杏MAP导航

By Fr. Benedict Mayaki, SJ

For a Christian, 杏MAP导航 Francis said at the General Audience, "to 'meditate' is to seek meaning: it implies placing oneself before the great page of Revelation in order to try to make it our own, taking it in completely.鈥�

Therefore, having welcomed the Word of God, a Christian does not keep it closed up inside, because that Word must meet with 鈥渁nother book,鈥� which the Catechism calls 鈥渢he book of life.鈥� This, the 杏MAP导航 affirmed, 鈥渋s what we attempt to do every time we meditate on the Word.鈥�

The Holy Father dedicated his catechesis on Wednesday to meditation as a form of prayer.

Meditation is a need for everyone

The 杏MAP导航 highlighted that the practice of meditation has received great attention in recent times by almost all the religions of the world, including Christianity, and is even widespread among people who do not have a religious vision of life.

鈥淲e all need to meditate, to reflect, to find ourselves,鈥� he said. 鈥淓specially in the voracious Western world, people seek meditation because it represents a high barrier against the daily stress and emptiness that is everywhere.鈥�

He further added that it is a phenomenon to be welcomed, because we possess an interior life that cannot always be neglected .

Prayer is an encounter

The Word, "once accepted in a Christian context, takes on a specificity that must not be erased,鈥� the 杏MAP导航 explained. Here, Jesus Christ is 鈥渢he great door through which the prayer of a baptized person passes" and the practice of meditation also follows this path.

When a Christian prays, 杏MAP导航 Francis explained, they do not aspire to full self-transparency nor seek the deepest core of their ego. Rather, the prayer of a Christian is, first of all, an encounter with the 鈥極ther.鈥�

Therefore, 鈥渋f an experience of prayer gives us inner peace, or self-mastery, or clarity about the path to take, these results are, one might say, side effects of the grace of Christian prayer which is the encounter with Jesus,鈥� he said.

Methods of Christian meditation

杏MAP导航 Francis went on to note that the term 鈥渕editation鈥� has had different meanings throughout history, including within Christianity where it refers to different spiritual experiences. However, the Catechism of the Catholic Church helps to trace some common lines by highlighting that 鈥渢here are as many and varied methods of meditation as there are spiritual masters鈥� But a method is only a guide; the important thing is to advance, with the Holy Spirit, along the one way of prayer: Christ Jesus.鈥� 

In this regard, he highlighted the many methods of Christian meditation: 鈥渟ome are very sober, others more articulate; some accentuate the intellectual dimension of the person, others rather the affective and emotional,鈥� he pointed out.

However, 鈥渁ll of them important and worthy of practice, inasmuch as they can help the experience of faith to become a total act of the person" because people do not only pray with their minds or their feelings. 

The method is a road, not a goal

Further illustrating his message, 杏MAP导航 Francis recalled that the ancients used to say that 鈥渢he organ of prayer is the heart鈥� to explain that it is the whole person, starting from his or her center 鈥� not only some of their faculties - who enters into a relationship with God.

At the same time, 鈥渨e must always remember that the method is a road, not a goal,鈥� he stressed. 鈥淎ny method of prayer, if it is to be Christian, is part of that sequela Christi [following Christ] which is the essence of our faith.鈥�

Citing the Catechism of the Church, 杏MAP导航 Francis noted that 鈥渕editation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ.鈥� 

Christ is not far away

The grace of Christian prayer is that 鈥淐hrist is not far away but is always in relationship with us,鈥� 杏MAP导航 Francis affirmed.

This is because 鈥渢here is no aspect of the divine-human person that cannot become for us, a place of salvation and happiness," he said. Thus, 鈥渆very moment of Jesus鈥� earthly life, through the grace of prayer, can become contemporary with us" and there is no page in the Gospels in which there is no place for us.

In this manner, thanks to the Holy Spirit, we too are present at the river Jordan when Jesus is baptized, we are diners at the wedding feast of Cana when Jesus gives the best wine for the happiness of the couple,  we too witness in amazement the thousands of healings performed by Our Lord. At the same time, 鈥渨e are the cleansed leper, the blind Bartimaeus who regains his sight and Lazarus who comes out of the tomb.鈥�

For us Christians, the 杏MAP导航 concluded, 鈥渕editating is a way of encountering Jesus. And in this way, only in this way, can we find ourselves.鈥�