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Meditative Strategies:
When we first attempt to focus, we
often complain that our thoughts
wonder so much and far that
spiritual poverty will
always be impossible, but even the Olympic
runner had to learn to stand, take
steps, and go through the toddler
phase. Ours minds are much more
complex than a large building, and
it takes more time to build the
focus than it does a large
structure. By practicing these
techniques, we will be on our way
towards spiritual poverty. The
techniques should be used in
conjunction with our meditation
regardless of which meditation we
prefer.
We might be overwhelmed by the
number of things that focus
involves, but at this point, we
are only learning how to do some
exercises. We do not need to worry
about doing them all at once. At
the end of the section on virtue,
we will learn how to gradually put
these exercises and virtue
together to reach spiritual
poverty.
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Visual Meditation:
To reach spiritual poverty we need
to pray with all our appetites
which are located throughout our
body. If a part of our body has
feeling, then it has appetites
that need to be focused. Visual
meditation is one of the
techniques we use to bring the
focus to different parts of our
body.
Most of us can close our eyes and
visualize something. We form a
mental image of what we want to
see. If we are unable to do this,
then we should practice it until
we have it down.
Of course, when we "look" at
something with our eyes shut, we
don't actually see it. We can,
however, recall it from our memory
or even construct it from our
imagination. When the image comes
from our memory, we might strive
for the highest accuracy; but the
image that comes from our
imagination will likely have
nuances or modifications that suit
our fancy. We are not like a
computer that stores an image and
recalls it, we are rather like the
Internet which stores and modifies
the image many times in different
places with various biases.
If we wanted the people on the
Internet to focus on a certain
subject, we might ask them to
submit their images that pertain to
the subject of focus. Within our
body, we can focus on a meditation
by asking a certain part of the
body to recall or construct an
image of the meditation. In other
words, let's suppose the
meditative image was Jesus hanging
on the cross. We could try to see
the cross within our stomach,
heart, or mind, and we could also
ask those parts to visualize the
image somewhere else. For example,
at first we might visualize the
cross in our stomach. As the
stomach picked up the feeling that
is associated with the meditation,
the stomach would gain the ability
to visualize the cross itself.
Then the stomach might visualize
the cross a few feet from the
stomach. If the stomach is able to
feel the presence of Jesus, the
visualization will be even easier.
We want to visualize with our
stomach and other parts of our
body to give the stomach the
ability to worship independently
of our other parts. In spiritual
poverty, we have all parts
worshiping independently, and the
importance of the independence can
not be overstated. For example,
when Aquinas proves the holiness
of Jesus or Mary he demonstrates
that each part of them was acting
free of the other parts. We can
not be fully worshipping God when
parts of us are busy making other
parts of us pray. Each part of us
should be able to visualize and
meditate without assistance from
another part.
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Audio Meditation:
If we don't use audio to help our
focus, it will probably become
part of our distraction. We don't
need to turn our thoughts off to
have a passionate and loving
prayer experience, but we do need
to focus our thoughts on our
meditation. In fact, we must gain
control of our audio thoughts to
have focus. Most of us our
accustomed to forced audio
concentration, but for the
purposes of deep prayer, our
audio focus needs to be more
relaxed and complete which are
techniques that should be used all
the time. It takes too much energy
and effort to dictate our
thoughts. We need to use a
cooperative approach that is
accepted by all parts of us. Every
part of us has an appetite for
God, and we want bring all parts
of us together to worship our
Lord. Our audio meditation is one
of the most effective means for
doing this.
We practice audio meditation and
visual meditation in nearly the
same way. We hear things inside
our head, but we can also imagine
hearing with something other than
our mind. For example, we can
listen with our hearts or
stomachs. We might think that by
listening to our stomach that we
will know when to eat, but we are
striving to stimulate the
spiritual appetites in our stomach
and other places. Each part of our
body has many different appetites,
but as was demonstrated by
Aquinas, all parts of the body
have an intrinsic appetite for
God. We are trying not to listen
to the predominant appetite that
is normally associated with some
body part. With our vision, we
strive to see something holy, and
with our hearing, we want to hear
something holy.
We control the meditation by
picking some picture and saying
that relates to the daily
meditation. Then we try to see the
picture and hear the saying with
different parts of our body. For
example, the picture might be
Jesus hanging on the cross and the
saying could be, "Lord have
mercy." Then, we would try to see
the picture with our stomach while
hearing "Lord have mercy" with our
stomach. We would then repeat the
process with our hearts and then
our minds. If we become practiced
at it, we can meditate with all
parts (these three and all the
rest) at the same time, and we
would not be that far from
spiritual poverty.
At this point, it might seem that
the meditation is getting
complicated, but we are only
covering meditative techniques. We
want to gather a set of techniques
which will be tools that we later
build with. It is not necessary to
combine the audio, visual, and
other meditations at this time.
That will come later. We want to
build with those things that are
comfortable to us, and we can pick
up more skills as they attract our
interest.
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Local Exercises:
When we are in church, it is
distracting to us if some of those
present are not participating. It
is no different for our focus
which is within us. The more
participation we have within us,
the more focused and ready we are.
We can't use force to get the
people in church to participate
because participation implies a
voluntary effort. In the same way,
we can't stuggle to force
participation within us, we need
to evangelize and engage the
nonparticipating parts of us. To
be completely focused, we need
full voluntary participation from
every part of us.
At first, full participation might
seem to be an impossible task, but
the focus is contagious because
spiritual appetites are in all
parts of us. As one part of us
begins to prays, it awakens the
spirituality of another part of
us.
With constant prayer, all parts of
us will eventually be evangelized,
but the passive approach takes too
long. As He was ascending into
Heaven, Jesus sent his disciples
into all parts of the Earth to
proclaim the Good News. We need to
take a similar approach by
evangelizing all parts of us.
If it is on the center stage, it
should be the primary focus at
every location within us. We have
covered visual and audio
meditation which are two local
evangelical methods, but any
meditation can be carried out in
any venue. While it might seem
impossible to get all parts to
participate, in practice, every
part voluntarily participates
after it has been evangelized. We
should not accept any excuses from
parts that don't want to
participate. While we don't force
participation, we know we can
evangelize all parts because they
have an appetite for God.
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Breathing Basics:
Breathing can either work for us
or against us. It can be a source
of distraction, or it can help our
focus. We have so many appetites
at cross purposes which make us
inconsistent. To consistently get
outstanding prayer times, we need
to have a sense of timing and
rhythm, and breathing can become a
big part of establishing this
harmony.
Many mechanical functions and all
living things have a cycle. For
example, the Church has a
liturgical cycle that starts each
year but repeats itself every
three years. These cycles take us
through all critical parts of
salvation. Then, inside the
liturgical cycle is an obligation
to gather at least on Sunday and a
few other days for Holy Mass. The
Mass has its cycle and cycles
inside of cycles. We would do well
to observe the wisdom of this
design. Within these pages, we
will setup various cycles in our
prayer life, and breathing
constitutes a basic and bridging
cycle.
Breathing has several bridging
characteristics. It has voluntary
and involuntary attributes. It is
a physical cycle that we want to
tie to a spiritual cycle. The
Church sets the example for us by
tying spiritual year of the Church
to the physical year of the
earth's orbit. In our prayer time
each breath should be the
beginning of a new spiritual
cycle.
With each breath, our lungs are
replenished with oxygen, and each
breath should begin a cycle of
renewal within us. In particular,
we should renew the audio and
visual themes of our meditation.
For example, if the visual
meditation is the, "Crowning of
the thorns", then we should
visualize this at the beginning of
each breath. If the audio
meditation is, "My Lord and my
God," we should hear this at least
once during the breath. Before we
take in a new breath, we should
get into the habit of checking
whether we engaged the audio and
visual meditations during the last
breath.
Besides the audio and visual
meditations, each breath should be
a renewal of our virtuous
practices as they relate to our
prayer time, but we will leave
that discussion to the next
chapter.
Each breath should be the
beginning of a new cycle that is a
part of a larger cycle. We could
emulate the Church which has three
years of scripture readings but
begins a new cycle each year. A
new breath should revisit a local
exercise. If we break the
exercises into 3 areas such as the
stomach, heart, and mind, then we
would start a new breath with the
audio and visual meditation in the
stomach. The next breath would
move to the heart. The last breath
in the cycle of local exercises
would move to the mind. Then the
cycle would start over again in
the stomach.
The physical breathing cycle has
two parts: inhaling and exhaling.
We can't be using the full cycle,
unless we are using parts of the
cycle. We should assign tasks to
each part of the cycle. For
example, we could begin the
inhaling with the audio and visual
meditation in a new part of the
body. Then as we exhale, we could
quickly revist the other parts of
the body and check whether we are
still thinking about the
meditation. Practices such as
these will lead us toward a
spiritual flow which is a more
advanced meditation. Each part of
the cycle should help us to
maintain our focus.
We might protest that all of these
items forced into a single
breathing cycle make prayer
difficult, complex, and
unpleasant, but this attitude
means that we are forcing the
issue. If this is too many things,
then we are trying to accomplish
too much too fast. Our focus takes
time to build. We should start
with something that is comfortable
but not too relaxing. As we grow
accustomed to what we are doing,
we can add to it. The focus should
not be too taxing.
We might also be under the
impression that all of this
busyness seriously detracts from
the prayer experience, but as it
turns out, this is more of an
excuse than a valid complaint. We
have already demonstrated the need
to collect our thoughts during
deep prayer. If we didn't do these
exercises, our minds would still
be very busy. We can't slow our
minds down, but we can think about
things that build a focus. The
busyness of the meditation is
distracting, but it distracts us
from the pleasures of our own
vanity.
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Theme Variety:
We are more comfortable in neat
and organized environs with
everthing is in its place, but God
doesn't fit. God doesn't fit in
our hearts, minds, beings, or even
our imaginations. God is wider,
longer, smarter, nicer, happier,
and and greater than anything
else. When we constantly use a
single meditation, we are
narrowing our scope of what God
could be to us. While we can never
know all things about God, we
should try to know and relate to
God as much as possible. God can
never be put into any place,
because our experience of God is
always expanding.
When our meditations always focus
on one thing, it makes it harder
for us to know God in multiple
ways. For example, if our only
meditation is Jesus hanging on the
cross, we would not be as likely
to see God in a child, infant, or
woman. All things have their
creation and being in God, and
therefore, all things bear witness
of a part of God. While God is
expressed in all things, God is
infinitely simple. The simplicity
of God is in all things. We can
not find the simplicity of God,
without discovering the common
simplicity between all things.
This concept of discovering God
reaches across all attributes of
God. By consistently taking a
narrow meditation theme, we are
taking a longer path in the
spiritual journey.
Different people relate to God in
different ways, and different
parts of us relate to God in
different ways. Our spiritual
banquet should have something for
everyone. Our stronger appetites
might try to convince us that this
is not necessary, but each part of
us needs to identify with the
theme and be fed by the theme of
the focus. Our conversion and
conviction will be much stronger
if we vary the theme of our
meditation to meet the needs of
all parts of us.
The Church sets a good example for
us. We celebrate Lent, Christmas,
Easter, Assumption, and a number
of other feasts and observances.
When moving from feast to feast,
the point of focus can change from
a baby, to a man, woman, or
spirit. The themes range from
repentance to celebration. Our
meditation sequence should not
only emulate this variety but also
synchronize with the theme on a
daily basis for we are all part of
the same body.
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Common Meditations:
Since most of us are not students
of meditation, it may seem
difficult to find a meditation
that varies the theme and follows
the liturgical calendar, but we
have a number of meditations that
meet these requirements. To give
us a feel for how all of this
comes together, we will look at
two of the more common meditations
that do all things well.
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Lectio Divina:
Lectio Divina is a reading,
meditation, application, and
contemplation of a passage from
the Bible. There are many good
discussions on this ancient
practice, so we will not repeat
them here. We should, however,
offer a few words for those of us
who are beginning this practice.
We often make the mistake of
reading the Bible as a handbook
from God, but we should read it as
a personal letter from God. In a
more pluralistic and practical
application, we sometimes see
people filling out work sheets
during a sermon. While there is
nothing wrong with this, God is
more about agape then legalism. It
is possible to know many things
about the Bible without knowing
much about God. In other words, it
is good to search for biblical
principles, but it is better to
build a relationship with God. If
we are going to use the Bible as
the focus of prayer, we should use
Lectio Divina. Pope Benedict XVI
is convinced that the promotion of
Lectio Divina would bring about a
renewal in the Church.
In Lectio Divina technique, a
significant emphasis is placed on
the audio meditation, but the
other practices (e.g., visual
meditation, local exercises, and
breathing basics) need to be
followed as well. The practices
that we will cover, such as
virtuous, will also be needed. In
short, all good practices are
still used within the Lectio
Divina method.
The actual passages from the Bible
are not specified, but we would do
well to practice passages that are
consistent with the liturgical
calendar of the Church. An easy
way to accomplish this is to
simply use the readings from the
Mass. In particular, we should
meditate upon the Gospel reading.
We haven't covered the
meditative commemoration yet,
but the Lectio Divina technique
will make this harder to build
than it is with some of the other
methods. This is by no means a red
light, but it is something we want
to take into consideration. If we
keep in mind (i.e., try to
commemorate) the actual presence
or relationship with Jesus, Mary,
or some other representation of
God, we can overcome some of this.
We should also remember that
virture (to be covered later)
drives the meditation (the
commemoration is more of a prop).
Besides a slight weakness in the
commemoration, Lectio Divina has
an extremely strong pacing
attribute. As beginners we can
read more, and the readings tell
us about God. As we learn more
about God, we can actually begin
to experience God as we advance in
meditation. By watching what we
are interested in (either reading
or meditation), we can figure out
how to implement a prayer time
that is most effective for us.
Since we usually have very little
spiritual direction, this aspect
of Lectio Divina is priceless. No
other technique paces the pilgrim
as well as Lectio Divina.
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Rosary Meditations:
The rosary is probably the most
common of all meditations which
speaks volumes about its
effectiveness. Millions of us say
a rosary nearly every day.
By some accounts, the rosary got
its start from the Divine Office
which uses a recitation of the
Psalms, among other things. The
monks advised the peasants to
simply say an Hail Mary rather
than recite the Psalm because the
peaseants didn't know how to read.
In this way, the peasants were
able to join the monks in the
Divine Office.
Saint Dominic added the mysteries
to these Hail Marys. In the
legend, Dominic received the
mysteries directly from the
Blessed Virgin after he had spent
some time in prayer and penance.
We are not sure whether the legend
is true, but we are certain that
the mysteries demonstrate a keen
spiritual wisdom as we shall see.
In any meditation, there is a
tradeoff between the theme
variation and
meditative commemoration. As
we have shown, we need to vary the
theme, but as we shall see, the
commemoration can't be varied too
much without losing many of the
benefits of previous meditations.
We can't imagine a meditation that
surpasses the rosary in this area.
The rosary doesn't just vary the
theme, it varies the theme with a
number of cycles that balance the
meditation in a number of ways. We
can often find more than one theme
variation balanced in a single
cycle. The entire system has such
extreme spiritual insight that we
are drawn into spiritual orbits
without always being aware of the
process. For example, the
mysteries of the rosary evenly
cycle through the Holy Trinity
with Joyful Mysteries
demonstrating the attributes of
the Father, the Sorrowful
Mysteries concentrate on our
redemption through the Son, while
the Glorious Mysteries exude the
charismatic power of the Holy
Spirit. To put this another way,
in the Joyful Mysteries, Jesus and
Mary demonstrate how we are called
by God and how we are to answer
the call. In the Sorrowful
Mysteries, Jesus shows us how to
be saved through reconciliation
and sacrifice. In the Glorious
Mysteries, we are promised a new
life in the Spirit, and we are
shown how the Holy Spirit works
through us. Besides the Holy
Trinity, the rosary meditation
balances the the theme variation
from the young to the old, between
the divine attributes of the
masculine and feminine, from God
as spirit to God as man, and in
many other ways. The Rosary
provides all of these balances
simultaneously without sacrificing
any cycles, and even more
importantly, the meditative
commemoration seems to complement
the theme variation rather than
distract from it which would seem
to be a necessary problem. While
it would seem to be impossible,
the theme variation and meditative
commemoration of the rosary make
each other stronger.
Since so many themes are balanced
in a single cycle, the rosary is
able to cycle at an optimum
frequency to build the meditative
commemoration. When we cycle too
often, we might grow tired of the
meditation. Besides being boring,
we can often place many of our own
appetites into a meditation that
moves too slow which slows our
spiritual progress. On the
opposite side of the spectrum, if
we visit the meditative theme too
infrequently, we won't be able to
build on the past experiences as
easily. Besides being forgetful,
we won't be taking as many steps
on a single theme. It is as if we
have too many pots to stir. With
15 mysteries, the rosary is able
to hit an optimum frequency. By
taking one mystery per day, we
cycle about twice a month which is
a very good frequency.
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Intermediate Tactics:
The road from meditation (the
starting point) to
contemplation (the
finish) can be a long one, but the
length of the journey is
determined by the consistency of
the focus. By including the
intermediate tactics into our
prayer routine, we will make the
journey as fast as we can.
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Meditative Commemoration:
While the journey to contemplation
is not exactly a ladder, we can
build on past experiences. To put
this in a different context,
repetition will help.
We can find an excellent example
of how to build the commemoration
from the liturgical cycle of the
Church. We have seasons and feasts
that occur once in the annual
cycle. An annual event tends to
become a large and traditional
event. Since so many people know
about an annual event, it tends to
act as an evangelization tool that
brings more attention to the
event. For example, a number of
people cooperate with, participate
in, or even celebrate Christmas
who are not Christians.
By now, Christmas happens to
everyone, and many people make an
effort to feel the Christmas
Spirit. In many ways, this
gathering Christmas force at
Christmas time is very much the
same as a successful prayer time,
so let's look at how it developed
in more detail.
Over the centuries, various Saints
left their marks on Christmas by
establishing traditions that are
still with us today. These
experiences add to the Christmas
time of today and make the
Christmas season more spiritual.
We can be sure that God worked
through them to create such a
glorious and happy season.
Saint Nicholas, with his
generosity, started the Santa
Claus myth, and certainly
generosity plays a part of the
Christmas spirit. The magi from
the East also contribute to this
tradition.
Saint Boniface started the
Christmas tree by both modifying
and adopting the cultural
traditions of the German people.
We need to treat different parts
of the body with respect by
adopting and modifying the
attributes of that part of the
body. For example, we don't want
to insist that thinking is bad; we
want to modify and adopt thinking
to add to the prayer experience.
The ascetics felt emotions were a
distraction from logic, but the
universal or Catholic way is to
use these ardent desires to long
for God. In the same way, the
energy and identity of our sexual
side should be modified and
adopted to add a vibrant and
exciting part of God. In other
words, all parts of the community
are celebrating in the spirit of
prayer. We are not trying to force
any part to be quiet or still. By
modifying and adopting the
practices of all, we hope that our
prayer will enjoy universal
participation.
Saint Luke wrote the quiet and
beautiful Christmas narrative into
his Gospel, and Saint Jerome
decided it belonged in the New
Testament. The Christmas story is
a way of attracting new
Christians, and it evangelizes new
areas inside of us. When the story
of Christmas is told over and
over, it begins to become an audio
commemoration of Christmas. We may
not be aware of it, but the
tradition of the Christmas story
has been a part of us so long that
it is recognized by our DNA. As
the Christmas story is told, parts
of us are propelled toward the
Christmas Spirit without our
understanding or direction. The
Christmas story has become an
audio commemoration that
evangelizes everyone.
Saint Francis of Assisi invented
the Nativity scene that is so
prevalent at Christmas. Of course,
this is a visual meditation that
helps us feel the Christmas
Spirit. When we see a Nativity set
we are likely to be reminded of a
joyful, happy, and holy season.
The church often receives special
decorations for Christmas. For
example, Christmas trees and
lights are often set up. A few
years ago Christmas plays were a
part of the school year for both
public and private schools. As in
a social distraction, this visual
commemoration of Christmas has
weakened, but we can be sure that
the demand lingers. By now,
Christmas has many visual
commemorations, but all of them
stir the same feelings.
When we have Christmas today, we
use all these signs, stories, and
traditions, of the past, to get
into the spirit of Christmas. Our
prayer time should not be any
different. We should have a
certain regularity in our
meditation that brings the same
meditation to our spirit on a
regular basis. With each
meditation, we draw on past
experience to enrich the present.
If we have focus, it will be our
best meditation yet, and it will
become a tradition to our future
meditations.
While these things stir our
memories, we are participating in
a mystery that is much deeper,
richer, and more animated than any
memory. In fact, we are
contributing to a functional
relationship that goes back many
centuries. Our contribution, no
matter how small, becomes an
invaluable attribute of the
mystery of Christmas. As Jesus,
Mary, Joseph, Nicholaus, Francis,
Boniface, and many others continue
to contribute to the Christmas
mystery, so too, our participation
builds a part of mystery, love,
and appetite of Chrismas.
Commemorations are our guides that
stir our appetites to the deeper
experiences and love of God.
Let us now exchange the Christmas
celebration for that of the
Eucharist. Among other things, the
Eucharist commemorates the death
and resurrection of Jesus. There
are many symbols that are
typically used, but the crucifix
definitely reminds us of the death
of Jesus. The Resurrection is
represented in the breaking of the
bread among other things, because
we recognize the risen Christ in
the breaking of the bread. The
ceremony includes a theme, yet
sometimes there are exact words.
There are parts of the ceremony
that are often set to music. Saint
Pious X didn't like to see much
variation in the music, and we
probably have too much variation
of music in the Mass. All these
things point to certain principles
that allow us to have the most
rewarding prayer time.
All Catholic Masses have certain
expectations, and all prayer times
should have similar expectations.
For example children's Masses are
not quite like Teen Masses, and
Teen Masses are not exactly the
same as the normal Masses. While
the Masses for younger people are
a little different, we try to
build an expectation of what the
Mass is. We have some latitude
when we adjust prayer times to
individuals, but we also have to
own up to certain expectations if
we want the prayer experience to
be maximized.
Since there are no official prayer
time rules or rubrics, we might
get the idea that different prayer
times work better for different
people, but in reality, much of
the prayer time should be
structured the same for everyone.
During the Mass, we are trying to
unite many different people into a
common focus, and during our
prayer time, we have many
different parts that need to
cooperate with a single focus. On
a global scale, all the churches
worship the same with the same
theme, it shouldn't be any
different for the members of the
churches. While all us and each
part us make individual choices,
our salvation comes from
participating in the same
structure that is provided to
everyone in the same way.
We are trying to build a common
behavior across billions of cells
that have different appetites and
personalities, and a systematic
plan of organization can reap huge
rewards. Like the Mass, a regular
and structured prayer time builds
an expectation of what we should
experience. An expectation can
only be based on a previous
experience which means we will
want some repetition in our
worship. The power of the prayer
comes from different cells praying
the same prayer. To follow the
Church's example, the same Mass is
said everywhere across the world.
We need the same prayer in all
parts of our body. As more of us
participate, we have a stronger
experience. When we are dealing
with a multitude of diverse
opinions and appetites, we need an
organized plan to be successful.
To put this another way, the
degree of repetition is an
important part of our prayer time.
We need enough repetition to build
the expectation that we plan to
commemorate.
Every part of us has to
participate in the prayer. The
parts of us that are not praying
tend to disrupt those parts of
that are praying. We have all
experienced that at Mass.
When we are at Mass, we don't
allow other groups to have dinner
parties, ball games, or other
distracting activities in the
sanctuary. All are welcome, but
all are expected to participate.
The Mass has a long list of rules,
and we encourage every one to heed
the rules. We will even enforce
the rules as necessary. We can't
force people to pay attention at
Mass, but we do ask them to pay
attention. In other words, the
rules extend beyond external
behavior and into our inner
beings. As Saint Paul put it, we
are to have discipline and order
at Mass.
At Mass, we are expected to behave
in a certain way, and we expect
certain things to happen at Mass.
These expectations are some of the
building blocks of our prayer
experiences at Mass, and hence,
expectations are vital connections
with God.
The Church allows each Mass to
have its own personality but keeps
many things the same in all
Masses. For example, we
commemorate the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ at
every Mass.
We should have the expectation in
our prayer time to commemorate
previous experiences. Any regular
commemoration in our personal
prayer should involve our personal
relationship with God. In other
words, no prayer time should be
without it. If it is left out,
then it we can't call it a prayer
time. The commemoration is
critical because it becomes the
building block of our prayer time.
When dealing with the focus, we
have three aspects of the
commemoration to consider.
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Audio Commemoration:
The Church uses very little silent
prayer during the Mass. During
most parts of the Mass, the Church
exercises an audio commemoration
which comes in various forms and
frequency. The Priest might be
saying prayer, we sometimes sing,
and we have readings, among other
audio worship. Some of this
(usually the most prominent) is
repeated at every Mass, and most
of it is repeated at one time or
another. Is it not obvious that
the Church uses the audio
commemoration to keep our thoughts
focused?
The Mass teaches us at length
about how we should build the
audio commemoration in our prayer
time. For example, we strive for
focus more than we want quiet.
This doesn't mean that we want to
turn on gospel music when we are
striving for deep prayer, but a
silent mantra will help deep
prayer. The external gospel music
holds us captive to some sound
track. If the mantra doesn't work
for us, we could allow some
external stimulation (such as
gospel music) at the beginning of
the prayer time. The goal,
however, is for the music to flow
out of us (not into to us). At
Mass, the music is meant to
encourage participation; we are
not at a concert. We want everyone
to sing. In the same way, the
mantra is meant to get all parts
of us participating in the
meditation. Both the Mass and the
meditation are meant to be active
(not passive) experiences. When
the external stimulation is used,
the goal is still internal
participation. In prayer, we seek
a spiritual (not musical)
experience.
The silent audio commemoration
could be any of different types of
sound that are a part of Mass. For
example, it could be a Scripture
reading, common refrain, musical
refrain, consecration phrase, or
some other part of the Mass as
long as it keeps our mind on the
theme of the meditation. These all
work for us, because the
commemoration of the Mass is the
DNA of the our personal
commemoration.
While the meditation should always
have the same theme, we don't have
to use the same commemoration
throughout the meditation. The
audio commemoration can change to
assist different parts of the
prayer time.
In general, the commemoration is
simplified as the prayer time
advances which we can see from the
commemoration used at Mass. Mass
starts with commemoration of
repentance which are mostly
ad-libbed, moves to readings of
scripture which repeat usually
seasonally, proceeds as
incantations of consecration which
follow exact prayers, and is often
silent at Communion with perhaps a
meditative song for the more
restless members.
Since the Mass is the heritage of
our personal commemoration, we
should copy the process.
When we begin the prayer time we
are often distracted by any number
of things on our mind which we
need to start dismissing. If we
are mad at someone, we forgive
them. Should we feel guilty, we
ask for forgiveness. When we are
anxious, we need to place our
trust in God. The idea is to start
the prayer time with the mind as a
clean slate. Yes, there will be
some indelible markings, but we do
our best to come clean. For if we
don't try to rid ourselves of
distractions, we can't give our
attention to God.
After we empty ourselves of our
own vanity, we acquaint ourselves
with the theme which should be the
theme the Church has chosen for
the day. We can do this in any
number of ways, but we should
think of the theme. The daily
scripture readings would work, but
we don't have to be that formal.
With our theme in mind, we
should begin following the strict
rules of the focus. At this point,
the audio commemoration would be
something we have used many times
before, and we would have feelings
that we remember from previous
times. We want to build on those
feelings. This part of the
commemoration should not be too
long. If the words flow without us
thinking about it, then we are
fine. The words should assist in
making us pay attention to God.
When we are distracted by the
words, the words are too long. If
the words don't hold our attention
(provided that we are saying
them), then they may be too short
(of course there could be other
issues as well). At the beginning
of this discipline, we may feel
uncomfortable because we are not
yet mesmerized by God's presence,
but we hold to the rules of the
focus.
With any success, the focus will
become more easy, relaxed, and
comfortable, as the prayer time
progresses. It often feels so good
that we don't want to quit, but
the prayer time should begin on
time and end on time.
As in the Mass, the prayer time
also has a dismissal, but this is
covered in the last section,
constancy.
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Visual Commemoration:
That, which we visualize in our
mind's eye, also needs to be
commemorated during our
meditation. Along with the audio
commemoration, we need to have an
appropriate visualization of the
theme we are meditating on. These
visual experiences become part of
the tradition that is associated
with the theme. For example, the
Nativity set or Christmas star
could be a part of a Nativity
meditation. As we revisited this
theme time after time, the scenes
would start to trigger experiences
from past Nativity meditations.
Rather than moving the
visualization from one thing to
the next, we would commemorate the
scenes that we have by using them
over and over again. We should be
able to build on them which is
what we strive for in the
commemoration process.
In the same way that we moved the
audio meditation to different
parts of the body, all parts of
the body should participate in the
visual commemoration. With a
little practice, we can imagine
that we see things with parts of
our body that are not normally
associated with vision.
As a matter of fact, this is a
very significant tool in our quest
for self control. Temptations come
from appetites, and appetites are
usually heavily associated with a
certain part of our body. For
example, hunger is usually
associated with the stomach. When
we fast, we don't gain as much if
we don't substitute the hunger
pains with spiritual feelings. We
begin to do this by having our
stomach visualize the meditation
theme. If we can control the
feelings in different parts of our
body, we are begining to acquire
the self control that we need in
every area of our life.
At first, all of this self control
might seem extremely boring. How
can we live life with so much
discipline? This pessimistic
attitude is nearly opposite of how
it works out in real life. If we
give God (actually ourselves) some
time, the spiritual delight crowds
out sinful delight. We seek
delight which comes when our
appetites our satisfied, but we
often forget that our most innate
appetite is for God. While other
appetites can fade, our appetite
for the divine will last forever.
We can not know how exciting and
joyful life is until we exercise
feelings associated with our
appetite that longs for God.
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Commemorative Frequency:
How often should a theme be
repeated? The answer has several
dimensions that include religious,
psychological, and physical.
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Religious:
Let's start with the religious. As
we have shown, the theme should
agree with the Church calendar. We
are all one body. If we are not
working together, we are working
against each other. The Church
repeats its calendar with
different frequencies, and our
prayer time would necessarily have
the same repetition.
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Physical:
Organisms that are physically
larger need a slower repetition
than smaller organisms. A mouse's
heart beats about 700 times per
minute and an elephant's about 30.
Smaller things such as nuclear
physics are measured in billionths
of a second, but larger things
such as planetary motion are
measured in years. The repetition
of a church will be much slower
than the repetition of an
individual in the church.
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Psychological:
On the psychological side, the
theme should repeat often enough
that we can remember it. The Mass
is construed to grab our attention
and hold it, and our prayer time
should follow the same flow. We
want to begin by asking
forgiveness for anything that is
bothering us. Then we pick a theme
out of the readings. Then we
concentrate on the theme by
commemorating it with a frequent
repetition that holds our
attention.
The most frequent (or fundamental)
repetition stives to keep our
thoughts from straying. Thoughts
are always continuous and
changing. Since thoughts are
always moving from where we are
now to some new point, we need to
target the new point to be a
memory of a past experience, if we
want to continue the feelings
associated with the experience.
During each cycle of the
fundamental repetition, we need to
recommit ourselves to our
destination by reviewing the audio
and video commemorations.
The appetites associated with
traditions and commemorations are
very small which means the
fundamental repetition needs to be
very frequent. Each day in each of
our lives, our DNA is changed with
each experience. Then the DNA is
passed on to the offspring. Carl
Jung may not have proved this with
logical deduction but he certainly
proved it with empirical
observation.
The DNA creates the appetites for
the tradition that is passed
through the Church. It is not the
customs of past generations that
interest God, but rather God longs
for the feelings which are made
possible through the appetites
that were inherited from past
generations. On the road to Emmaus,
Jesus explained how Scripture
foretold the death and
resurrection of the Christ, but
the disciples didn't recognize Him
until He commemorated the Last
Supper. Traditions and
commemorations open the treasury
of feelings and appetites which
allow us to experience the
relationship. Relationships need
to be felt, if they are to be
real.
In deep prayer, we want to
experience the love of the Divine
Master, then we want to build upon
those feelings by focusing on the
relationship through the use of
commemoration. If we haven't had a
personal experience, then we
should build upon our collective
commemoration. Since we are all
one body, the collective
commemoration should always be the
central theme, anyway. In other
words, all of our sensitive
appetites in every part of our
body know God, we only need to
open our feelings to the 6,000
years of our collective
relationship. The key to unlocking
those feelings is the collective
commemoration that we have
experienced through the Church
with its Sacraments and Tradition.
While the commemoration of a
traditional theme is not our only
tool, it is a critical tool that
we need to build our personal
prayer experience. The religious
appetites that were formed by our
DNA usually begins as an extreme
minority, but the commemoration
will help it take the center stage
of our attention. Of course if the
commemoration is not from
tradition, it will not resonate
with the audience of sensitive
appetites which were formed by the
DNA. Without the commemoration of
a traditional theme, we will be
forced to reinvent the proverbial
wheel. Our relationship with God
goes back thousands of years. We
definitely do not want to start
over.
The commemoration of the
traditional theme may seem to be
off the subject of frequency, but
we need to point out that we are
dealing with something that is
small which requires a very fast
repetition. While spiritual
appetites are in all parts of the
body, they are not likely to be
the predominant appetite in any
part of the body. Since one
appetite influences another
appetite, this also means that the
commemoration needs to be
revisited very quickly. In fact,
the commemoration needs to be
revisited so quickly that to our
conscious it will seem like a
continuous repetition.
While we are born with appetites,
we need to build our
relationships. We can't build on a
relationship that we can't
remember. By reminding ourselves
of experiences with God, we
stimulate our appetites for God.
In deep prayer, we need to keep
coming back to the same themes to
allow ourselves a chance to build
our relationship with God around
them.
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Quality Tests:
If we don't want to get in a rut
and stay in a rut, we need to make
some determination of whether we
are in a rut. It is not enough to
have a map that charts a course;
we also need instruments that we
will call quality tests to make
sure that we stay on course. We
will make much better progress if
we utilize quality tests to make
sure that we are mentally and
emotionally on course.
What is the course? In terms of
the focus that is required by deep
prayer, the relationship is the
course, and we follow the
relationship through the
commemoration. In other words, we
are on course while we are
practicing the commemoration and
virtue, but we will leave virtue
to the next chapter.
We need to strive for constant
commemoration. Before this occurs,
we will nearly be checking for
quality on a constant basis. For
example, we can start with a quick
quality check during each breath
which we covered
before.
Each breath is the fundamental
quality check, but we should also
add multiples (called harmonics)
of the breath to the test. For
example, we could (or better -
should) count the breaths for a
specific number of counts. Since
we have other things going on
inside our thoughts, we should
count exhaling and inhaling each
as one count. In other words, if
we breathed out to two, then we
would breath in to three. If
breathing out is always even and
in always odd, then it is easier
to keep count. Then depending on
how experienced we are, at the end
of 4, 10, 20, or 100 counts (the
smaller the count the less
concentration) we review our
thoughts during the count to
determine whether we kept the
commemoration. With this check, we
are trying to find out if we made
the wrong turn before we are in
the next state. Counting allows us
to establish a hamonic test that
helps us stay focused.
We should be able to maintain our
focus during most count cycles. If
we can't, the count is too long.
If the focus is no problem, the
count is too short.
All of this counting might seem to
be a severe distraction, but with
the regular practice of deep
prayer, the counting becomes a
part of the focus. We need to
remember that our minds are always
wandering towards the direction of
our appetites which are often
sinful and seldom as holy as we
would like, and we need to bring
them back to the focus. In the
other methods
that we discussed, repetition is
used to maintain the focus. Lectio
Divina does not specifically use
counting, but the Rosary does. The
Rosary refocuses and changes the
commemoration every tenth
fundamental repetition. This isn't
exactly a quality test, but it is
an attempt to correct the focus at
short intervals. We don't
typically complain about the
counting during the Rosary, so
maybe the counting is not a
problem. The counting is
absolutely necessary if we are
going to structure the focus.
Counting is a relational discipline
that allows us to give the focus a
harmonic (i.e.,
a
fundamental repetition with
multiples of the fundamental)
structure. It so easy to follow
the procedure and say the words
but yet be distracted. The most
progress is made with the most
focus. For example, if we exchange
formalities with a friend in
passing, we don't build the same
relationship as we do in a heart
to heart talk which requires that
we pay attention. The harmonics,
which are made possible through
counting, allow us to put a second
layer of control on our wandering
thoughts.
Since the counting comes from
inside of us, we don't have to
keep track of some external event
to maintain the count.
It is wise to use the count to
time an external control such as a
clock. To do this, we would check
the clock after some set number of
counts. For example, we might
check the clock after 100 counts
to see whether 5 minutes have
passed. With all of our various
complex appetites, we need a
certain rhythm to assert control.
The clock become our metronome for
establishing a sense of timing and
rhythm to our meditation. In our
example, if our thoughts were
wandering, 100 breath counts would
come to 8 minutes or 3 minutes. A
breath count that is on time means
that our rhythm and its underlying
focus has the integral features
that deep prayer requires.
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Advanced Tactics:
These tactics can be used by those
who have practiced consistency and
focus for some length of time
(usually several years).
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Prayer Standards:
The spiritual journey should
always be moving forward, and
prayer standards can help to
ensure that we experiencing a
ratcheting effect (i.e., only
moves forward) during our prayer
time. As we begin to reach
consistency, a constantly
improving prayer experience
probably seems to be an
unrealistic ambition, but unlike
our physical limitations our
relational ability is nearly
infinite which allows each prayer
experience to be better than the
last. Our inattention and
distractions prevent us from
relating as well as we could.
Prayer standards alert us of
substandard attention while we
still have a chance to correct it.
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Vocational Engagement:
We can't just commune with God and
never do anything with this
empowerment. God will not allow
it. As Saint Dominic put it, we
must become active through our
contemplation. To become active,
we must develop our vocation which
goes beyond the scope of what we
are discussing here, but it is
more than picking something to do
that is good (yet, there is
nothing wrong with that). We must
act upon what is revealed in our
prayer time, but not every notion
that comes into our heads is a
command from God.
While we might not know what to
do, it is a mistake to do nothing.
Our prayer life needs an active
expression; even if it is only
tithing of our time to God.
Our vocation and identity are both
part of who we are. As we find our
identity in prayer, we will find
our vocation. There can be
different parts of our vocation,
but they should ultimately form a
single theme. We have as many
vocations as we have identities.
We have one vocation, and it never
changes.
There are many more things that
can be said about vocational
development, but we will leave
them for another time.
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