Contemplation is Judged by its Fruits

True contemplation, as the mystics are constantly assuring us, must always be judged by its fruits. If it be genuine, work has been done during the period of apparent passivity. The deeper self has escaped, has risen to freedom, and returns other than it was before. Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism P. 241

When one looks on God in contemplation, it is not just for the satisfaction of the one who contemplates. The contemplative looks with loving and adoring eyes upon the God of love, he desires to be totally at one with God, and seeks to be more like God.

Seeking to be more like God, the roots of the spiritual plant are in the soil of the essence of God. Thus the plant gets its divine spiritual nourishment, causing the spiritual fruit to grow and mature, and the contemplative to return from his time in the presence of God other than what he was before.

I have tried to express this in the following poem Cocoon.

I wind silk around my being,

Silk spun from my own inner self,

I bind myself in darkness,

To be transformed into a new being

Of light and freedom.

I am becoming a winged creature,

A being capable of spiritual flight

Into the rarer atmosphere,

Nearer to the Creator of life.

I learn to temper the once

Destructive powers of my will,

Binding them with silken bonds

In the dark, silent cocoon.

In the quiet darkness

My being is transformed;

In the silken, gold-glittered,

Chrysalis, hidden and

Protected ’neath my Creator’s hand.

Slow is the secret process within;

So much to be done; change

Cannot be rushed, if beauty

Is to be the new being’s end result—

If my transformed being,

My freed, winged being,

Is to be revealed, soaring

In rarefied air

To the glory of God.

© Judith Lawrence  September 2011

Contemplatives who Live in Realms of Day

Night Sky

God appears, and God is Light

To those poor souls who dwell in night:

But doth a human form display

To those who dwell in realms of day. William Blake quoted by Evelyn Underhill in Mysticism P. 240

[T]hose contemplatives whose temperament inclines them to “dwell in realms of day”…apprehend the personal and passionate aspect of the Infinite Life, and the love, at once intimate and expansive, all-demanding and all-renouncing, which plays like lightning between it and the desirous soul. Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism P. 240

As William Blake intimates, in the lines quoted above, not all contemplatives see God in the same way; and as we have noted in Evelyn Underhill’s writing in previous blogs on this site, it much depends on the individual’s temperament as to how God is perceived in times of contemplation.

Field of Sunflowers

 I would go even further than this and say that it is not only the individual’s overall temperament but also his underlying situation, need, and mood on any particular day in which he might be practicing contemplation. This, I believe, is not only because of a contemplative’s circumstance at that time, but also because of God’s realization of that contemplative’s needs and desires at any given time.

Walking in Wind

We each have a unique relationship with God and that unique relationship may even change from moment to moment according to our present needs. God is so amazing that, knowing our need and condition at any given time, the Sacred One will change the way in which God’s revelation is given to us according to whether we currently dwell in realms of night or day.

God is love and desires to fulfil our every necessity with abundant life.

© Judith Lawrence

No Fear in Love

The group of contemplatives who are governed by that “Love which casteth out fear”: by a predominating sense of the nearness, intimacy, and sweetness [of God] …These contemplatives tell us of their attainment of That which Is, as the closest and most joyous of all communions; a coming of the Bridegroom; a rapturous immersion in the Uncreated Light. Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism P.231

I try to reach Thee but, except my longing and my yearning, there is nothing there. Yet, I know that I am resting in Thy love. Purple sparks explode like fire balls of light. My right hand rises up, cupped to receive Thee. Pure Gift Thou art; vessel I am, to receive Thy love. Unpublished Journals of Judith Lawrence, September, 2011 

Nearness, intimacy, and sweetness of God, Evelyn Underhill tells us, is what mystics who experience the contemplations of Immanence receive; whereas mystics who experience the contemplations of Transcendence, perceive themselves as unworthy to receive the ineffable greatness of the Absolute Godhead in which they desire to lose themselves.

The way in which an individual contemplates God has much to do with his personality and, perhaps, the way of his religious upbringing. One person may be drawn to the love of God which casts out all fear; another may be drawn to the Absolute Godhead of whose Being he feels totally unworthy to approach and yet in whom he desires to be present.

The important thing is that one does approach God in whatever way one is drawn to do so.

© Judith Lawrence

Discovering the Soul

“We discover the soul,” says Richard Rohr. “We don’t go there to make ourselves holy; we wake our souls up. We’re already united with God; the problem is, we don’t believe it. . . We continually try to be good people. In reality we are not always good, but we are holy . . . we’re holy because we came forth from God.” Simplicity Page 93.

We were born in holiness; we were already holy in God when we came to earth. That’s who we were before we were born—we were holy—and that’s who we were when we were born; before we did anything good or bad, we were holy. And that’s who we still are; we are holy. This is what really is.

“The best definition I know for contemplation,” Richard Rohr tells us, “is as follows: Contemplation is a long loving look at what really is.” Simplicity Page 92.

The practise of the art of contemplation for the Christian begins with small steps. It requires first of all a discipline of daily attendance at a time of prayer. We have to discover a routine through which we can find God and hear God’s voice. Through Bible reading, spiritual reading, and prayer, we come to know God’s loving purpose for us and begin to remember the holiness with which we were born, who we were before we came into the world, and who we really are now. 

Who we really are now is “holy”. Don’t be afraid to claim this holiness that is God’s gift to each one of us.

© Judith Lawrence