Meditation

1. Meditation

2. Where is the exactly right place for Jesus? Politic Career Family Jesus Ministry Friends Education Order of Plan

3. Family Friends Career Education Ministry Politic Order of Plan Jesus God is not the subject of our life, but rather He is the One who plans our life: “…I learn to look on this other person [and thing] not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ.” (Benedict XVI, CL, 18)

4. Three Major expressions of Prayer(ccc # 2699) • Vocal prayer • Meditation • Contemplation These three expressions have one basic trait in common: serene of heart. (because the soul encounters the Lord of peace) When someone has this serene of heart, does it mean that this person is free from difficulties?

5. * Vocal prayer * Meditation *Contemplation 1. vocal prayer 2. meditation 3. affective prayer 4. prayer of simplicity 5. infused contemplation 6. prayer of quiet 7. prayer of union 8. prayer of conforming union 9. prayer of transforming union Grades of prayer by saint Theresa Avila

6. vocal prayer meditation affective prayer prayer of simplicity infused contemplation prayer of quiet prayer of union prayer of conforming union prayer of transforming union * Active purification (predominate ascetical stage) * Passive purification (infused prayer & mystical stage) PROGRESSIVE PURIFICATION

7. Jesus’ Vocal Prayer What? when? Where? How?

8. Meditation is - the mind seeking to understand the supernatural truth in order - to love it • and carry it out into practice with the assistance of grace. NOTE: - without discussion us there is no meditation. - meditation has doublfinality: one intellectual and the other affective and practical

9. Double finality of meditation 1. Intellectual: to arrive at firm convictions concerning some supernatural truth. (by this “intellectual” alone, it is not a true prayer. It is study, a preparation for prayer.) • Affective and practical: true prayer is the act of love aroused in the will on the presentation of some supernatural truth by the intellect. It is an intimate contact between the soul and God. Yet, meditation is completed only when the soul puts love into action.

10. In Brief In meditating, we actively ALLOW God to purify our whole being by informing, reforming, conforming, and transforming our mind, passions, will, and actions: - want what God wants - feel what God feels - desire what God desires - see what God sees - do the way God does - reject what God rejects…

11. John 4 In the gradual unfolding of this encounter, it is clearly revealed that love is not merely a sentiment. Sentiments come and go. A sentiment can be a marvellous first spark, but it is not the fullness of love. Earlier we spoke of the process of purification and maturation by which eros comes fully into its own, becomes love in the full meaning of the word. It is characteristic of mature love that it calls into play all man's potentialities; it engages the whole man, so to speak. Contact with the visible manifestations of God's love can awaken within us a feeling of joy born of the experience of being loved. But this encounter also engages our will and our intellect. Acknowledgment of the living God is one path towards love, and the “yes” of our will to his will unites our intellect, will and sentiments in the all- embracing act of love. But this process is always open-ended; love is never “finished” and complete; throughout life, it changes and matures, and thus remains faithful to itself. Idem velle atque idem nolle [9]—to want the same thing, and to reject the same thing—was recognized by antiquity as the authentic content of love: the one becomes similar to the other, and this leads to a community of will and thought. The love-story between God and man consists in the very fact that this communion of will increases in a communion of thought and sentiment, and thus our will and God's will increasingly coincide: God's will is no longer for me an alien will, something imposed on me from without by the commandments, but it is now my own will, based on the realization that God is in fact more deeply present to me than I am to myself.[10] Then self- abandonment to God increases and God becomes our joy (cf. Ps 73 [72]:23-28). (Benedict XVI, DEUS CARITAS EST - CHRISTIAN LOVE, #17)

12. 3 stages in meditation There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “and who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved wine with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37) act of love aroused charity impels us to put love into action. Discursus

13. Important Note “Failure to make efficacious resolutions is the reason why many souls who practice daily meditation get little or no practical benefit from this exercise of prayer. They insist too much on that which is merely a preparation for prayer. They pass the time in spiritual reading or speculation, but they do not make acts of love, nor do they make any practical resolutions.” (Fr. Jordan Aumann, OP)

14. Some scene or mystery form the life of Christ. The life and virtues of Mary or the saints A particular virtue to be acquired or uprooted, A truth from dogmatic theology The prayer and actions of the sacraments, the Mass and the liturgy. The guiding principle to select the subject matter is that what is needed at a particular time and will be beneficial according to one’s capacities. For young people or beginners: - imaginative meditation (scenes from the life of Christ, Mary and the saints) - liturgical meditation (prayer and actions) - moral meditation (which help one to uproot the vices and cultivate virtue) Variety of subjects for meditations

15. Methods of Meditation Method of St. Ignatius Loyola: - Acts of faith and reverence in the presence of God. Preparation: - General preparatory prayer to ask the grace of making a good meditation. - Composition of place (exercise of the imagination) - Petition for the special grace sought in the meditation - Exercise of the memory to recall the material to be meditated upon. Body of the - Exercise of the intellect by reflection and consideration of the material of the Meditation: meditation and practical applications and conclusions to be drawn from it. - Exercise of the will by arousing devout feelings and affections and by making practical, particular resolutions. - Colloquy or conversation with God. Conclusion: - Vocal prayer, such as Our Father, Hail Mary, ect… Carmelite Method: - Preparation Introduction: - Reading - Imaginative representation of material Meditation: - Reflection or meditation properly so called - Affective colloquy or conversation with God. - Thanksgiving Conclusion: - Oblation - Petition

16. Practice of Meditation • Regularity in prayer is of extreme important. • Best time for meditation: when one’s mind is most alert and one can be recollected. Perhaps, early in the morning, the late afternoon or late at night. • Duration: adjusted to the need of each; but not too brief (only preparation) or too long (stifled and became penance). • Place: the church is the most fitting place because of the sanctity of the place, the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and the solitude. • Posture: Two extremes should be avoided: excessive comfort and excessive mortification. Kneeling, seating or standing… whatever way helps to recollect and attention in discursive prayer.

17. Important Note “Experience proves that there is absolutely nothing that can supply for the life of prayer, not even the daily reception of the Eucharist.” (Fr. Jordan Aumann, OP) ?

18. Active Purification: (with the help of grace, we do all in our power to rid of ourselves of all the impediments to the divine action) Purification of the external senses: five senses Purification of the internal senses: imagination, common sense, memory, estimative Purification of the passions Purification of the intellect Purification of the will Passive Purification: (God alone does the act of purification) Night of the senses Night of the spirit Progressive Purgation • Active purification • Passive purification

19. sample Novena of Praise and Thanksto the Sacred Heart Third day- Our Call to Humanness Scripture reading: (Eph. 2:15; 3:14-19) “This was to create a single New Man in restoring peace through the cross… this then is what I pray, kneeling before the Father… Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breath and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.”

20. Meditation Each one is called to fullness of life through the love of Jesus. He came to make all things new, to restore all things in him, that our humanness, through weak, might be strong in him. The Father sent his Son to take on human nature to share with us the power of his Spirit that our inner nature might grow to the full stature in Christ. The only thing that can make us complete and whole is the love of God given to us through the heart of Jesus. Only when we are free can we be completely human. We are freed through the love of Jesus and his suffering humanity. The freedom gained in the love of Jesus unshackles the mind and empowers the spirit of man to expand to his full stature. Through his strengthening of our humanness we grow in the love that makes us whole. We can be completely human only when we give ourselves completely in love. Only love makes our actions human. Our call to renewal is essentially dependent on our ability to love with Christ’s love. Human are able to speak, but if we speak with tongues of angels and men but do not have love; we are nothing. Humans are able to believe; but if we have faith to move mountains but have not love, it is worthless. As humans we can make sacrifices, even our own bodies; but if we have not love, we are nothing at all. We need love to be completely human. Our call to humanness is a call to love.

21. Prayer Heart of Jesus, we thank you for making it possible for us to be whole through the greatest of all gifts you give us: love. We thank you for freeing our minds from the darkness of deceit and filling them with the light of your truth; for freeing our hearts from the evil of selfishness and giving them the generosity to love, to give for others. We praise you, Jesus, for the great love of your Sacred Heart that has shown us the path to wholeness. We praise you for the love that makes it possible for us to grasp with all the saints the breadth and the length, the height and the depth of your love which is beyond all knowledge, that we might be filled with utter fullness of God which alone makes us whole. We will proclaim your call of love and wholeness to all.