It’s been a while since my last post on this subject, but in the past I’ve tried a couple of go’s at the question, “What is the difference between meditation and contemplation?” Each blog post has tried to focus on a different angle: Doctors of the Church; spirituality of the Charles de Foucauld family.
For today’s post, I’m trying the angle of the Redemptorist spiritual family.
There is a very short, simple story in the life of young Marcel Văn. He has started to correspond with the Redemptorists in Hanoi. He wants to be admitted. He also wants to learn. He is happy to learn. Father Boucher sends to Little Văn materials to explain meditation as taught by Saint Alphonsus. Just what kind of thoughts is this young Christian being given? Well, Saint Alphonsus had some very clear ideas about meditation and also about contemplation; he thought,
Contemplation is very different from meditation. In meditation, God is sought after by a discursive effort; in contemplation there is no effort of this kind as God has been found and is gazed at.
In other words, if Saint Alphonsus taught about meditation techniques or methods, it was to open space in our hearts for Love to throw a dart of love straight into our heart, and so that we will find and delight in that which we are looking for. Since we cannot do all the finding, God must bring us to contemplation; meditation is a mental work we can do ourselves to facilitate our progress and to hollow out space for our love.
Marcel tells of his experience with the meditation materials he was sent.
It was then that I understood that meditation was a method of uniting oneself to God and conversing with him. At the beginning, I followed the method exactly, but I found this very difficult because I did not at all understand how to meditate, I have had to return to my personal feelings, conversing with God as I ordinarily do with people. If I met any difficulty I would speak of it to the good God, and during moments of fatigue and aridity I was happy to repeat, at least, these words: “O my beloved Jesus, I love you a great deal, a great deal.”
If we look past the words that Little Văn uses, we can discern a few things; he very perceptively follows Alphonsus’ own spirituality, possibly reading between the lines if these points were not made explicit in the exact materials he was sent to read and study:
- Marcel followed the meditation technique.
- When it didn’t work, he had enough sense to realize that it wasn’t meditation that he sought, but simply being with Jesus, being loved by Jesus, and loving Jesus.
- When, after a genuine effort, meditation “failed”, Marcel he didn’t say anything bad about it: “I understood that meditation was a method of uniting oneself to God and conversing with him.” He said meditation was good. He spoke about meditative exercises as a means towards the more simple reality of contemplation.
Contemplation is the end and goal and purpose of all meditation practices. Any other gauge and measure is a distortion of the truth. Meditation serves contemplation. Contemplation does not, cannot, and never should be asked to serve meditation, except in cases where charity, obedience, and/or our duties require certain meditative practices from us (e.g., a parent teaching vocal prayer or meditations to children, a priest or religious reciting the Office daily).
Meditation is a seeking. Contemplation is a delightful enjoyment. This latter can occur during meditation, after meditation, on the road, during activity and apostolic works – in short, it’s a pretty flexible part of life. Meditation is good and, indeed, necessary for our condition. Whatever meditation practices work for us are encourageable. But only if they aim in the right direction: contemplation, infused far more simply by God into our hearts, so that the seeking and the effort are not the goal themselves.
Some related posts:
Contemplative in the Mud 