Contemplative in the Mud

Contemplation Overgrows into Action

1–2 minutes

Benjamin Embley

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2 comments on Contemplation Overgrows into Action

Charles Journet

This mystery of the light that passes through our action in the measure that it has been interiorized in us by some contemplative prayer, is for each of us not only an ideal, but also a set point. In the measure that we have said yes to this invitation from God, we will be pacified, liberated, in joy, and it is God who, even without our thinking about it, will illuminate by a kind of overgrowth our activity, whatever it may be.
Charles Cardinal Journet (1891–1975)

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Benjamin Embley

With backgrounds in engineering (BSc PhD) and philosophy (MA), Ben has lived and worked in England, France, and Thailand and is now back home as a settler in the unceded traditional territory of the Wabanaki peoples in Canada. He is a Laudato Si’ Animator and currently studying an MTS Peace & Justice in Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

2 responses to “Contemplation Overgrows into Action”

  1. Henry Burke Avatar
    Henry Burke

    This is a very nice quote. I would love to know the source so I could look it up.

    Reply
    1. Contemplative in the Mud Avatar
      Contemplative in the Mud

      Charles Journet is a wonderful teacher. I translated the quote from ‘Entretiens sur la prière’, ch. VIII, ‘La prière contemplative’. In the 2006 version from Parole et Silence, it is on p. 149.

      (The word ‘set point’ is ‘consigne’ in the French. I had to choose how to translate it, but I think this is faithful to the context.)

      Reply

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