Above all, it is not necessary that we should have any unexpected, extraordinary experiences in meditation. This can happen, but if it does not, it is not a sign that the meditation period has been useless. Not only at the beginning, but repeatedly, there will be times when we feel a great spiritual dryness and apathy, an aversion, even an inability to meditate. We dare not be balked by such experiences. Above all, we must not allow them to keep us from adhering to our meditation period with great patience and fidelity.
It is, therefore, not good for us to take too seriously the many untoward experiences we have with ourselves in meditation. It is here that our old vanity and our illicit claims upon God may creep in by a pious detour, as if it were our right to have nothing but elevating and fruitful experiences, and as if the discovery of our own inner poverty were quite below our dignity. With that attitude we shall make no progress. Impatience and self-reproach will only foster our complacency and entangle us ever more deeply in the net of self-centered introspection. But there is no more time for such morbidity in meditation than there is in the Christian life as a whole. We must center our attention on the Word alone and leave consequences to its action. For may it not be that God Himself sends us these hours of reproof and dryness that we may be brought again to expect everything from His Word? "Seek God, not happiness" - this is the fundamental rule of all meditation. If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness: that is its promise.
But when we pray, is it alright to ask for happiness/joy in Christ?
ReplyDeleteHullo! For quote #32 I was a bit confused by this part:
ReplyDelete"In our meditation we ponder the chosen text on the strength of the promise that it has something utterly personal to say to us for this day and for our Christian life, that it is not only God's Word for the Church, but also God's Word for us individually. We expose ourselves to the specific word until it addresses us personally. And when we do this, we are doing no more than the simplest, untutored Christian does every day; we read God's Word as God's Word for us."
So is [simplicity/ not being bound by things we learned in the past] while we read the Word a good thing? B/c at first I thought this was a caution for us, and then it seemed to be something encouraged?
Btw, don't feel obligated to respond. Esp. if you're busy :P
For #34: Of course, it's fine to ask for these things. It's just that we can come into meditation with expectations, whether they be that we'll have some great new insight or feel some particular type of feeling, and that's the wrong attitude.
ReplyDeleteFor #32: I'll reply on that thread. :)