What is Contemplation?
The contemplative tradition is part of our Christian heritage, and it is making a big comeback in the 21st century! This ancient way of being with God offers a gentler, quieter way of being with God than what we might be used to. Contemplation invites us to slow down, become still, and more aware of God’s enduring presence with us. This posture helps us understand and experience the truth that we are, in fact, God’s beloved child—just as we are. Contemplative practices aid us in the discovery that there really is nothing we have to do that will make God love us more than he already does. And that there is also nothing we could ever do that would make God love us less. We are invited to shed the ‘shoulds’ and the ‘musts’ and just be at home in God’s presence as our authentic selves. We learn that we are not defined by what we do and that our identity in Christ is not something we have to earn or achieve, but a gift that is simply received. The contemplative tradition and its practices draw us into a deeper intimacy with God—or ‘union with God’ to use the language of the Christians mystics, and this is the point of contemplation.
Jesus echoes this truth when he says, “The Father and I are one.” We hear it again in Paul’s mystical use of the phrase ‘In Christ.’ We see it in the lives of the Desert Mothers and Fathers (300-400 AD) who chose to move away from the entrapments of the world and seek union with God in quiet simple living. We catch glimpses of it throughout church history right to the present day, especially in the curiosity and hunger Gen Z has for something deeper and richer than what capitalism, consumerism, and social media has to offer. And this includes those young adults of faith who have become disillusioned by the high production but perhaps low spiritual formation of the mega-church era. God is the True Source of what we find ourselves longing for, and the contemplative tradition is about allowing curiosity and wonder about God to take us deeper.
‘The fullness of joy is to see God in everything.’
~ Julian of Norwich
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Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, we find resonance in wairuatanga - an awareness within Te Ao Māori that the two ‘waters’ of the spiritual and the natural worlds are present at all times in every aspect of life and flow together as a single stream (SGM website).
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In his highly acclaimed book, Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of the Christian Faith, Richard Foster identifies six broader traditions within Christian Spirituality: the contemplative tradition (the prayer-filled life); the holiness tradition (the virtuous life); the charismatic tradition (the Spirit-empowered life); the social justice tradition (the compassionate life); the evangelistic tradition (the Word-centred life); and the incarnational tradition (the sacramental tradition). It’s helpful to bear in mind that the streams are not meant to be limited to denomination groupings, even though we often default to these ‘labels’. Viewing these traditions instead as overlapping themes that have influenced and informed the Christian Church throughout history is a truer sense of what is meant by the streams. Often we talk of ‘evangelicals’ or ‘charismatics’ as though these terms cancel each other out and cannot be present together. Most of us dive in and out of the streams in our lifetimes..
Put simply, the contemplative stance is desire for God and to be with God. ‘The contemplative tradition is a response to God’s longing that we spend time with him, and that we create space in our lives to be with him’ (Smith and Grabeal). While this is also a key prayer focus of the evangelical tradition, the contemplative tradition prioritises the use of quiet physical space in order to create conditions such as solitude, stillness and silence to facilitate prayer.’
Commissioner Samuel Logan Brengle, of the very early Salvation Army urged his comrades to, ‘Cultivate the spirit of prayer … When you feel God wooing you into his presence, and calling you to secret prayer, go!’ These words reveal an understanding of prayer that is gentle and warm rather than harsh, dutiful or demanding. God as the Divine Lover “woos us”, desiring to be with us. As the beloved, we are encouraged to listen and respond to that loving invitation. Brengle’s words encourage the cultivation of a “spirit of prayer” because our listening and response can easily be snuffed out by the busyness of life’s demands, including an over-zealous response to the needs of the world. What was true in the 19th century rings resoundingly true for us today, if not more so.
Contemplative Practices
There are many and varied contemplative spiritual practices, but all seek to help you rest in God and live out of who God says you are. Contemplation and activism are two sides of the same coin. One feeds our way of being with God while the other fuels God’s call on our lives. Both are part of who we are in Christ and who we are becoming as disciples—both are spiritual formation.
A contemplative prayer practice usually involves a ‘dropping in’ or an ‘unhooking from’ our busy mind. We learn to sink into our hearts or a posture of ‘noho puku’ which means ‘sitting in the belly’. Practices like breath prayers and centering prayer, can help us to become more aware of this inner home. Some of my favourite contemplative practices are often offered during sessions.