It doesn’t matter when, it doesn’t matter how, contemplation trumps meditation. The only exception to this rule made by Doctors of the Church such as Catherine of Siena, John of the Cross, and Francis de Sales, is if one’s state of life necessitates a meditative practice or a series of vocal prayers (e.g., a priest reciting the office, a parent teaching children to pray). Otherwise, contemplation trumps meditation.
This is not the teaching of just an isolated group, nor is it particular to one specific “period” or “style” of spirituality (obviously not, for what “period” or “style” do Catherine, John, and Francis have in common?). This is, simply, the guidance of great teachers of the Church, preserving the spirit of the simplicity of the Gospel. Since contemplation is simpler and more directly engaging with God, then it is preferred when God – in his grace and in his wisdom, resting on the path he has led us down and upon which he will continue to lead us – grants it.
In her Dialogue, Saint Catherine of Siena speaks of God “visiting” the soul during a practice of vocal prayers. Catherine has God the Father say it is “ignorance” if a soul should
turn from My Visitation, in order to complete its number [of vocal or assigned prayers]… It ought not to to thus, for this would be a wile of the devil.
(Yes, a wile of the devil!)
But at once, when it feels its mind ready for My Visitation, in any way, as I said, it should abandon the vocal prayer. Then, when the mental [prayer] has passed, if there be any time remaining it can resume the other, which it had planned to say. But if there be no time, it must not care nor be troubled nor bewildered.
Or again, in a letter to a niece:
And whenever one feels one’s mind to be visited by God, so that it be drawn to think of its Creator in any wise, it ought to abandon vocal prayer, and to fix its mind with the force of love upon that wherein it sees God visit it; then, if it has time, when this has ceased, it ought to take up the vocal prayer again, in order that the mind may always stay full and not empty.
Catherine even calls mental prayer the “reward for the labours underwent in imperfect vocal prayer”. It is better. It is a “reward”. Of course, as a reward it is to be preferred or accepted! In this “reward”,
she tastes the milk of faithful prayer. She rises above herself – that is, above the gross impulses of the senses – and… unites herself with God by force of love… upon the table of the most sweet Cross.
To be sure, it is not “natural” or easy for us not to care, nor to be troubled, nor to be bewildered when we transition from vocal prayer or meditation to something simpler and more profound. Catherine sometimes uses the words “angelic” in describing the discovery of non-vocal and non-meditative prayer: that’s disconcerting. Meanwhile, the lengths to which John of the Cross goes to show us that such behaviour is to be rejected, and why, show us just how difficult it is not to care about losing our vocal prayers. From a certain point of view, there are some “good” reasons to worry: the concern “have I stopped praying?” is one. But this is caused by ignorance. Indeed, it is much better to not be worried by a simple contemplative gaze on God. Why? Because God will give us more and propel us to do more in a short time of simple contemplation than in hours upon hours, or even days upon days, of meditative practices or vocal prayers: as Catherine says,
This [mental] prayer is surely another mother, who conceives virtues by the love of God and brings them forth in the love of neighbour.
For that reason, if for no other at all, contemplation trumps meditation. It, so to speak, makes us more “useful” than we could ever become otherwise. There is nothing on this earth like action vivified and propelled by contemplation.
When we first are starting to cross these thresholds, it’s important to be told and to digest this truth. ^^
Some related posts:
Contemplative in the Mud 