I’m sorry to say I see little resemblance between Father Ronald Rolheiser’s
“Centering Prayer” (October 30) and the “Contemplation” of the Desert Fathers,
John of the Cross and The Cloud of Unknowing.
For Rolheiser, contemplation is “prayer without the attempt to concentrate
... on God”. But then he contradicts himself, quoting The
Cloud, saying “It’s a simple reaching out directly towards God”.
Introducing A Letter of Private Direction by the author of The
Cloud, Jesuit James Walsh says, “It is not at all a question of thinking of
nothing, but of dynamically accepting the fact that I am .... nothing.”
The Desert Fathers’ first requirement for contemplation is detachment, but
Rolheiser doesn’t mention detachment.
As to John of the Cross, he says, “The soul enjoys being ... fixed
in a loving knowledge”. Then even when having passed from meditation to
contemplation, “as soon as the soul comes before God, it makes an act of
knowledge”.
Contemplation is a grace for which we prepare primarily - if I may refer to
a woman, a Doctor of the Church and John’s mentor – by Teresa of Avila’s
“intense practice of the virtues”. By trying merely to empty the mind, “we shall
end by driving ourselves silly.” Exactly.
Meditation is something we do. Contemplation is something God does for us,
when we are ready.
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