside time for prayer and see it as more of a bother than anything else. Sometimes prayer can inspire you to cry; sometimes it makes you writhe in shame. Prayer can evoke feelings of wonder, of delight, of joy, of quiet love, of embarrassment, of self-consciousness, of humility. The silence at the heart of prayer can feel like a delicious moment of respite in an otherwise frantic life, or it can feel cold and impersonal, an unforgiving barrier that separates you from the love and acceptance you crave so deeply. Prayer can feel like the most important thing you could ever do, or it may leave you wondering just how stupid you really are.

  A Christian mystic is a person of prayer. To be a Christian contemplative is to be a person of prayer. Even if have only a passing interest in Christian mysticism and contemplation, this could be evidence that God is inviting you to find transformation and healing in the practice of prayer. At the heart of the Christian mystery is the call to intimacy with God, and prayer is the tool by which we respond to that call.

  THE CENTRALITY OF PRAYER

  A Christian mystic prays as surely as a lawyer litigates and a doctor treats illness. For that matter, the practice of prayer is common to all Christians, including those who have little or no interest in mysticism. Given the tremendous diversity that has come to characterize the various denominations and branches of Christianity, prayer, grounded in devotion to Jesus Christ, may well be the only common denominator that unites Christians from across the spectrum of the faith. Those who are illiterate or learningdisabled may not be able to read the Bible, but they can still lift their hands and eyes in prayer.

  In the preceding chapter, we considered how sacred reading is related to the practices of meditation, prayer, and contemplation. In fact, taken as a whole, the entire four-part practice of lectio divina is a form of prayer. Reading the Bible or other sacred texts is a tool for listening to God's word for you; meditation is the means by which you seek to unpack or digest that word; prayer, as understood here, is responding to the sacred word with your own thoughts and feelings; which leads to contemplation, the quiet resting in God's presence as the culmination of the first three movements in lectio. Even though each stage of the process is unique, it all encompasses the quest for communication with God. Therefore, it is all prayer.

  Indeed, conversational prayer -a spontaneous sharing of your thoughts and feelings with God is the task of oratio. But conversational prayer is not the only way to pray. Meditation and contemplation, both focused practices aimed at achieving mental clarity and the experience of consciousness beyond the ordinary, everyday mind with its practical concerns, are important Christian forms of prayer. Prayer can also take highly structured and even ritualistic forms, as in the Daily Office, the Jesus Prayer, and the Rosary. Anything you do to foster an experience of communication with God disclosing your own thoughts and feelings to God, or listening for God's word for you is a form of prayer.

  Christians don't need to be mystics in order to pray; but they do need to pray in order to seek a mystical life.

  DON'T STOP

  Prayer works best when it is regular and frequent. The Apostle Paul understood this when he bluntly instructed his readers (and yes, that includes us, 2,000 years later) to "pray without ceasing" (I Thessalonians 5:17). But what, really, does that mean?

  Saint Paul's words can be interpreted in a number of different ways. For example, the Desert Fathers and Mothers, who lived solitary lives, understood their commitment to prayer in a very specific way. Their routine entailed reciting all 150 Psalms, every day. It takes more than four hours to read or recite the Psalms out loud. While four or more hours of recited prayer every single day may not literally be praying "without ceasing," it's still quite a commitment.

  Eventually, the solitaries of the desert moved toward monasticism, a more communal (and sustainable) way of life for those who wanted to follow Christ without compromise. Monks and nuns live in communities, but in such a way as to preserve, as much as possible, the emphasis on silence and solitude that characterized the spirituality of the desert. One of the benefits of communal living is the opportunity for shared, corporate worship the chance to pray with one another. And so, from the beginning of their history, monasteries have placed central importance on this idea of praying without ceasing.

  Monasteries structure their common schedules around a daily regimen of prayers, canticles, readings, and silence that comprises the "Daily Office" (the official daily prayer of the community). Following Psalm 119:164, which notes "seven times a day I praise you," the earliest monks established a daily program of seven "offices" or communal prayer services. Although interspersed throughout the day and balanced with labor, lectio divina, and other claims on their time, nuns and monks rely on these seven regularly scheduled prayer times as their way of "praying without ceasing."

  Another means of praying without ceasing was developed among Greek Orthodox monks and mystics. Known as the Prayer of the Heart, this practice involves a simple prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me, a sinner" that is synchronized with the rhythm of breathing, so that disciplined practitioners can literally recite it as continuously as they breathe. Another Western spiritual practice developed by the Carmelite friar Brother Lawrence, "the practice
of the presence of God," aims at cultivating a God-focused state of mind that anyone can enjoy, even while doing mundane chores like washing the dishes. While these forms of prayer begin to push the boundary that separates oratio from contemplatio, they do signify some of the many ways that Christians throughout history have sought to follow Paul's instruction and make intimacy with God an unceasing aspect of their lives.

  Christian mysticism invites us to think about ceaseless prayer in a variety of ways. Certainly it can (and should) include a daily regimen of prayer, whether conversational prayer, recited prayers like the Daily Office, repetitive prayers like the Jesus Prayer or the Rosary, or a daily practice of God-centered silence. Lectio divina and prayer naturally complement each other, and a balanced diet of sacred reading, formal and conversational prayer, and informal/ wordless prayer can be a deeply satisfying anchor for a contemplative life.

  MAKING PRAYER A PRIORITY

  Prayer, like lectio divina, is a central discipline for anyone who wishes to integrate the wisdom of the mystics into their lives. And prayer, like lectio divina, needs to be a regular, daily practice not just something done "when you feel like it." For many people, however, this is surprisingly difficult to attain.

  If you already have a rich and satisfying prayer life, you are truly blessed. Others, who sincerely desire a sense of God's presence in their lives or who simply wish to be more focused in their spiritual journey, often feel "stuck" when it comes to prayer. Alas, it seems that prayer is easier to talk about (or think about) than to do.

  Here are some of the attitudes, thoughts and feelings that you may experience as potential obstacles to a truly satisfying and intimate prayer life:

  I just never can find the time to pray.

  Prayer discourages me. I feel as if I'm just talking to myself.