Meditation is the second expression of prayer taught in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It usually follows and surpasses vocal prayer. It prepares us for the gift of contemplation. As we saw last time, Christian meditation is different from non-Christian meditation. Christian meditation engages the heart and the mind to aid in communion with …
Remember the analogy from previous posts of prayer as a race? A runner who does not know where the finish line lies is unlikely to win the race. Similarly, a Christian who does not understand the goal of prayer is not likely to attain it. Prayer is meant to draw us into an intimate communion …
It’s been a long time since I wrote about St. John of the Cross. The main reason for that is it takes so much time to delve into his writings, understand them myself, then relay them in a way I think my readers will understand. But today we’re going to revisit St. John briefly. Let’s …
So, you have set aside a certain time every day to converse with God. You are reading short passages of Scripture as a basis for your conversation. You recognize that dryness is a normal part of prayer that even the saints experience. Meditation on Sacred Scripture is just the beginning. God has much more in …
At last, we have arrived at the seventh mansions of the Interior Castle! Well, in our blog posts anyway. In case you were wondering, I have not arrived there yet in my own soul. Since it is impossible to understand many of the things Teresa writes about here without having experienced them, I’m going to …
Getting back to Interior Castle, we’ve been talking about the sixth mansions. Last time we looked at raptures and ecstasy. There are many more types of mystical phenomena that one can experience in the sixth mansions. Among them are what St. Teresa of Avila calls transports, touches, wounds of love, flights of spirit, and even …