Deeper Communion

So welcome to our second session, and I want to pick up now on this distinction between meditation and contemplation. So meditation, as we said, is the application of this wonderful reasoning power that God has given us as a port of entry into the richness of the Scripture. And then the second method that I had just briefly introduced is what Ignatius means by contemplation. To be more specific, we can speak of it as imaginative contemplation. And what Ignatius means by this, again, solidly rooted in the Church's age-old tradition of prayer, is a second port of entry into the Scripture, which is the use of this wonderful imaginative gift that God has given us.

Essentially, the power of imagination allows us to be present to things, people, and places that are not physically there before us. So again, as we introduced this last time, let's say, for example, think of a good friend or a loved one. Just see that person. If it helps, shut your eyes as you do this. Maybe it's your mother, your father, brother, son, or grandchild.

Choose a song that you love and just hear it. Maybe it's the national anthem, a hymn that you love, or just a popular song. And you can hear it playing in your imagination. Or maybe the sound of waves washing up on the shore, and you can hear that. Just smell the smell of freshly brewed coffee or maybe freshly baked bread just out of the oven, and just smell that, or if a flower—a rose, for example.

Feel the beating of the sun down upon you on a hot day. This is the heat that surrounds you, or maybe the opposite—the cold of a winter day, with snow or wind in your face, or the water that surrounds you as you swim.

We have this wonderful ability to be present to things that are not physically before us, and this is another rich portal of entry into the Scripture.

So, for example, if we were praying with the calming of the storm at sea and we prayed it with this imaginative, contemplative method, what we would do is be there with the disciples, maybe in the boat as they're putting off from the shore in the evening after a long day of healings and teachings. And we see Jesus in the boat with us, quickly fall asleep. And at first, everything is peaceful as we row out from the shore, and then we watch the fishermen put up the sail and the boat heads out across the lake.

And then, as we're there in the boat, we feel the wind rising. We feel the waves begin to form, the boat being rocked. We experience the water beginning to pour in. We see the terror—fear of the disciples. Maybe we feel some of that ourselves as we've gone through different circumstances in life. And then that cry from the heart to Jesus: Save us, Lord. We're perishing.

So that would be the imaginative, contemplative way of praying with the Scripture—just to simply be there and live it, as it were, from within. As I said last time, it's like walking into the movie, and you're there and you live it from within.

Okay. So that is what we mean by meditation and contemplation.

Now, this passage that we're going to choose for today, you can pray it either through the reflective, meditative approach or the imaginative, contemplative approach, or you can mix the methods. There's a lot of freedom, and one is no better than the other. It's like here is a house with a friend inside, and there are two doors into the house. Whether you go through one door or the other, the endpoint is the same, and that's communion with the Friend. And these are just two different ways of entering into the Scripture.

So our Scripture for today is Matthew 11:25–30. And again, this is a loving invitation of the Lord into the process of prayer, into a deeper communion with Him, and that's why we choose it at the beginning of these spiritual exercises. So let me just read that passage.

But as we do that again, take a moment and just become aware of the gaze of the Lord, the Lord's love upon you, eager to be with you, eager to say this word to your heart, open to your response.

Prayer is, again, a relationship. It is two persons. It is not a human person and a written page, but it is the human person and the Divine Person who speaks through the written page. That's the mediation of His word to our hearts.

At that time, Jesus said in reply, I give praise to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. For although You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, You have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been Your gracious will. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father.

No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden light.

So now I am there with the Lord. Maybe I see myself seated at His feet together with Him in the house. Maybe I just want to focus on the words and reflect on them and hear them.

And I sense the thrill of gratitude in the heart of Jesus as He lifts up His heart to the Father whom He so loves and by whom He knows Himself so deeply loved. This is the deepest truth of our lives, that we are loved by that Father and that Son. We are brought into that infinite Love, which is the Holy Spirit.

What if we understood our lives this way? And I sense the thrill of joy and gratitude in the heart of Jesus as He lifts His heart to the heart of the Father whom He so loves and by whom He knows Himself so deeply loved. And that same Father who says to you through your baptism, as to Jesus in His, you are My beloved son. You are My beloved daughter. Maybe pause here and just hear those words.

This is the deepest truth of your life, that you are beloved, infinitely beloved in the heart of His Father and His Son, in the heart of the Trinity.

And now Jesus thanks His Father that He has revealed the mysteries of the Kingdom, not to the self-sufficient, not, Jesus says, to the wise and the learned, those who feel that they don't need to be taught, that they're enough unto themselves. But He has revealed the deep truths of the Kingdom to those who feel themselves helpless, who know that they depend on God for everything, like a small infant. Think of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. This is the deepest truth of that joyful spiritual life that she lived.

And I ask to be, in this spiritual sense, childlike. O Lord, my heart is not raised too high. My heart is not lifted up. I do not go in search of things too great for me. Psalm 131.

It's that kind of spirit where Mary, who says, "He has looked upon the low estate of His handmaid," and her heart thrills with joy at what God has done in her.

And I ask Jesus, the Son who knows the Father, to reveal Himself, to reveal the Father to me in this time of prayer, that He choose to do this in my heart.

And now I sense Jesus close to me, speaking to my heart. Maybe here again, I pause just to hear—more than hear, receive, accept, drink in, respond to His invitation: "Come to Me." When you feel alone, when you're discouraged, when you feel that no one understands, that you are alone on the journey, even if you're surrounded by people, hear this invitation.

Come to me. I understand. I know.

And I share with the Lord now as I pray my own desire here in this time of prayer. Even as I sense the deep longing in my heart to come to Him, to know that my heart is close to Him.

And now I hear Him say to me with infinite love, I want you to come close. Don't hesitate. Don't stay at a distance. Don't let your fragilities hold you back. Come to Me. I invite you. I call you. I want you. I love you. And it’s in coming to Me that you’ll find healing.

Come to me, you who labor and are heavily burdened. Do you feel that? I do. You do, often in our lives. Heavily burdened, you rise in the morning with your heart heavy, struggling to face the day, or that phone call from your college-age son or daughter that leaves you worried or anxious, or the report from the doctor, or the job situation.

Come to me, you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. That rest that Ignatius and Augustine spoke of so famously, that only in God we can find.

Lord, I pray now: grant me the rest that my restless heart so seeks and desires. I say yes to Your invitation. I bring to You my burdens, my labors, my weariness, and I hear You promise me rest of heart. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart. Both words are blessed: gentle, lowly of heart. How can we be afraid of this God?

Learn from me, Jesus says, and I ask the Lord for this kind of learning as I go through these times of prayer. It's the learning that my heart most desires—relational learning, person-to-person learning, learning about Jesus.

And we have a promise: You will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden light. In my own prayer, I come back to this text over and over and over again, and I never tire of it because I can feel burdened or discouraged or weighed down or anxious about the future, like you do at times, like all of us do, and maybe more often in these days than perhaps in the past.

And then here's this invitation: Just don't be alone with it. Come to Me. I understand. I'll give you the rest that your heart needs and the strength to go forward.

As you conclude this prayer, ask again these questions: What word in this Scripture most spoke to my heart, and what was the Lord saying to me through it? What do I take to the day from this time at prayer?

And what stirred in my heart as I prayed? What was my heart feeling?

What is Your message to me, Lord, as I rise from prayer to begin this day?

And may that message and that encouragement bless all the hours of this day. Amen.