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Our Daily Bread An important type of prayer is meditation, which is the application of our minds to the understanding of a supernatural truth, in order to love it and live it with the help of grace. It is a form of communication with God and requires attentive effort. It is not to be confused with a study of religious truths, nor with the strange non-Christian practices of self-emptying, self-realization, or so-called Eastern meditation. Christian meditation has been practiced since the Church's beginnings, as a way of bringing ourselves into intimate conversation with the Lord. Although we meditate by using our minds to attain, penetrate, and seize solid convictions about a supernatural truth,'...the most important element in meditation is the act of love aroused in the will on the presentation of some supernatural truth by the intellect. As St. Teresa of Jesus points out, meditation consists not so much in thinking a great deal but in loving a great deal. When the will bursts forth with acts of love, an intimate contact is established between the soul and God, and then it is that the soul can truly be said to be praying.' (Jordan Aumann, O.P., Spiritual Theology, p. 318) The meditation period should end with a practical resolution for the day. Intimate conversation with our Lord will urge us to action, because love must inspire action. Without practical resolutions, the results of this time will be only passive and theoretical. When meditation is mistaken for speculation, study, or merely pleasurable conversation without backbone, then we deceive ourselves and harm our spiritual lives. Our knowledge of our fallen humanity becomes inaccurate and our spirituality superficial. If we begin every meditation upon the Divine mysteries with a realization that we are in God's presence, our disposition and attention will improve. We believe, of course, that God is present everywhere, but we often act as if He were not. If we habitually perform this very first step in meditating, we will be more aware of God's presence throughout the day and more fruitful in good actions. Since our attention will also improve, our meditation will become more worthy of God's service and more centered upon the Lord Himself. We should especially call upon the Holy Spirit for the graces and enlightenment we need. It is also good to invoke our Blessed Mother, our Guardian Angel, and any other patron saints, so that they may intercede for us with God for a more profitable meditation. We should also purify our intentions by offering all our efforts to God's praise and glory. Usually the subject or topic for meditation is related to our spiritual deficiencies or needs, which will change as we mature. Our spiritual directors can help us fine-tune our needs. Especially for beginners, a good book is an essential tool. This keeps our thoughts disciplined and orderly and reduces distractions, although the temptation to study the book must be avoided. The aim is to penetrate one or two truths fruitfully, not to master the contents of the book. To find these truths, the book is read at a leisurely pace, bit by bit, until a point that urges deeper consideration is met. When we come upon a point that strikes our attention, we should stop reading in order to penetrate and pray about that point. But if we find nothing that fruitfully moves us after some effort, or if there seems to be no more fruit to be gleaned there, we begin again to read calmly until we come to the next point that seems to promise us some spiritual benefit. We must never forget that we are using our minds to find God and to speak with Him. He is our End, not the methods we use, nor the new truths we discover on our way to Him. |