Nurturing a Contemplative Spirit
The Christian missionary proclaims, serves and witnesses to God’s reign of love, salvation and justice. The contemplative aspect of mission puts the focus on living in the presence of God. Attention is given to scripture, to images about God, and to a sense of being beloved of God. The aim is to encounter the living God. The Spirit of a living God touches human hearts and guides lives.
The essence of contemplative prayer is to stand, or sit, or walk in the presence of God. It is a receptive attitude around which missionaries build meaning and vitality. Mission, in simple terms, tells and re-tells the reality of a living God. It disposes the person of mission towards contemplative exercises. Prayer is not just another optional extra that has to be fitted into the schedule.
The obvious starting point in contemplation is stillness of body and spirit. In order to be filled with a God-experience, we must first establish an inner emptiness. There is no point in trying to plan and shape the outcomes. The essence of the exercise is a deliberate inner journey that heads to the centre of the soul. It is to willingly enter the mystical garden and to freely walk in the presence of God. The basic spiritual goal is to be in harmony with God, with creation and with self. Contemplation relates to the whole of human life and integrates that life into a single whole.
The point of entry into the spiritual realm is this basic realization that we sometimes need to stop and be still. The person open to contemplation deliberately seeks silence and allows serenity to emerge. The idea is to discover a purpose for the inner journey. The movement is towards sacred space. It is accompanied by a spirit of fascination and wonder towards experiencing an expansive notion of the living God.
Christian wisdom puts it this way: “Come now. Fly for a moment from your busy affairs. Escape for while from the tumult of your thoughts. Put aside your weighty cares and leave your wearisome toils. Abandon yourself to God and now rest there. Shut out everything, save God and what can be a help in your quest.”
A poet in old China wrote: “When the spirit moves me, I go off by myself to see the things that I alone must see. I follow the stream to the source, and sitting there, watch for the moment when the clouds come up, and I forget about going home.”
Fr Michael Gormly is presently at St Columban’s, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
