Angela Center

Integrating: spirituality, psychology, social responsibility and the arts

What's New

Reflection for Date November 12, 2006

Calendar

Psychotherapy /      Counseling Services

Conference Facilities

Registration

Contact our Staff

News

AC Press

HOME

Thoughts on last Saturday's Parish retreat day - the topic being Contemplation

It has always been a part of Catholic tradition to commune with God in two ways, the so-called negative way and the affirmative way. The negative way is that style of prayer that reaches beyond the things of this world, even beyond images of God as Father or A Mighty Fortress or Shepherd or a him or her - in a quest for an intimacy that is as profound as possible, a unity or fusion that leaves one speechless, in some cases in an ecstasy of love. This style of prayer has become especially popular in our modern world where the primacy of rationalism and science has left us with a world that's become disenchanted, devoid of any trace of God - a world of raw nature. It's poplar, too, because so many of the images we have of God, meant to stimulate devotion, have become stereotypes, so familiar, so worn that we want to bypass them to get closer to God as the Foundation of our being.

But then there is the affirmative way. If the negative way would follow the ascending angels up Jacob's famous ladder, the affirmative way would be inclined to receive its descending angels, the approach of God right down to where we are in the traces of his presence in the power and beauty of creation; in thunder or a gentle breeze, in the flowers of the field, in bells and the sea, in a wellspring and the gold of autumn, in stars and sunrise, in bread and wine, in music and saints, in Christ incarnate, in the metaphors we use such as Father, Lamb, Friend - and in the Eucharist. The affirmative way carries over to encountering God in the Gospel stories (which are not simply past events but opportunities for a current experience of a Gospel story's miracle - like a lifting of our own blindness or paralysis or as when I myself in the place of Peter meet Jesus on the shore of Galilee and he asks me quite directly, "Geoff, do you love me" three times!

So there's the negative way of reaching beyond all that gets between you and God to rest in his personal essence and there's the affirmative way that's open to God's arrival before you in one particular epiphany after another (as in the splendor of a gingko tree or a painting by Van Gogh). And in either case intimacy with God is the result. As for me, being half Italian, I'm inclined to the affirmative way. I said in my small group that I would be a polytheist if I were not a Christian - which is why I love to enter gothic or Romanesque or baroque churches in Europe where even the architecture is uplifting - the place transparent with God.

Several people found themselves closer to God in moments of bereavement when God rushed in to fill the vacancy left by a loved one. Of course when it comes to prayer we must not ignore the ambiguity of God who, when you try to fixate him as a gentle breeze comes upon you like an earthquake. But that can be a fun experience - as if God were playing games with us, not to tease us but to open us up to insights we would have never imagined. So when you're praying to God for "this" you may wind up with "that". I mean, I've been around a long time and my life has not followed a straight line but presents a trail much like that of an intoxicated man. But didn't the people at Pentecost think the apostles were intoxicated when the Holy Spirit came upon them? So if you've been staggering your way through life, maybe that's a sign that the Holy Spirit has been with you every vagrant step of the way!

As for formal, oral prayer, I often wonder whether the words we use are statements of intent or simply sounds meant to enhance our environment. For instance when I'm walking around the farm and ranch area of Eldridge and hardly notice my surroundings, I may say "Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, Our life, our sweetness and our hope" and bingo, raw nature becomes Creation!

-- Geoff Wood