Sabbatical Journey Day 3

One of the early Priors of the Carthusian Order, Dom Guigo wrote: Reading seeks, meditation finds, prayer asks, contemplation feels.

There are times when I get the impression that God is trying to tell me something. I was listening to a DVD by Tobias Colgan, one of the monks at Saint Meinrad and he cited this from Guigo. Last night, while reading the book A Litany of Little Hours again, the quote, Reading seeks, meditation finds, prayer asks, contemplation feels.

There is much to ponder.

Reading does seek. Sometimes we seek entertainment and we read books that may entertain us. Often, we read to learn things. We seek to learn and we seek to understand, and so we learn from reading. Often when we need to know an answer to something we seek it; and we often seek it by reading.

In the spiritual life, however, reading is not really adequate. If we read Scripture for example and we read it to ‘seek’ that is all well and good. However, if one approaches the Bible with any sense of humility and even reality, there is one thing evident about reading the Bible. The Bible often asks more questions than it answers. I have, over the years, listened to numerous sermons preached on the Parable of the Prodigal Son and am amazed at all the different takes people have on one story. I actually disagree with most people on how this story ought to be interpreted and so it always strikes me that so many people can disagree on what is, at face level, a simple story.

But meditation is that which finds. When we read we seek, but we really do not begin to find what we are looking for until we take the time to be still and reflect. When we meditate we begin to reflect on the words we have read and begin to understand how those words impact us. Those of us who preach often read the Scripture for the following Sunday, and read about it, but, at least in my case, it takes me a few days before I actually write something. A lot of time is spent meditating and pondering what those words mean. That is learning to find what we are looking for.

Then there is prayer. Prayer asks. Please God, help me….. Fill in the blanks. Please God, forgive me…. Please God, can you do something about the weather? There are all kinds of prayer, thanksgiving, praise, and petition. We often petition God. We ask. We may not always ask for ourselves and we may pray for others, but we usually always ask God. This is a good thing, by the way. I suspect if we are always asking for a new car it may not be all that great, but asking for God with open hearts and minds is a good thing.

Then there is contemplation feels…..

Contemplation is often using a breath prayer, or mantra, or focusing on an image and being completely still and empty before God. According to Guigo, this is the one way we actually feel the presence of God.

I have a lot of ponder…