Whenever we approach a great mystery, words fail and we cannot fully express what we’re encountering. In the interior life, when we receive a revelation from God, we are oftentimes led to give multiple and various accounts of the same experience. We simply cannot describe the reality from one perspective. Several different perspectives are needed.

We find ourselves in this very scenario when we speak about contemplative prayer. In contemplation, we are with God. How can such a dynamism be expressed?

In full transparency, contemplation cannot be fully explained by human words or concepts since contemplation literally touches the face of God and so shares in his inner mystery.

Contemplation is so vital to the Christian way of life, however, that we have to try to explain it in some way. And so, in this effort to give some expression to contemplation, even the Catechism of the Catholic Church is left giving several definitions and explanations of the same reality.

The Catechism describes contemplation as the prayer of a child, a forgiven sinner, and as an act of surrender to the love God offers us:

“Contemplative prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven sinner who agrees to welcome the love by which he is loved and who wants to respond to it by loving even more. But he knows that the love he is returning is poured out by the Spirit in his heart, for everything is grace from God. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union with his beloved Son.”

In just one paragraph, we can see the joyful bouncing of spiritual wisdom as it labors to define contemplative prayer. It’s a child’s prayer! Yes, but also that of a sinner who has been forgiven! Yes, yes, but it’s also an act of self-oblation to God’s love.

Which of these three is it? It’s actually all three and still more.

Contemplative prayer is also defined as a gift, a grace, a covenant relationship, and a communion with God that changes us into a greater likeness to him:

“Contemplative prayer is the simplest expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gift, a grace; it can be accepted only in humility and poverty. Contemplative prayer is a covenant relationship established by God within our hearts. Contemplative prayer is a communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, ‘to his likeness.’”

Yes, the spiritual tradition is still left bouncing and grasping at every possible word or relationship to explain the supreme reality of a soul sharing an active union with God.

Contemplation is the flourishing of meditation. It’s when God has been so welcomed by the soul that he begins to carry the conversation and it is oftentimes a conversation devoid of words. Vocal prayer has now been elevated to within the heart as God is now the one speaking, not in human words or ways of speech, but in a language known and recognized by the heart.

God speaks in the inner recesses of the heart and the heart knows what he’s saying. The meditative journey to find God has culminated in the realization that God has already been searching for us and has been accompanying us the whole time.

If we want to use more casual language, we could say contemplation is like a good meal with our family, an adult beverage with an old friend, the re-reading of a beloved novel, the surprise breeze on a hot day, shared laughter with a loved one, an unmerited act of mercy, the trust of a child sleeping in her father’s arms, and thousands of other examples of love, warmth, confidence, and acceptance.

Contemplation is all of these and infinitely more since it is about union with God and our unmerited welcome to dwell with him.

The Catechism gives us another round of definitions and explanations: “Contemplative prayer is also the pre-eminently intense time of prayer. In it the Father strengthens our inner being with power through his Spirit ‘that Christ may dwell in (our) hearts through faith’ and we may be ‘grounded in love.”

In contemplation, the transforming work of the Holy Trinity is brought about within us. The Father gives us the power of his Spirit so that our inner being may be conformed to Jesus Christ by faith and love. We become a new creation.

This explanation is also one of several efforts to define and explain the great mystery of a soul in contemplation with God.

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