“Behold I Am with you always.”  Jesus the Christ

“Contemplation is a knowledge of God that is impregnated with love.” St. Gregory the Great

How would you describe contemplation?  It’s not a word we encounter often, is it?  It’s certainly an idea foreign to much of modern-day Christian culture, and perhaps it’s not a concept that we are familiar with or actively cultivate.

And that’s not surprising, for we live in a fast-paced, information overloaded society.  Our focus is on being efficient, productive, and pragmatic.  To the extent that we might take time to carefully consider The Divine, it is probably only when we are facing a crisis or perhaps have some spare time. In his book “The Shattered Lantern”, Ronald Rolheiser says that in Western culture God remains present with us, but we are no longer present to God, because we lack a sense of contemplation.

Perhaps we don’t practice contemplation because we simply misunderstand what it is.  We think of it as something monks or mystics do.  We think that in order to do it “properly” we have to go away by ourselves for an extended period of time, maybe at a retreat center or some isolated place in nature.  Perhaps we simply don’t know how to “do” contemplation.

Contemplation is not that difficult or demanding.  In fact, contemplation is very simple.  It can be summed up in three words: “Awareness of God.”  That’s it.  To be a contemplative merely means that one is aware of God’s presence.  It means that one is living not as if God is distant, or even absent, and only makes occasional appearances, but rather that God is intimately immanent in our everyday lives.

That is the promise that Jesus made before His departure.  But not only did Jesus promise it, He showed us how to practice it.  Jesus communed with the Father, whether that was by going into the desert or in an isolated place to pray; whether by feeding multitudes or healing the sick; whether by going to the synagogue or the Temple; or even by suffering and ultimately dying.  Jesus practiced the presence of God.  There is a reason why Jesus was called Immanuel, which of course means “God with us.”   

We have been gifted with this same presence.  We have been called to this same awareness.  But how do we practice it?  Not by trying to be more holy, diligent, or dedicated to things that are divine.  Rather, I would suggest by being simpler and sensing the sacred in everything and everyone, especially in ourelves.  You’ve heard it said, “Take time to smell the roses.”  That is a call to simplicity.  The Church Father Tertullian said, “If I give you a rose you will not doubt God anymore, but of course the rose has to unlock a mystical insight and appreciation.”[1]

So I would ask you to consider these questions, dear friend:

What does contemplation look like for you?

What rose can you take time to smell today?

How else might you be aware of God’s presence?

If you’re interested in a book that will help to better understand and practice contemplation, I would suggest “Into the Silent Land:  A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation” by Martin Laird. 

Contemplation, the simple awareness of God, was a key component of Celtic Christianity, as the following excerpt from St. Patrick’s Lorica makes clear.Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right, Christ at my left.

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[1] Taken from “The Shattered Lantern”, Ronald Rolheiser, p. 54.