Not a Method, But a Relationship

Sometimes I'm asked what method I use during my contemplative prayers – which I think are better defined as meditative than contemplative. Truth is, I don’t have so much a method as I have a relationship. The distinction is not simply semantics. Relationships are built over time. Methods can be developed or copied in a few minutes. So if asked how I mature in my relationship to Christ – which then translates for me into the process I use in prayer – I would answer this way:

1. My relationship with Christ began in 1972. I can tell you the day and the place where it happened. I recognized I was a sinner and needed divine forgiveness. Having been raised in a Jewish home and knowing nearly nothing about Christianity except that Jesus died for me, I did the only thing I knew I could do. I asked God to forgive my sins and cleanse me through the blood of His Son. That was it. Just me and God. And in my ignorance of so many things religious, God accepted me where I was. And that's how it started for me.

2. Since becoming a Catholic Christian more than 30 years later, I grow in my relationship with Jesus by always bringing my serious sins into the Confessional. But it is rare for me to go through a day without praying directly to God something like the Act of Contrition for each transgression I commit, regardless of how venial it might seem to me. I try to keep my slate as clean as possible. As the psalmist said, If I hold onto sin in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

3. Since becoming Catholic, I always receive the Eucharist with purposeful aforethought. When Moses stood before the burning bush, God told him to remove his sandals because the ground on which he was standing was holy. And so each time I approach the consecrated Bread and the Cup, I remind myself the ground on which I stand is no less holy. Doing so helps me receive Christ with a more sober and reflective attitude.

4. I set a specific period of time each day with the Lord. For me, it is an hour, but the time we spend is not so much important as its consistency and its focus. To help myself settle into the attitude for prayer and meditation, I listen to one or two recorded Christian hymns or other worship songs. I will talk more about this practice in a later essay. Then during that hour I read at least two chapters of the Bible. (I also read two every evening). Over the course of the last thirty-seven years I’ve read the Bible dozens of times. Anyone can do likewise.

In addition to reading, Scripture memory has always been an integral part of my relationship with Christ. I have memorized hundreds of verses, and can paraphrase hundreds more. This treasury of God’s word in my heart aids my meditation as the Holy Spirit brings those texts to mind to teach me something fresh or (more often) remind me of something I’d forgotten.

5. My reflections, meditations and prayers during the remainder of the hour are really birthed in my daily decisions to bring my will into conformity with Christ’s. Two of my favored prayer methods is Lectio Divina and St. Ignatian “imaginative” meditation. (I will address this method in a later essay). At other times I pray my own spontaneous prayers, or recite some of the many prayers given us by the Church. Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val’s litany of Humility is one example, as are prayers of St. Ignatius of Loyola, or St. Augustine.

My prayer-life, deeply rooted in a long-term growing relationship with Jesus, is no different than the prayer lives of any other Christian during the past two thousand years who has had a passion to know Christ – not just know about Him. I hope some of what I have written today, and what I will post in the near future, will stir you to seek more of our Lord and Savior.

It’s not about a method. It’s about a relationship.

And it's about starting sooner than later.

--

This essay is the first of a dozen or so related to prayer: the why and some suggestions about how-to. I hope you will find them of value. You can find more of my essays on my blog at www.thecontemplativecatholicconvert.blogspot.com. You can also follow my online Bible studies on YouTube. Type my name into the YouTube search bar and the links will pop up on your screen.