Henri Nouwen, Merton: Meditative Prayer
“Many voices ask for our attention. “Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.” But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, “You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.” To hear that voice requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen. Prayer is listening to the voice that calls us “my Beloved.”—Henri Nouwen in Henri Nouwen Society, Daily Meditation. From Henri J. M. Nouwen Bread for the Journey “The Still Small Voice of Love” (HarperSanFrancisco 1997).
I have read Thomas Merton’s work in the past, but could not connect with it. So when I spied his concise treatise, Spiritual Direction and Meditation, I decided it was time to give him another try, especially when so many contemporary spiritual writers like Henri Nouwen keep quoting him. Merton wrote his book in 1960, so we must forgive his constant use of the masculine. However, he also writes to people with a Catholic religious background and Catholic clergy, as he addresses many issues that might be most meaningful to a young male novice.
The book, however, consists of pearls in almost every sentence. Merton constantly reminds us that the ultimate end of meditation is communion with God directly in the present, the awakening of our inner, authentic self, and positioning ourselves inwardly to the Holy Spirit so that we respond to God’s Grace. We hope to see the mysteries of the life of Christ as part of our own spiritual existence.
Merton outlines the simple essentials of meditative prayer:
1. We must first be sincere about praying.
2. We are to focus on meditating.
3. We sincerely hope for a divine union with God.
4. We then rest contently in God’s presence.
The precise way we make our meditation depends on our temperament and natural gifts. For the intellectual, the thinking person, the mind must ascend by reasoning to the threshold of intuition. All thinking processes must end in love.
Those with more feeling and intuitive minds may immediately approach the truth, apprehending the wholeness as beauty rather than fact. Those with an intuitive temperament may more easily use all their senses to place themselves into the life of Jesus and more easily connect spiritually to Christ.
Contemplative meditation, spiritual direction, liturgical prayer, and the Eucharist seek the same end, a deeper union with Christ.
Joanna joannseibert.com
