MEDITATION AND PRAYER are often confused, but there is no danger in this confusion if meditation develops into prayer; only when prayer degenerates into meditation. Meditation primarily means thinking, even when God is the object of our thoughts. If as a result we gradually go deeper into a sense of worship and adoration, if the presence of God grows so powerful that we become aware of being with God, and if gradually, out of meditation we move into prayer, it is right; but the contrary should never be allowed, and in this respect there is a sharp difference between meditation and prayer.
The main distinction between meditation and our usual haphazard thinking is coherence; it should be an ascetical exercise of intellectual sobriety. Theophane the Recluse, speaking of the way in which people usually think, says that thoughts buzz around in our heads like a swarm of mosquitoes, in all directions, monotonously, without order and without particular result.
The first thing to learn, whatever the chosen subject of thought, is to pursue a line. Whenever we begin to think of God, of things divine, of anything that is the life of the soul, subsidiary thoughts appear; on every side we see so many possibilities, so many things that are full of interest and richness; but we must, having chosen the subject of our thinking, renounce all, except the chosen one. This is the only way in which our thoughts can be kept straight and can go deep.
The purpose of meditation is not to achieve an academic exercise in thinking; it is not meant to be a purely intellectual performance, nor a beautiful piece of thinking without further consequences; it is meant to be a piece of straight thinking under God’s guidance and Godwards, and should lead us to draw conclusions about how to live. It is important to realise from the outset that a meditation has been useful when, as a result, it enables us to live more precisely and more concretely in accordance with the gospel.
Every one of us is impervious to certain problems and open to others; when we are not yet accustomed to thinking, it is better to begin with something which is alive for us, either with those sayings which we find attractive, which ‘make our heart burn within us’, or else, on the contrary, with those against which we rebel, which we cannot accept; we find both in the gospel.
Whatever we take, a verse, a commandment, an event in the life of Christ, we must first of all assess its real objective content. This is extremely important because the purpose of meditation is not to build up a fantastic structure but to understand a truth. The truth is there, given, it is God’s truth, and meditation is meant to be a bridge between our lack of understanding and the truth revealed. It is a way in which we can educate our intelligence, and gradually learn to have ‘the mind of Christ’ as St Paul says (I Cor 2: 16).
To make sure of the meaning of the text is not always as simple as it sounds; there are passages that are quite easy, there are other passages where words are used which can be understood only against the background of our experience, or of the traditional understanding of these words. For instance, the phrase ‘The Bride of the Lamb’ can be understood only if we know what scripture means by the word ‘Lamb’; otherwise it becomes completely nonsensical and will be misunderstood. There are words which we can understand adequately only if we ignore the particular or technical meaning they may have acquired.
One such word is ‘spirit’. For a Christian, ‘spirit’ is a technical word; it is either the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity or one of the components of the human body – body and soul. It does not always convey with the same simplicity and breadth what the writers of the gospel meant to convey; it has become so specialised that it has lost contact with its root. To make sure of the text and what it means, there is also the definition given in the dictionary. The word spirit, or any other word, can be looked up and immediately seems simple and concrete, although it may have developed into a deeper meaning as a result of the efforts of theologians. But we should never start with the deeper meaning before we have got the simple concrete one, which everyone could understand at the time Christ spoke with the people around him.
~Archbishop Anthony Bloom, Living Prayer
