Meditation in Christianity in extreme detail

7/29/2019 Meditation in Christianity in extreme detail

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Meditation inChristianity

1. Early hermits/anchorites/monasticism

2. Medieval & late medieval mystics

3. Reformation systemization

4. Contemporary meditation spirituality


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Earliest Christianity emphasized prayer

Meditation was introduced later, in the mid 2ndcentury by the first of the desert hermits

Over the next few hundred years, many Christians

who wanted to completely devote themselves toprayer found their way to the desert, lived alone incaves, and spent their days in prayer andmeditation.

These were almost always ascetics. We know little of their meditation practices.


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Sts. Paul and Anthony, hermits

St. Paul was one of the first Christian

Hermits. St. Anthony of Egypt was an

abbot who visited Paul when he was

old and about to die. The life of

Anthony, and the accounts of otherswho went to the desert, such as St.

Jerome, tell of their being tempted by

demons in dreams and visions,

usually symbols of real forces in their

lives or society: food, sexuality,

power.


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From the early evidence:

Hermits, later called anchorites, meditated on the life of Jesus, especially his

suffering and death, following the scriptural injunction of Paul the Apostle to

share the sufferings of the savior as part of the path to salvation.

Once the New Testament canon was complete, by the third century, biblicaltexts, not only the New Testament, but also parts of the Old Testament,

became the foundation of meditation practices.

By the beginning of the fifth century CE, St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of

Western monasticism, was completing his Rule of St. Benedict, which laid out

the monastic life with its devotion to manual labor, prayer and meditation.Monks lived ascetic lives in community, praying at set hours of the day and

night, meditating on readings at meals and in cloister, and also

did manual labor to support their communities.


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Hildegard of Bingen 1098-1179 Abbess, founder of three convents

Composed music for meditation

Author of natural history, medicine, lives

of the saints, and visionary theology(SciviasKnow the Ways of the Lord;

Liber vitaeBook of the Merits of Life;

Liber divinorumBook of Divine Works)

Her theologial works are accounts of her

visions that occurred during meditation.

She presents the love of God as a maternal

Love, in contrast to previous theology


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Beguines

Movement of lay women in northern Europe, to livecelibate lives of service in the community, withcommunity prayer and meditation a part of their rule.

Many of Beguines experienced God or Christ in theirvisions and dreams.

Some wrote of their experiences of communion with theDivine, including Beatrice of Nazareth, Hadewijch of

Antwerp, and Marguerite Porrete.

Marguerite Porrete wrote the Mirror of A SimpleAnnihilated Soul, and when she refused to recant thiswork, she was burned at the stake in Paris in 1310.


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Mechtilde von Magdeburg Mechtilde von Magdeburg (1297-1294), a Beguine, wroteThe Flowing

Light of the Godhead, which depicted the essence of God as love andlight that overflowed onto all. Excerpt:

The fish in the water cannot drown, The bird in the air cannot fall,

Gold is not destroyed by fire, But there receives its shine and glow.

God has given to all creatures the way to follow their own nature.

How then could I resist my nature?

I have perforce left all to enter into God, Who is my Father by nature,

My borther by his humanity, my Betrothed by love,

And I am his since before time began. Do you believe I do not

experience this? He can do both: burn with his strength and refreshwith his consolation. But be not over-sorrowful:

You can again teach me, when I return; Then I shall surely need yourcounsels, for the earthly kingdom is full of pitfalls.


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Meister Eckhart

1260-1328, scholastic theologian of the

University of Paris.

Specialized in metaphysical theology and

mysticism. Frequently taught and

preached in convents and connected to

some Beguines. Like them, he wrote in

the vernacular, and is considered

important in theological humanism.

Tried by the Inquisition, he died before

there was a verdict.


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St. Teresa of Avila1515-1582 founder of Counter Reformation

reform movement among Carmelites;

founded new convents

Visions most of her life; inspired herwritings (Interior Castle; The Way of

Perfection)

Taught path to God had four stages:

1) hearts devotion; 2) devotion ofpeace; devotion of union; 3) devotion

of ecstacy or rapture

Berninis sculpture,Rapture of St. Teresa


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St. Ignatius Loyola

1491-1556, Counter-Reformation founder of

Jesuits

Wrote the Spiritual Exercises, an extended

program of examination of conscience,

meditation on the life, death and resurrection

of Jesus, and the ongoing work of God in

the broken world we live in.

Exercises were meant as a one month

retreat, but can be condensed for weekend

retreats, or extended for those living amidst

the world.

St. Ignatius Loyola


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From the Literal Translation by Elder Mullan, S.J. [SPEX1]

ANNOTATIONS TO GIVE SOME UNDERSTANDING OF THE SPIRITUAL

EXERCISES WHICH FOLLOW, AND TO ENABLE HIM WHO IS TO GIVEAND HIM WHO IS TO RECEIVE THEM TO HELP THEMSELVES

First Annotation. The first Annotation is that by this name of Spiritual

Exercises is meant every way of examining one's conscience, of meditating,

of contemplating, of praying vocally and mentally, and of performing other

spiritual actions, as will be said later. For as strolling, walking and running arebodily exercises, so every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself

of all the disordered tendencies, and, after it is rid, to seek and find the Divine

Will as to the management of one's life for the salvation of the soul, is called a

Spiritual Exercise.

Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius 1 through 20


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Thomas Merton, monk, poet, writer.1915-1968. Gethsemane, Kentucky

The truth that many people never

understand, until it is too late, is that the

more you try to avoid suffering the moreyou suffer because smaller and more

insignificant things begin to torture you in

proportion to your fear of being hurt.
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The Merton Prayer MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I

am going. I do not see the road ahead ofme. I cannot know for certain where itwill end. Nor do I really know myself,and the fact that I think I am followingyour will does not mean that I am

actually doing so. But I believe that thedesire to please you does in fact pleaseyou. And I hope I have that desire in allthat I am doing. I hope that I will neverdo anything apart from that desire. And Iknow that if I do this you will lead me bythe right road, though I may knownothing about it. Therefore I will trustyou always though I may seem to belost and in the shadow of death. I will notfear, for you are ever with me, and youwill never leave me to face my perilsalone.

Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk


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Conclusion

Meditation was originally only for those who retreated from theworldreligious orders.

Beguines signal the beginning of the shift to

laity, which kept expanding in the Counter-Reformation andModern periods.

Meditation and mysticism have been suspect by the institutionalChurch, as leading to heresy.

Visions and dreams are less prominent in meditation today,

though still present.Women in Christianity have struggled for the right to meditation,due to prejudice concerning their intellectual ability.

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Meditation in Christianity in extreme detail