The Fullness of Life
Meditation
Meditation is a very ancient practice which many find so alluring because of what it promises to offer by way of spiritual growth, self-realization and personal integration. The application, however, is even broader. Athletes, circus performers, business entrepreneurs, teachers and students meditate in order to improve performances in their respective fields. Moreover, the practice of meditation can also bring about spiritual, psychological and even physical healings.
But what is meditation?
The term 'meditation' came from the Greek word melete which means 'care', 'study' and 'exercise'. Whereas the Latin word meditatio gives the sense of preparation and practice. In Christian context, 'Meditation' traditionally means 'mental prayer.'
It is distinct from vocal prayer like reciting the Psalms, the Lord's Prayer of the Apostle's Creed. Although in the course of vocal prayer the inevitable consequence of pondering on a word or phrase or certain article of faith is already an act of meditation.
This reminds me of a story in the Lives of the Desert Fathers. It is said that one of the saintly fathers had difficulty finishing the Lord's Prayer because as soon as he uttered the 'Our Father...' he could no longer continue because the thought of having a loving Father in heaven was so overwhelming for him that he would already be absorbed in ecstasy.
Meditation takes place whenever we begin to reflect, ponder or to consider something about God, about salvation, etc. But due to the influence of various cultures, schools and traditions, the word 'meditation' now means differently to various groups and individuals. Our purpose here, however, is to reflect on meditation in the context of Christian psycho-spirituality. Given the time and space, we will also explore on the more advance forms of meditation.
We sometimes wonder why in spite of our resolution to overcome our faults and failings we easily succumb to the same weaknesses at the slightest blow of temptation. We listen to the Word of Christ and are removed to the core. We resolve to change for the better, then comes temptation and before long we have forgotten our resolution. We are back to zero.
Why?
Although there are many possible reasons for our failure to change, yet one of the major reasons is that our resolutions often do not sink down to the heart but remain only at the head level; merely intellectual. For the Word of God to sink down to the heart, the practice of regular meditation can be a very big help. It enables us to assimilate, or interiorize a lesson so that we do not just 'know' it but also own it.
There are stages in Christian meditation and these stages stages vary according to schools or traditions. Christian spiritual writers like St. Therese of Jesus who with St. John of the Cross reformed the Carmelite order, referred to these stages as different degrees of prayer life. The classical and basic concepts of these stages are the purgative, the illuminative and unitive.
The purgative is the stage of purification from habitual sins. The illuminative is the stage of enlightenment. And finally, the unitive is the stage of complete surrender to and union with God.
In his letter to one of his spiritual children, Padre Pio, the now canonized priest-monk who bore the wounds of Christ in his body for some fifty years, left us a beautiful insight on the importance of Meditation. He wrote:
I cannot dispense you from meditation.
The sacred gift of meditation, my dear
daughters, is in the right hand of the Lord.
As you empty yourself of burdens,
the love of the body and the weight of
your will, and learn about humility, the
Lord will commence to communicate
with your heart. Be patient to sustain the
exercise of meditation and be content to
take small steps at first, until your legs are
able to run, or better until you have the
wings to fly.