A Mystic's Journal Entry: May 3, 2006 by Laurie Conrad. Meditation Class: Mystical Contemplation and the Felt Presence of God, Chapter IV of "The Ways of Mental Prayer" written by V. Lehodey.

A Mystic’s Journal. Meditation Class: Mystical Contemplation and the felt Presence of God: Chapter IV of The Ways of Mental Prayer. May 3, 2006.

Wednesday, May 3

We have started a new book in meditation class: The Ways of Mental Prayer by Rt. Rev. Dom Vitalis Lehodey, Abbot of Bricquebec. Translated from the French by a monk of Mount Melleray. (Tan Books and Publishers, Inc.). Instead of going chapter by chapter, in order, we are just opening to any page and reading the paragraph we find before us.

Trudy opened to: "Humility ought never to make us lose confidence, but ought rather lead us to transfer it from self and to put it in God. True confidence does not rely upon our worth, our virtues, our merits, or our capacity, but upon God alone." We discussed Saint Teresa of Avila’s statement that one must have a healthy sense of confidence and worth because we are the soul. For the soul’s sake we must honor ourselves - yet in all humility know that we only honor the soul. However, this beautiful quote from Vitalis Lehodey would apply to all people, those too rich in ego and those sadly lacking. And all those in-between. Lehodey then goes on to say that true confidence relies on God’s goodness, on His power and wisdom, His patience and mercy, and on the Gifts of His Grace which aid us. In other words: put our full Faith and Confidence in God. Forget our little selves, our personalities, i.e. our thoughts and our actions, our emotions and our deeds and perceptions. All these belong to the personality, the ego. The ego is not our true self: the soul is our true being.

Chris opened to a chapter on mystical contemplation: "In the ordinary kinds of prayer we think of God, we remember God, we know Him by faith. In passive contemplation, the soul generally feels a mysterious impression." Here, "ordinary kinds of prayer" refers to vocal prayer, i.e. verbally reciting or reading prayers, or inwardly reciting or creating them, i.e. some sort of inner or outward verbal communication with God. "Passive contemplation" is an advanced state of meditation, or mental prayer, where all the thoughts cease of their own accord during the practice of meditation. On the previous page, Lehodey writes: "Since mystical prayer is supernatural, it is consequently infused on God’s part, passive on the part of the soul." In other words, at this high stage of mystical union, the soul does nothing but await God’s presence.

"Mysterious" in this context, we agreed, meant representing the Mystery of God, i.e. that which is beyond our natural understanding. We then had a discussion on the word "impression", and decided that it could refer to a feeling, but also implied the presence of God - and that Presence was impressed or imprinted on the soul during passive contemplation or mystical union.

The next sentence was: " God, who dwells in the soul of the just, manifests His presence there in a manner which must be experienced to be understood." We all agreed that this was true . This Gift of grace, this felt presence of God must be experienced to be understood. Words cannot describe it. Trudy also asked about "dwells in the soul of the just" which began a discussion on whether or not the Divine spark that Master Eckhard speaks of is in every soul, or only in the souls of the Good. We agreed it would be true of every soul. The discussion then branched out into defining the higher and lower parts of the soul, and whether the higher part of the soul can ever be affected by our thoughts and actions - or whether its connection to God is permanent. However, in this statement by Vitalis Lehodey, I think it more refers to the mystical and felt presence of God that can be experienced in our deepest contemplations. Which would be a separate thing from the Divine spark which is embedded in the soul.

Lehodey continues: "The soul has an experimental perception that she possesses God and is united to Him, that she is, so to speak, plunged in God and all penetrated by him; and, when this impression becomes strong, it is like a loving clasp of the hand, a spiritual embrace. Then the soul is as sure of the presence of God as if she saw Him with her eyes and touched Him with her hands, because she feels Him in herself. This is a fact established by the experience of all mystics, and no author denies it." This has been my experience.

These passages were so profoundly beautiful that we decided to read further into this chapter next week.