A famous Benedictine mystical writer, William of St Thierry, who was a personal friend and follower of St Bernard, said, “You will never love someone unless you know them, but you will never really know them unless you love them”.
We can only come to know God in such a way that we can love and so enter into him, by coming to know and love him in the person of Jesus Christ in his human embodiment.
The context is all important.
In the early Church this meant that those who had never known Christ personally were first and foremost taught Christian meditation. In this new form of preparation for prayer, the spotlight was put on the person of Jesus Christ as he was, and as he had loved, died and risen from the dead to set up the Church on the first Pentecost day. However, this meditation took place in a context. As the overwhelming number of first converts were Jews, this context was in the framework of a daily timetable of prayer that they had inherited from their spiritual forebears. That is why I have already detailed a similar context of prayer that gives my readers a modern Christianised version of that early prayer.
The meditation that now begins for those who have chosen to commit themselves to the great spiritual adventure that is about to begin, must at all times be contained within the context of this daily prayer. This will be of even greater importance when the mystical contemplation to which meditation leads begins.
Journey into Infinite Love
This great adventure is beginning because of the deep inner yearning for God that rises from the depth of our being, where from the beginning we have been created in the image and likeness of God. This deep inner yearning is another way of referring to the love that can alone lead us, not just to, but into God. In meditation, and that is its very purpose, this love that yearns for God discovers him as embodied in the most lovable and the most adorable human being who has ever lived on earth.
As knowledge of him grows, so also does love for him grow, the love that as William of St Thierry says will alone enable us to really know him. In God’s infinite love there is no gender, for the male and female expressions of his love that appear as two on earth, are as one in him in heaven, where love is found in its fullest possible perfection as one, or perhaps more precisely as three. As God’s love is found perfectly embodied in his Son Jesus Christ, then notwithstanding his obvious maleness, that love is as one in him too. That is why other human beings, whether male or female, who are drawn to come to know and love him in meditation, can come to love him equally, if differently, and so enter into him as they prepare for the fullest possible union with God possible.
Put the Spotlight on Jesus Christ
The school spiritual director who first taught us how to meditate, insisted that we should turn to those passages that put the spotlight on Jesus Christ. We should concentrate on those scriptural texts that most especially accentuate his perfect loving and adorable humanity. We were to meditate on him in the act of doing, not just for all human kind, but for each one of us personally to inspire us with a quality of loving that will take us out of ourselves and into himself.
May I suggest to the reader who is eager to begin this exciting adventure, to set aside time to meditate regularly, for the person who only meditates in fits and starts will get nowhere beyond the next emotional high. If modern travellers complain that in the hectic modern world in which we find ourselves this is all but impossible, then consider the many hours given each day by young and old alike, to watching television and accessing the world of superficiality on smart phones. The latest smart inventions are even now being devised that will continue to distract us from the only quality of love and loving that will ultimately satisfy us.
The Four R’s
I have detailed the practise of meditation in most of my books and in a podcast on my website so in this summary let me just suggest this to get you started. Begin with Chapter 13 of St John’s Gospels and practise what I call the four ‘R’s. Read, Reflect, React, Repose. Read slowly and prayerfully a few verses at a time. Then reflect on them, ruminate on them as St Augustine used to say, until you feel the need to react to what you have read in prayerful dialogue with the One whose words or action you been reflecting on.
In order to make this exercise even more inspiring, prepare yourself by going back in your imagination into the past, place yourself in the ‘Upper Room’ when Jesus comes in with his disciples. Look at them, realise what is about to happen, not just to receive the most profound wisdom that has ever been given, but to visualize the most sublime action that is about to be performed by the holiest priest who ever lived. There is no hurry, if it takes weeks or months to plumb the depth of what Christ said and did in that upper room, be assured that it has taken me a lifetime, a long lifetime and I am only just beginning!
The Passion and Death of Christ.
When what was celebrated in sign and symbol during the Last Supper begins to be put into practice when Pilate condemns Christ to death, be there with your imagination. In your mind’s eye as an onlooker see what happened and realise why it happened and realise too how what happened is not just for humanity in general, but for you in particular. If you imagine for a moment what is being done to Christ is being done for someone whom you love, and who loves you, it may help you realize something momentous and life changing.
It may help you to begin to realize what will happen when Christ gradually becomes for you what he wants to become for all, the closest dearest loving friend and lover whom they have ever had. When you begin to believe in this man and in the personal love with which he wants to possess you, then meditation on his Passion which he endured to prove that love for you, will move you like never before.
From Meditation to Contemplation.
The whole point and purpose of meditation will be seen when it supercharges the love that first led you to practise consistent meditation when it comes to a dramatic climax. Some spiritual writers have called this ‘Acquired Contemplation,’ because it can be attained with the grace of God that is always readily available to us, as well as with genuine holy human endeavour. The love for God that drew us to meditation is now bursting with the desire for an even fuller, deeper and everlasting union that can only be attained in true mystical contemplation that is a pure gift of God.
This gift cannot be attained until a testing personal purification enables us to be united with Christ, in whom, and through whom, all our deepest desires and longings are brought to completion.
David Torkington’s latest book outlining the journey from Vocal prayer, through meditation to Mystical Contemplation can be found at The Primacy of loving – David Torkington