April 5, 2011

What is Contemplation?

(This is a remix of an old post, which I have had occasion to clarify.)


Contemplation is the obscure knowledge that God has united the divine desire for our beatitude with our human desire for God. The ultimate identity of these two desires is the mystery we call the 'hypostatic union.'

Christ, then, in the perfect union of his two distinct natures, is perfect contemplation itself. The person of Christ is thus both the model and the object of contemplative prayer.
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2 comments:

  1. Mark11:07 AM

    I wonder whether Cardinal Ratzinger (as he then was) perhaps had something very similar in mind when he wrote:
    "We see who Jesus is if we see him at prayer. The Christian confession of faith comes from participating in the prayer of Jesus, from being drawn into his prayer and being privileged to behold it; it interprets the experience of Jesus' prayer, and its interpretation of Jesus is correct because it springs from a sharing in what is most personal and intimate to him".
    (Behold The Pierced One, p. 19).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brother Charles11:08 AM

    Wow. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Faithful, or even just thoughtful criticisms are always welcome. Uninformed rudeness to other posters or to the Lord and His Church is not.

I also reserve the right to reject comments promoting things like private revelations and fringe points of view, if it seems to me like they are being presented in a misleading way.

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