Happy lent brothers and sisters. I want to ask about the concept of contemplative prayer. It seems akin to christian meditation, probably a gross over simplification but I'm lazy so forgive me. Does anyone undertake this style of prayer? I'd love some beginners guide tips if any one has them? A bit of a 'how to' if that's possible would be great.
Do you mean Ignatian Exercises? The method there is to read a certain passage of scripture, say John 1:35-40. Then put youself, (in your imagination), in the place of one of the biblical characters and (in your imagination) live out the experience as if you were there in person. Throughout the exercise analyse your 'feelings', explore your emotional responses. Learn something about your innermost thoughts and desires. Then apply what you have learned in service to Christ. Any character will do, and most are appropriate for discovering inner truth about your motivations. Often it will help you appreciate what it is like to be someone else. This helps us to become more empathetic and deepen our understanding and appreciation of ourselves and others. .
I didn't have a concrete idea of what 'contemplative prayer' means. It's not one of the types of prayer that I've learned about (such as intercession, thanksgiving, or supplication, for example). So I searched online, and the first thing I found was this: https://www.gotquestions.org/contemplative-prayer.html It isn't very encouraging toward contemplative prayer! At least, not as they define it. I think the only type of contemplative praying I'd contemplate doing is meditating on the written Word (see Psalm 1) and on the goodness and greatness of God.
Ignatian Exercises are not so much 'meditation' as contemplation and exploration through imagination. When in tune with the Holy Spirit, our imagination can be a guide for the soul. It can be a channel through which, in a general sense, we may perceive God's will and direction for our lives. I would however not recommend this form of contemplative prayer for fearful, unregenerative loners. Ignatian Exercises are usually performed under an experienced Christian Director, who can discuss your experience and advise on your progress. Contemplation is not Bible Study or research, though scripture is always the basis of the exercise. It is exploration of your inner self, your spiritual strengths, weaknesses and sometimes hidden motivations. It is essentially a way of seeing ourself as Christ knows us, not just as we think we are or would like to be. It is always about becoming more Christlike.
I thought we were trying to give Mark some answers. I didn't write my response to undercut your answer but to say how I feel about "contemplative prayer." No need to be defensive.
My answer was not defensive. I'm surprised you saw it that way. My intention was to clarify what Ignatian Contemplative exercises are, as compared to other forms of prayer and in particular compared to Bible Study and Scripture Research. I was also hoping to warn those who decide to engage in this form of 'self examination' that it should not be a 'loner activity' but rather it should be done within the nurture of a Christian environment. It can easily be confused with New Age practices and is not for the 'loner', inexperienced disciple of Christ, who could easily be misled by their 'imaginings' which may not yet have been 'taken captive' for Christ. 2 Cor.10:5. .
Having read the article you helpfully posted the URL to I now realise that Ignatian Exercises are not 'Contemplave Prayer' as the article seems to define it. Though the exercises involve 'Contemplation' the contemplative aspect is never about 'emptying' one's mind but about engaging with the Biblical text in an imaginative and 'involved' way. Placing oneself in the skin of the characters in the narravive, to 'feel' how one might 'feel' in their place and in their circumstances. Then compare your own 'feelings' with what we know from scripture about the way Christ advises us to live, love and behave. There is nothing very 'Mystical' about this, so I guess I was wrong in thinking it might be relevant to the thread question. .
I'm going to throw this out there: contemplative prayer as a Western 'thing' doesn't exist. The concept presupposes that 'Christian mysticism' must exist - which it does - but it lacks sufficient context to offer substance. I recommend starting with the Wiki. You will see that contemplative prayer is a fundamentally Eastern Christian concept, inherited and modified from Greek philosophy. As such, many of the underlying theological concepts are unfamiliar to Western Christians. Take, for example, theosis, summed up by Athanasius of Alexandria in his De Incarnatione Verbe: For the Son of God became man so that we might become God. This type of thinking, usually called 'divinization' in the West, has always struck Western sensibilities as excessively mystical and borderline heretical, so it was essentially lost in the institutional bureaucracy of the Roman Catholic salvation apparatus, the Bibliolatry of the Magisterial Reformation, and in the creeping rationalism of the so-called Enlightenment. However, it was briefly revived in the 17th century by William Law (himself a mystic) and widely re-introduced by his protégé John Wesley in the form of 'Entire Sanctification' or 'Christian Perfection' (which has itself been lost in mainline Methodism, "having the form of religion without the power," and in the legalism of the 'Holiness Movement' offshoot). Anyway, I digress. Another unfamiliar theological concept tied to theosis is nous. This one is impossible to define succinctly - the best I can come up with is, as 'mind' is to the brain, so 'nous' is to the soul. Mind is what we call the aggregate of the thoughts, reasoning, perceptions, and intuition that happens in the brain. Noesis is the aggregate of these things operating in and from the human spirit. To know God experientially with one's nous is the goal of contemplative prayer, and the end goal is theosis. You can see why the Greeks called this 'theoria' and not 'praxis.' Noesis itself cannot be practiced - only cultivated. And now we come to the cultivation of noesis - another unfamiliar Eastern concept: hesychasm. As John of Sinai put it: "enclosing the bodiless primary cognitive faculty of the soul in the bodily house of the body." To properly understand hesychasm, one must understand the asceticism of the Desert Fathers, the writings of the Philokalia, and the theology of Gregory Palamas (14th cent.) If you're interested in exploring this further, the best place to start is with the Jesus Prayer.