The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 347: Contemplative Prayer (2024)

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

In contemplative prayer, we seek Jesus. As St. Teresa of Avila put it, contemplative prayer “is nothing else than a close sharing between friends.” The Catechism tells us this form of prayer is a gift, a covenant, and a communion. Further, it is a silent gaze “fixed on Jesus.” In this episode, Fr. Mike helps us better understand this intimate form of prayer. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2709-2724. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 347. We're reading paragraphs 2709 to 2724. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting

ascensionpress.com slash C I Y. And and lastly you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app For daily updates and daily notifications today is day 347. We're looking at contemplative prayer yesterday We talked about expressions of prayer the first two vocal prayer and meditative prayer today There are quite a few paragraphs and some nuggets at the end about contemplative prayer. So let's start off. What is contemplative prayer? I'm glad you asked camper paragraph 27 or Paragraph 2709 gives an answer. It says, ask the question, what is contemplative prayer? And then St. Teresa of Avila, you know her, she's great. She says, contemplative prayer,

or oración mental, because she used Spanish, in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends. It means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. And so contemplative prayer, it goes on to say, seeks him whom my soul loves. And sometimes when we think contemplative prayer,

we think, oh my gosh, like that's the heights. Like, I don't think I could ever do that. And first of all, you're not wrong in the sense that, yeah, this is a graced kind of prayer. At the same time, you are made for this. Keep this in mind mind as we enter into Contemplative prayer you are made for contemplative prayer. You're made to contemplate the one who loves you I mean think that's all it is

Again as st. Teresa of Avila made it very very clear It's nothing else nothing else than a close sharing between friends It means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. And so we're gonna talk a little bit about what does that look like, what does that mean? But keep in mind, it's still very simple in the sense that yes, it is a gift of God.

It's a determined response on our part. It is what you're made for. It's what you're made for. This is what your human heart has been made for. It's what you're made for. This is what your human heart has been made for, to meditate on, to contemplate, to enter into communication with the God who loves you. Contemplative prayer seeks him whom my soul loves. And that's it.

So let's talk about this. Let's talk about what contemplative prayer actually is. And at the end of this, I invite you, take some time to actually's it. So let's talk about this. Let's talk about what contemplative prayer actually is. And at the end of this, I invite you to take some time to actually do it. Let's pray right now in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We ask you to please help us pray today.

Send your Holy Spirit in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, to help us to pray today. Help us to be able to seek you, whom our soul loves, that our heart has been made for. Help us to not be afraid of getting close to you. Help us to not be afraid of silence. Help us to not be afraid of being alone with you. To be alone with the alone. Lord God, help us to not fear that silence, not fear that solitude, but enter into it with great confidence, great courage, great love.

Help us to find you. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 347. We're reading paragraphs 279 to 2724. Contemplative prayer.

What is contemplative prayer? St. Teresa answers, contemplative prayer, oracion mental, in my opinion, is nothing else than a close sharing between friends. It means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us. Contemplative prayer seeks Him whom my soul loves. It is Jesus, and in Him, the Father.

We seek Him because to desire Him is always the beginning of love, and we seek Him in that pure faith which causes us to be born of Him and to live in Him. In this inner prayer, we can still meditate, but our attention is fixed on the Lord Himself. The choice of the time and duration of the prayer arises from a determined will, revealing the secrets of the heart. One does not undertake contemplative prayer only when one has the time. One makes time for the Lord, with the firm determination not to give up, no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter.

One cannot always meditate, but one can always enter into inner prayer independently of the conditions of health, work, or emotional state. The heart is the place of this quest and encounter, in poverty and in faith. Entering into contemplative prayer is like entering into the Eucharistic liturgy. We gather up the heart, recollect our whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, abide in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken our faith in order to enter into the presence of Him who awaits us. We let our masks fall and turn our hearts back to the Lord who loves us, so as to hand ourselves

over to Him as an offering to be purified and transformed. Contemplative prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven sinner who agrees to welcome the love by which he is loved and who wants to respond to it by loving even more. But he knows that the love he is returning is poured out by the Spirit in his heart for everything is grace from God. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union with his beloved Son.

Contemplative prayer is the simplest expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gift, a grace. It can be accepted only in humility and poverty. Contemplative prayer is a covenant relationship established by God within our hearts. Contemplative prayer is a communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, to his likeness. Contemplative prayer is also the preeminently intense time of prayer. In it, the Father strengthens our inner being with power through his Spirit, that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith and we may be grounded in love.

Contemplation is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus. I look at him and he looks at me. This is what a certain peasant of ours in the time of his holy curae used to say while praying before the tabernacle. This focus on Jesus is a renunciation of self. His gaze purifies our heart. The light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of His truth and His compassion for all men. Contemplation also turns its gaze on the mysteries of the life of Christ. Thus it learns the interior knowledge of our Lord, the more to love Him and follow Him.

Contemplative prayer is hearing the Word of God. Far from being passive, such attentiveness is the obedience of faith, the unconditional acceptance of a servant, and the loving commitment of a child. It participates in the yes of the Son become servant and the fiat of God's lowly handmaid. Contemplative prayer is silence, the symbol of the world to come or silent love. Words in this kind of prayer are not speeches, they are like kindling that feeds the fire of love. In this silence, unbearable to the Outer Man, the Father speaks to us His incarnate Word, who suffered, died, and rose. In this silence, the Spirit of adoption enables us to share

in the prayer of Jesus. Contemplative prayer is a union with the prayer of Christ insofar as it makes us participate in His mystery. The mystery of Christ is celebrated by the Church in the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit makes it come alive in contemplative prayer so that our charity will manifest it in our acts. Contemplative prayer is a communion of love bearing life for the multitude to the extent that it consents to abide in the night of faith. The paschal night of the resurrection passes through the night of the agony and the tomb. The three intense moments of the hour of Jesus, which is spirit and not the flesh, which is weak, brings to life in prayer. We must be willing to keep watch with Him one hour. In brief, the Church invites the faithful to regular prayer, daily prayers, the liturgy of the hours, Sunday Eucharist, the feasts of the liturgical year.

The Christian tradition comprises three major expressions of the life of prayer, vocal prayer, meditation and contemplative prayer. They have in common the recollection of the heart. Vocal prayer, founded on the union of body and soul in human nature, Vocal prayer, founded on the union of body and soul in human nature, associates the body with the interior prayer of the heart, following Christ's example of praying to his Father and teaching the Our Father to his disciples. Meditation is a prayerful quest engaging thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. Its goal is to make our own in faith the subject considered by confronting it with the reality of our own life.

Contemplative prayer is the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus and attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love. It achieves real union with the prayer of Christ to the extent that it makes us share in His mystery. All right, there we have it, paragraphs 27.09 to 27.24. Let's go back to paragraph 27.10. Remember, we've talked about contemplative prayer. What is contemplation? It is that time between friends, taking time to be alone, frequently to be alone with him, whom we know loves us. Now remember, in meditative prayer, we're thinking about stuff. We're thinking about things like the book of spirituality the book of creation the book of history all these things when it comes to contemplation We are we're focusing on him. This is the gaze upon our Lord himself

So let's let's get to paragraph 27 10 It says the choice of the time and duration of the prayer arises from a determined will Revealing the secrets of the heart. Tomorrow we'll talk about this. We'll talk about the battle of prayer tomorrow, which is very, very important for us. A determined will revealing the secrets of our heart. It goes on to say, one does not undertake contemplative prayer only when one has the time. It's not when you do it. It goes on to say, one makes time for the Lord with the firm determination not to give up no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter Let us pause on this for one more second again tomorrow

We're hitting my favorite one of my favorite sections in the entire catechism and this is a little precursor to this Let's go back to this. This is still still paragraph 27 10 One does not undertake contemplative prayer. Only one one has the time. One makes time for the Lord. Let's just remember you talked about this yesterday, the day before when it was that we can't pray at all times unless we pray at specific times. I think that was two days ago. One does not undertake contemplative prayer. Only one one has the time.

One makes time for the Lord with the firm determination not to give up no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter. This is so important for all of us. So important. Have I made the decision to pray? Or do I just kind of pray willy-nilly? Like we talked about this many times in the past, but let's talk about it right now.

This recognition is this whole 347 days so far, this is not just information transfer, this is meant to be transformation. I think I mentioned this as well, that when we teach RCIA, what we used to do is in our RCIA classes where people are becoming Catholic, we used to have the whole lesson and everything

and then at the very end of RCIA, we had the section on prayer. And I realized, oh my gosh, what we're doing is the very relationship we have with the Lord is we're saving it to the end. Oh, by the way, you also should pray as opposed to what we do now, which is a little section on prayer every single time we get together, because this is so important. It is not just about information transfer. This is about transformation. This is about conversion. This is about making time for the Lord, not just learning about him, but making time for him

And we don't just do this when we have the time we have to I'm convicted of this right now I'm so so convicted in this moment We have to make time for the Lord with the firm determination not to give up No matter what trials and dryness one may encounter You know what that means that means that when you encounter trials when you encounter dryness one may encounter. You know what that means? That means that when you encounter trials, when you encounter dryness in prayer, that is normal. That is not necessarily an indication that you're doing something wrong. That is what is to be expected. And so take heart, like let that be a word of encouragement for all of us that we just realized that here's what God is calling us.

He's calling us to make time for Him with a firm determination not to give up no matter what trials and dryness we may encounter. It goes on to say, one cannot always meditate, but one can always enter into inner prayer, independently of the conditions of health, work, or emotional state. The heart is a place of this quest and encounter

in poverty and in faith. We can always have this contemplation, even when you're sick. Now, think about this. I don't know how many times you've been in a place where you're sick, whether that's like deathly ill, like literally deathbed kind of situation, or here you have a cold, maybe the flu.

And it's one of those situations where you're like, I can't even think. I can't even think straight. I'm trying to pray right now. And man, my brain is just all over the place. That means I can't do meditative prayer, but we can always do contemplative prayer because why? Because it says in the very next paragraph, entering into contemplative prayer is like entering into the Eucharistic liturgy.

We gather up the heart. We recollect our whole being onto the prompting of the Holy Spirit. We abide in the dwelling place of the Lord, which we are. We awaken our faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits us. We let our masks fall and turn our hearts back to the Lord who loves us. And think of all these things.

None of them are necessarily involving massive mental gymnastics. They're just basically saying, I recognize I'm gathering up my whole self and I'm going to recollect my whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit. And I'm gonna simply be in the presence of the one who awaits me.

This is contemplative prayer, right? It's just entering into God's presence. It's acknowledging God's presence and simply abiding in His presence. And not the fake you, right? Not the church version of you, not the prayer version of you, the real you. That's why it says, we let our masks fall and turn our hearts back to the Lord who loves us. This is so incredibly important. We know that when we do that, again, we don't have to have big thoughts. I'm not trying to figure something out. I am simply abiding in the presence of God Himself. In the name of Jesus, I'm approaching the Father. And this is so incredible. Proverbs 27, 13 highlights that it is a gift. It's a grace. It can be accepted only in humility

and poverty. And that's so important for us to understand that we can't force it. We can't make it happen. It is a gift. It's a grace. It can only be accepted in humility and poverty. In paragraph 2714 says that contemplative prayer is also the preeminently intense time of prayer. How so? Well, that doesn't necessarily mean

that we feel intense things. But as it says in 2715, it's a gaze fixed on Jesus and unfixed on all the mysteries of the life of Christ. We can just watch the Lord, again, abiding in His presence or as it says in 2716, contemplative prayer is hearing the Word of God and not just being passive. I'm sure that if you've been listening to the Bible in a year or I'd listen in the past or even going to mass and you listen to the word of God proclaimed, we can't just listen to God's word in a passive way.

We have to listen as it says here with attentiveness. That's such attentiveness is the obedience of faith. That notion of God, where do you want me to move? And then yes, like Jesus said, or let it be done to me like Mary said. And the last thing here that I just wanna highlight is it says in 2717, contemplative prayer is silence, the symbol of the world to come or silent love.

Goes on to say, words in this kind of prayer are not speeches, they're like kindling that feeds the fire of love. Goes on to say, words in this kind of prayer are not speeches, they're like kindling that feeds the fire of love. There are time for speeches when it comes to prayer. You know, the vocal prayer, when it comes to meditative prayer, there are, yeah, speeches are fine. Words in this kind of prayer,

in contemplative prayer though, they're not speeches, they are like kindling that feeds the fire of love. And there's something necessary to enter into silence. He says, in this silence, which is unbearable to the outer man, the Father speaks to us His incarnate Word who suffered, died and rose.

In this silence, the spirit of adoption enables us to share in the prayer of Jesus. I know that so many people find silence scary. They find solitude scary. And yet, at the same time, if we are going to have contemplative prayer, the music has to be turned off. If we're going to have contemplative prayer, I have to close the book. Whatever the book is that I've been meditating on or praying with.

That's, that's good. That's helpful. Definitely good. But if I'm going to enter into contemplative prayer and the, into this prayer of union, there's, there's an aspect that I just need to be willing to. Again, remember we can't force it. This is a gift, but I need to be willing to tolerate the silence. I need to be willing to seek out solitude.

And I'm saying this as someone who has a lot of noise in his life, a lot of noise in my life. And even when I go into prayer, when I go into prayer so often, there's more noise and more noise and more noise. And yet here's what the church is reminding us of, reminding me of, okay, press stop. You know, I always say on these days,

in the catechism in the year, Bible in the year, hey, just press play, amen to that. I agree, I believe that. When it comes to contemplative prayer, when it comes to entering into silence and seeking out solitude, just press pause, press stop, let it be quiet, and let all those crazy thoughts that are drowned out by the noise, okay, there they are, there they are. But don't be afraid of the silence because the Lord is with you.

Don't be afraid of the solitude because God is near. Enter into that silence, enter into that solitude, and receive the gift, the grace, that can only be accepted in humility and poverty, the grace of contemplative prayer. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.