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Thursday, March 21, 2019
Father Thomas Keating in commenting on the insights of Saint John of the Cross, tells us that “silence is God’s first language.” You will realize how true this is if you stick with contemplative prayer. However, when you first start practicing this type of prayer you can be in a completely silent room and experience a great deal of noise. Despite wanting to be silent, our minds seem to want anything but. This, and falling asleep, are common obstacles everyone struggles with in the beginning.
So how do we stop thoughts? We do not even try! The more we try to stop thoughts the more they will come. Trying to stop thoughts is like wrestling with the pig. As the saying goes, you get dirty and the pig seems to like it. So what are we doing with this type of prayer? We are learning to ignore thoughts. When we quit paying so much attention to thoughts, they subside. We focus on short prayers, the breath, bodily sensations, or sounds and keep returning to our object of focus every time we notice our attention has drifted. Eventually, we will learn to sit with an alert awareness of nothing at all. We will rest with our attention “de-focused”. Instead of focusing on thought, or thoughts about things of the world, we will let our attention rest at its source (the center of our being). Contemplatives call this resting in God. Habit will always try to pull us away from our center and back out to our thoughts. We learn to surrender over and over again, each time de-focusing back to our center, and we begin to understand what Jesus meant by the peace that surpasses all understanding.
Let us turn to our old friend Brother Lawrence for insight on this matter:
“…you are not the only one that is troubled with wandering thoughts. Our mind is extremely roving; but as the will is mistress of all our faculties, she must recall them, and carry them to God as their last end. When the mind, for want of being sufficiently reduced by recollection, at our first engaging in devotion, has contracted certain bad habits of wandering and dissipation, they are difficult to overcome, and commonly draw us, even against our wills, to things of the earth. I believe one remedy for this is to confess our faults and to humble ourselves before God… Hold yourself in prayer before God like a dumb or paralytic beggar at a rich man’s gate. If [your mind] sometimes wanders and withdraws itself from Him, do not much disquiet yourself for that; trouble and disquiet serve rather to distract the mind than to re-collect it; the will must bring it back in tranquility. If you persevere in this manner, God will have pity on you.”
Lenten Action
Practice your daily meditation and contemplative prayer as instructed in the Practical Instructions for Practicing the Presence of God (PIPPG) booklet or in such a manner as you feel compelled. After your silent prayer session, re-read this email and rest with it for a while. At times other than dedicated prayer, practice God’s Presence as suggested above and in the PIPPG booklet.
Today is not a Fast day, but if you have a mind to abstain from a favorite food or drink, please do so as a means of strengthening your will power. Remember not to watch TV, or use your computer or your phone to access social media, computer games, or other unnecessary apps.