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A RETREAT
on THE
HISTORY,
PRACTICE,
and UNDERSTANDING
of MONASTIC
CONTEMPLATIVE
PRAYER
SAINT
ANDREW’
OCTOBER
1-2,
2021
Fr. Luke's email:
ldysinger@stjohnsem.edu
If you experience technical difficulties during the workshop, please call Fr. Patrick at 661-472-2928
IN this workshop we will recover the ancient Christian understanding of “contemplation,” embracing both apophatic (imageless, wordless) and kataphatic (image-filled, word-filled) prayer. We will emphasize the importance of interweaving and alternating both of these forms of contemplation. Practices that will be discussed include: Christian monologistic prayer (especially the Jesus Prayer and the Rosary), monastic psalmody, and lectio divina.
RETREAT
THEMES
RHYTHMS of LIFE and PRAYER
THE APOPHATIC and KATAPHATIC WAYS
CHRISTIAN SPIRITUAL PRACTICES
CONTEMPLATION and MEDITATION
MONOLOGISTIC PRAYER
MONASTIC PSALMODY and SUNG PRAYER
LECTIO DIVINA
SACRED IMAGES
TEMPERAMENT and SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
EXEGESIS of SACRED SCRIPTURE and of THE SELF
CONTEMPLATION and COMMUNITY in BASIL
SEVERAL participants have asked about spiritual practices that may be undertaken between our conferences. For those who wish, these might include using the psalms in prayer in the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours) and/or praying the Sacred Scriptures in the monastic tradition of lectio divina.IF you would like to hear and see the form of the Divine Office we celebrate at Valyermo, Abbot Damien has made six of our offices available at the Recorded Prayers tab on the Abbey website, (https://www.saintandrewsabbey.com).
WITH
regard to the practice of lectio divina, please explore the articles
downloadable from the section on
lectio divina accessible from the
Bibliography link on the navigation panel to the left. Feel free,
also, to explore the Lectio Divina link on the navigation panel.
Biblical texts and patristic writings used at Mass and the Divine Office
(which are excellent matter for lectio divina) may be found at the
Universalis Website
(https://www.universalis.com/USA/0/mass.htm).
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Labor
During the Four Seasons |
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“We speak to [God] when we pray;
We listen to Him when we read the divine saying.”
St. Ambrose,
De Officiis ministrorum I, 20, 88:
(PL 16,50)
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“Listen,
my son to the teachings of the Master,
and incline the ear of your heart
. . .Freely receive and carry out
with care
the precepts of your loving Father.”
The Rule of St. Benedict,
Prologue
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Resurrection, Grunewald |
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AND yet the Incarnation requires us to embrace as well the kataphatic “Way of Affirmation” which proclaims the absolute necessity and value of images, words, and concepts in our relationship with the Word made flesh.-
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Abbess Giving a Spiritual Conference |
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THE KATAPHATIC TRADITION (The Way of Affirmation)
[COMPLEX
VARIETY; MULTIPLE
IMAGES; LIGHT; LITERATURE;
POETRY; HYMNODY]
PUBLIC WORSHIP Sacramental & Scriptural Focus Vernacular Psalmody Liturgy of the Hours Ritual Chant Taizé, Gregorian Chant
PRIVATE DEVOTION Icon-Meditation, Litanies, Stations of the Cross; The Rosary
DISCURSIVE MEDITATION Ignatian, Sulpician, Salesian
DISCERNMENT RETREAT Ignatian Spirituality
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THE APOPHATIC TRADITION (The Way of Negation) [SIMPLICITY, ABSENCE of IMAGES; DARKNESS; WORDLESS INTUITION; HUMILITY]
MONOLOGISTIC (Private-) PRAYER
The
Jesus Prayer (Hesychasm)
The prayer of the Cloud of Unknowing
“Centering
Prayer”
“Christian Mantra”
“Christian Zen”
“ABANDONMENT
to
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LECTIO DIVINA (Contemplative praying of the Scriptures) LITURGICAL PRAYER with SILENCES |
St. Benedict and Servandus contemplate the universe in a single ray of light |
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NAVIGATION BAR LINKS: CONTEMPLATION; MEDITATION
CONTEMPLATION (Latin contemplatio/contemplare; Greek theōria/theōreō: θεωρία/θεωρέω). Literally, beholding, seeing. For Plato and the Christian authors from the third century onwards it describes a deep, mystical perception by the nous or deepest part of the soul (the image of God), a beholding of the underlying meanings or purposes of God hidden beneath surface appearance. In the New Testament the noun is used only once, together with the verb in Luke 23:49, of the crowds who have beheld (theōrountes/ θεωροῦντες) the spectacle (theōria/θεωρία) of the crucifixion of Christ.
MEDITATION (Latin meditatio/meditare, Greek melétē/meletáō: μελέτη/μελετάω). In the Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament) it is used frequently in the context of “meditating on the law” in the sense of study, practice, repeating to one’s self in order to memorize. In classical Greek it meant “care, attention”, practice, exercise, and repetition, rehearsal by an orator of his speech. See also the 1989 Document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation.
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Hermit Monks at Prayer |
DURING the next eight hundred years this practice is only occasionally alluded to in the spiritual literature of East and West. It blossoms into prominence in the high middle ages in the West as the paternoster and rosary prayers, and in the East as the Jesus Prayer; and detailed descriptions and commentaries abound from the fourteenth century to the present. See also the 1989 document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation.
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NAVIG.BAR: LITURG.CONTEMPL.; PSALMODY / SONG
CHRISTIAN poems and hymns are found in the New Testament. Together with the antiphons that precede and follow the psalms in Gregorian chant, these musical icons are the distilled contemplative experience of our Christian forbears, transformed into poetry and music.
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[...] CHANT PSALMS in such a way that our mind and voice are in concord with each other. (RB 19.6) |
[...] PRAYER ought to be brief and pure,(RB 20.4) |
83. PSALMODY calms the passions and puts to rest the body’s disharmony; |
PRAYER arouses the nous to activate its own proper activity. (Evagrius On Prayer, 83) |
85. PSALMODY pertains to multiform wisdom; |
PRAYER is the prelude to immaterial and uniform knowledge. (Evagrius On Prayer, 85) |
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“We speak to [God] when we pray;
We listen to Him when we read the divine saying.”
St. Ambrose,
De Officiis ministrorum I, 20, 88:
(PL 16,50)
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Moses Receives The Law; Byzantine Icon |
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The Four Qualities and Humors |
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CHRISTIANITY
ADAPTED
THE
TRIPARTITE
MODEL
of THE
SOUL
SUGGESTED by
PLATO
3) VIRTUES AND VICES of the TRIPARTITE SOUL |
“All these kingdoms are mine [says the devil] … worship me and I will give them to you.” (Mt 4:9; Lk 4:6-7)
“You
shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve”. |
THE
LOGISTIKON
Reasoning, Contemplative Self
VIRTUES |
MIND (Reason) nous / logos / intellectus |
VICES |
understanding
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vainglory
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THE
PATHETIKON
Feeling Self, Subject to Emotions
DESIRE |
STRENGTH |
VIRTUES |
VICES |
VIRTUES |
VICES |
abstinence temperance almsgiving |
gluttony |
courage endurance zeal enthusiasm |
cowardice |
“Command these stones to become bread.”(Mt 4:3; Lk 4:3) Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.(Mt 4:4; Lk. 4:4) |
“Throw yourself down from here.” (Mt 4:6; Lk 4:9) You shall not tempt the Lord your God. (Mt. 4:7; Lk 4:12) |
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4) VIRTUE
AS BALANCE
(mean / midpoint) |
[vice of] EXCESS |
[virtuous] MEAN |
[vice
of] |
[A] With regard to feelings of Fear and Confidence:
Rashness |
Courage |
Cowardice |
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[B] With regard to Pleasures and Pains:
Self-Indulgence |
Temperance |
Insensibility |
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[C] With regard to Truth:
Boastfulness |
Truthfulness |
False Modesty |
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THE German-British psychologist Hans Jürgen Eysenck (1916 – 1997) proposed a theory of personality based on biological factors that has subsequently become influential. He believed that individuals inherit a type of nervous system that affects their ability to learn and adapt to the environment.
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St. Jerome, Teaching |
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SKILL in this textual art enables the practitioner to look up from the Sacred Text and apply this technique to the perception of and interaction with other human beings. Both the innermost self and the neighbor can thus increasingly bee seen as bearing the Divine Image.
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Littera gesta docet,
quid credas allegoria, |
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Moralis quid agas,
quo tendas anagogia. |
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Sometimes attributed to Nicholas of Lyra, c. 1340,
Pentecost, De Firenze, 1536 |
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TIMELINES
CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
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This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 2003