Hail Mary, full of Grace . . .
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Contemplation, in the realm of spirituality, can be described as a direct, unmediated experience of God. Such an experience, of course, can be alluded to, but never actually described.
There are many avenues into the experience of Contemplation. An ancient way, popular again today, is the way of negation – the letting go of all thoughts and feelings, all understandings, all sensory experiences. This way seeks to find God in the empty silence of the negative way. It works. For many people. But there are many ways into Contemplation because there are may different kinds of people, many approaches to spirituality. It matters little what the approach, as long as it is centering, re-collecting and focusing the heart and mind upon God. Indeed, this form of prayer is called “habitual re-collection,” and is what the Apostle Paul means by “pray without ceasing.”
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For some people, this centering prayer is aided not by the denial of things, but by focusing upon one thing, through which the heart and mind are drawn to God. The prayer is not in the image or thing, nor even in the words. Such things are avenues to Contemplation, but the Contemplation itself is still the silent, unmediated experience of God. Students of Contemplative prayer describe these two approaches as prayer without images, or prayer with images. Some call this apophatic and kataphatic prayer. In addition, people follow one or the other of these by stressing thoughts (speculative prayer) and others by following feelings (affective prayer), is an imageful and emotional (kataphatic/affective) avenue into Contemplation.
The Rosary is an imageful and feeling (kataphatic/affective) approach to prayer.
There are three parts of the Rosary devotion:
1. The words of the prayers (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be)
2, The meditations upon the mysteries (e.g. the Joyful Mysteries: Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, and Finding the Boy Jesus in the Temple)
3. The simple feel and sound of the beads themselves as they move through your fingers.Image may be NSFW.
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The prayers and the meditations form the same experience as gazing at an icon, candle, cross, or other object. The words are said in a quiet, almost chanting way, without thinking about them. The meditations are not an analyzing of each mystery, but the gazing at each one as at a picture. The physical experience is a sort touching God, without thinking or describing. Indeed, once one has prayed the Rosary often, just a silent holding of the beads is an experience of prayer.
Over the next week I will describe a series of seven sets of Rosary Mysteries (as opposed to the traditional three,) one set for each day of the week, taking us from before Creation to the Culmination of all things. You might want to find a Rosary today, and be prepared for the journey.
~ Will, ObJN
Filed under: My Thoughts, Prayer Tagged: Christian, contemplation, contemplative prayer, Rosary Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
