One of the more bizarre phrases that I often hear is, “We need to use all of our faculties in prayer.” The operative word being use.

This might make sense for meditation: discursive, seeking prayer.

But for contemplation, while it more fully uses our faculties than any act of meditation, I wouldn’t say that we make the effort to put the intellect, the imagination, the memory, the will, and so on to use. In prayer where Jesus’ work dominates, we don’t use anything. At least, we don’t set out to do so.

I always find that these kinds of rules, “We need to do this…” in prayer are a bit pointless. They certainly don’t apply very far into the spiritual life. And, if someone is suspicious of contemplative prayer because he has the idea that contemplation, for example, is about denying the faculties, then they haven’t got very far, either. Even if the faculties are in a contemplative dark night of total agony, they’re definitely more engaged than they ever would be in meditation. But we don’t set out to use them as part of the preconceived and humanly organized programme, either.