VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER

     All of us are potentially contemplative. What may be called a "contemplative experience" is natural and common to most of us, at least once in awhile. We are struck dumb by massive shafts of sunlight breaking through dark thunderclouds, falling on the desert. A sleeping child in our lap makes us completely still and fills us with utter peace. In a moment of extreme suffering something opens up and we somehow know that even though everything is "wrong," everything is really all right; a confrontation by someone who loves us leads us to quiet, deep, honest surrender. In one way or another, we find our way into stillness, quiet, a full emptiness; we open to a place within that is truthful, grounded, humble, and utterly real.

     Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the contemplative experience finds its way into us. For contemplation itself is a gift from God; it is not an accomplishment of our own.

"Becoming Christ: Transformation through Contemplation"

      by Brian Taylor