Two Gifts of Deeper Prayer: Silence and Spaciousness

One of the great spiritual battles and journeys is to get beyond, and outside our self. St. Augustine described one of the chief effects of sin was that man was curvatus in se (turned in on himself, i.e. turned inward). Forgetful of God we loose our way. Called to look outward and upward, to behold the Lord and his glory, instead we focus inward and downward, on things that are passing, noisy, troubling, and far less noble. No longer seeing our Father’s face and experiencing joyful confidence, we cower with fear, foolishly thinking things depend on us. Yes, we are turned inward, and I would add, downward. Scripture bids us, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (Col 3:1)

One of the graces of deeper prayer, if we persevere through the years, is that the Lord to turn us upward and outward. And, gradually our prayer turns more toward God and is less anxious about our own aches and pains. For now, it is enough to give them to God and trust his providence. Gradually, we simply prefer to experience the Lord quietly, in increasingly wordless contemplation. God draws us to a kind of silence in prayer as we advance along its ways. But that silence is more than an absence of sound, but instead results from us being turned more toward God. An old monastic tale from, I know not where, says:

Sometimes there would be a rush of noisy visitors and the silence of the monastery would be shattered. This would upset the disciples; but not the Abbot, who seemed just as content with the noise as with the silence. To his protesting disciples he said one day, “Silence is not the absence of sound, but the absence of self.”

Yes, as prayer deepens and becomes more contemplative the human person is turned more to God and a kind of holy silence becomes private prayer’s more common pattern. This does not mean nothing is happening, the soul has communion with God, but it is deeper than words or images. It is heart speaking to heart (cor ad cor loquitur). This is a deep communion with God that results from our being turned outward again to God. And the gift of silence comes from resting in God, from being less focused on ourselves, more and more on God: Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with (holy) fear and trembling stand, ponder nothing earthly minded….. Yes, there is a time for intercessory prayer, but not now. Don’t just do something, stand there. Don’t rush to express, rest to experience. Be still, know that He is God. An old spiritual says, Hush….Somebody’s callin’ my name. Yes, pray for and desire holy silence, praying beyond words and images. Here are the beginnings of contemplative prayer.

Another gift that is given to those who are experiencing deeper prayer is a sense of spaciousness and openness. As the soul is less turned inward and increasingly turned outward, it makes sense that one would experience a kind of spaciousness. Those who have attained to deeper prayer often speak of this. Scripture does as well. Consider some of the following passages:

For the Lord has brought me out to a wide-open place. He rescued me because he was pleased with me. (Ps 18:19)
I called on the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place. (Ps 118:5)
The Lord brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. (2 Sam 22:20)
You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place. (Psalm 31:8)
Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: you have enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy on me, and hear my prayer (Ps 4:1)
And I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts. (Psalm 119:45)
And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth (which means latitude or width), saying, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” (Gen 26:22)

Yes, as we are turned outward and upward to God we soon enough experience the spaciousness, and latitude of knowing God. No longer pressed and confined by the experience of being turned inward (curvatus in se), the soul has room to breathe. Many people who begin to experience contemplative prayer, though not able to reduce the experience to words, express an experience of the the spaciousness of God. But this spaciousness is more than a physical sense of space. It is a sense of openness, of lightness, of freedom from burden and from being pressed down, it is an experience of relief. But again, all who experience it agree, words cannot really express it well.

St. Paul speaks of the unspeakable quality of deep prayer as well, though his experience likely goes beyond what we call contemplative prayer:

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. (2 Cor 12:2-4)

Yes, it is “un-sayable,” words fail. St. Augustine was said to remark of the Christian mysteries: If you don’t ask me I know. If you ask me, I don’t know.

But here too is a gift of deepening prayer to be sought: spaciousness, and that openness that comes from being turned outward and upward by God. An old Spiritual says, My God is so high, you can’t get over him, He’s so low, you can’t get under him, he so wide, you can’t get round him. You must come IN, by and through the Lamb.

Two gifts of the deeper prayer we call contemplative prayer, prayer which moves beyond words and images, beyond the self to God Himself.

The Romanist organization has, like the other “spiritist” organizations, placed a great deal of emphasis on attempting “deep thoughts” about God. Frankly, this is hooey.

First, of all, the Romanist group does not hold a biblical view of its doctrines. As noted around here, it finds itself above all that, able to construct its perspectives from extra-biblical traditions and opinions. If Rome thinks biblical Christians use YOPIOS, they ought to look in the mirror and notice that they don’t connect with ANY interpretation. They just manufacture the junk out of whole cloth.

Second, if they cannot get the basics right, their so-called “deeper” meditations are going off to the Flying Spaghetti Monster or somewhere other than the God of Israel, the God of the Bible. Thus, just as Muslims sincerely believe that they are going to have 72 virgins when that chest pack goes off, RCs are living a delusion of “deeper prayer”. Go read the text...your view is not there.

Third, the biblical writers of the NT, principally Paul, does not spend a great deal of time encouraging “meditation” or “deeper prayer”. Actually, he notes that we don’t really have any idea how to pray correctly...and never will until we are fully redeemed. His encouragement focuses on getting the story straight, something that Rome does not do insofar as it is so deeply committed to its traditions, myths, and fables. Wake up Rome...if Jesus permits. Otherwise, do not be deceived about your “deeper prayer”...the hole is just getting darker.

Dutchboy, I am a Catholic by my own choice. I read your post, and it hurt me to hear that you are closed to meditative or contemplative prayer. That touch from God to a heart that yearns for Him; the loving gentility of the Spirit that moves the heart toward a love beyond explanation.

You assume that Catholics don't know the Bible. For us, the Church has covered the translation and interpretation. But it also teaches that the Word of God which is the Bible is living, dynamic. Each day, when Salvation posts for us, we receive readings arranged over a three-year cycle that are read at Mass and on Good Friday (the only day there is no Mass). We're not taught by memorization, but by application. Over the years of my life, in several versions, I have read the Bible. I'm older now, and my syntax and recall are not what they used to be. But I still have it in my heart. And when I'm frightened, or upset, poor just need a verbal"hug" from a loving Father, I hold that Bible close to my heart, then read where He chooses to send me. Sometimes I choose my own, like Job 37, or the Psalms, poor the Last Discourse on John's Gospel. We do love the Bible, contrary to popular rumor. My Nanu (grandfather in Italian) read it out loud to my Nani who was illiterate but wise. My Mom was the youngest of -are you sitting down? 16. She got to hear, then did the same for me when I was little. She survived cancer when I was a baby, and prayer and God were part of our lives. Experiencing prayer? What of a 3 year old who, when in church with her parents prayed, "Now I lay me down to sleep..."- it was the only prayer I knew, but it came from the heart of an innocent child praying to God. I don't remember that in particular, but as I grew older, Jesus became my companion- I never saw or heard him, but I knew He was there. Not an imaginary friend, I had one of those, as most only children do- but Jesus. And I spoke to Him and knew He was with me then, too. I loved hearing the Scripture- and looked at the pictures in my Mother's Bible that she used to read to me from, and explain then read.

I hope I haven't been boring, sorry to go on so, but I grew up learning the meaning of Scripture- not much memorization- but how to live and why. Still learning. Hope I never stop. Even when I was away from the Church for awhile, I still read the Bible.

I pray that, if you haven't, you do experience the kind of prayer spoken of. It is a gift from God, and something to hold on to when life runs you down and you hit a bit of a bump on your prayer life.

God bless you, D! May you always stay close to Him, in good times and bad...

God bless you too, my FRiend. As a believer in Jesus, I am not against “meditative prayer”. I am against the excessive claim that the meditations of people are ways of drawing nearer to God when much of what they believe is incorrect about God and the Scriptures.

And, I am not speaking of “memorizing” the Bible; I am speaking about getting the story of the gospel (the incredibly good news of Jesus) straight...understanding correctly the “Word of God”. For example, if a man says, “Hey, it says right here, ‘if your eye offends, tear it out.’ so we need to start tearing out our eyes.” would you respond, “Okay.”?

I would say, “Sorry, you have misunderstood the text.” How can I say that if, after all, it was Jesus who said this? Because, if you keep reading the rest of the NT, you will see there is something going on here that requires getting the story straight. A bigger picture than what Jesus was teaching the Jews. Many Catholics avoid dealing with this hermeneutical requirement...that is, “How do we understand what the story is?”

Instead, many Catholics (and many evangelicals) simply take much of the Bible in snippets, like bumper-sticker sayings. “Love one another” “Blessed are the meek” “The Golden rule”. Etc. But, each of these has a context, and they mean something quite different when taken IN context than they do as a “saying”. But, the sayings live on.

Why? Because it is difficult to understand the story of the Bible taken as a whole...and many Catholics have yielded their responsibility to read for themselves, and granted Rome the right to tell them what that means. Where did Rome get this right? It told them it had the right!

Instead of reading the Book until the story line takes shape, they read the “required” texts (for a homily, or holy day, etc.) and allow the man in front to tell them the meaning of this “saying”. They do not notice that the bigger message does not mean that, at all, when read in context of the entire letter/book.

This very thing happened here on this thread. The quote from Paul had nothing to do with “meditative prayer”. But, the writer used the snippet to “prove” that Paul supported this. Nothing could be further from the truth. Whether Paul supported it or not could absolutely NOT be found in this quote. Paul is explaining that he is qualified to speak as an apostle because something happened to him.

Now, notice how this kind of misuse lowers the reliability of other things the writer might say! As I wrote, if you read the entire letters of Paul, they are not necessarily encouraging some kind of “meditative state”. Rather, he routinely encourages the Gentile readers after the cross (that’s you and me) to UNDERSTAND THE STORY. If you want proof of this, I’ll provide...but it takes reading big stretches of his letters and paying close attention to the flow of the argument.

That being said, I still believe there are many “Catholics” who are being rescued by Jesus. Not due to Rome; but in spite of Rome.

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