Widening Horizons

 


Contemplation is usually associated with monks and cloistered nuns: a lifestyle focused on prayer. 

But how does it relate to us, soaked in a hive of activity? 

Undoubtedly, contemplation not only underlines but also furnishes meaning to our lives. 

To keep my mind in my heart marks the beginning  of contemplation - an insight associated with the Prayer of the Heart. What underlines this acumen is an awareness that the ‘contemplatio’ relates to a “locked garden, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed” unlocked by love (Song of Songs 4,9.12; 5,1-2). 

Rather than being distracted by our doings, unwilling to comprehend the Magister’s words, we need, as St. Jean Marie Vianney suggest, to close our eyes and mouth as we open our hearts in a dialogue focused on love: to seek in God our wholeness as we recognise our imperfections. 

To comprehend this insight we need to listen: to sit at the Magister’s feet and let his voice enlighten us. So doing, we realise that, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4,23). 

Diverse interpretations accompany; Polonius’ advice escorts us: “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man” (William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1.III).

Martin




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SILENTIUM EST AUREM

       Growing older and perhaps less tolerant, the old Latin saying   - Silentium est aurem (Silence is golden) enhances its value because it protects me from futile noises, and clarity unfolds. In an environment infiltrated by noise, silence is elusive and yet, in its stillness, my true self emerges from noise’s haziness.             Painful experience has taught me that silence’s aptitude shatters doubt’s commotion. Its stillness enlightens my faith - the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance about what we do not see (Hebrews 11,1). Augustine’s advice thus enlightens: ‘ Enter into your heart, and if you have faith, you will find Him there ’ ( Confessions Bk 10), because in silence, we attune our hearts to the Divine Presence.             Through silence’s stillness, our heart finds its voice: our readiness to dialogu...
Read more

A SANCTUARY IN TIME

     We readily limit the significance of the cross to an emblem to consolidate a religious or cultural identity or as an excuse to enhance our misery, forgetful that “ misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows ” (William Shakespeare, The Tempest II.2).      The significance of the cross highlights our baptism because, as pointed out by Saint Augustine, all those who belong to Jesus Christ are fastened with him to the cross, which sets the setting for Bonhoeffer’s assertion that the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise happy life: it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ.           Scrutinising these insights, we need to focus on Shabbat’s stillness where the cross becomes a sanctuary in time, challenging our trustworthiness: it expresses a lived-out silentium underlined by the Magister’s reassuring presence: ‘ Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest ’ (Matthew 11,26...
Read more

TAKING OFF THE LID

    The insistence ' to babbling like pagans ' (Matthew 6,7) tempts us: it is freely embraced when God’s graciousness no longer suffices, and the cross is downplayed. Following St. Bernard, the disciple desires the Magister rather than his gifts, but this entails the cross as a key to understanding one’s integrity.       The cross is God’s therapy that enables us to encounter our fears and frustrations by recalling us to its silence and how this contributes to the formation of our conscience (CCC 1783-1785). This silence sustains a dialogue of love: ignoring its need reflects an unconscious or perhaps not, attempt to hide our hearts from God: unless God searches our heart, we are frustrated because, as Jeremiah warns, ' You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart ' (29,13). While our hearts are restlessly caught up in a whirlwind of frustrating desires, this endeavour is unrealistic.       Prayer is expressive of ou...
Read more