Contemplation, the Heart of the Carmelite Way of Life

This reflection on the elements of the Carmelite charism leads us to a consideration of what lies at the heart of our way of life.

by the Most Rev. Míċeál O’Neill, O.Carm.

This reflection on the elements of the Carmelite charism leads us to a consideration of what lies at the heart of our way of life. The formation document of the Carmelite Friars called the Ratio (Ratio Institutionis Vitae Carmelitanae) made great strides in clarifying what is this heart.

From a stage when the thinking of the Friars was that the desert, and our openness to God, were at the heart of the Rule, the latest thinking sees contemplation itself as the heart. The contemplative dimension is not merely one of the elements of our charism (prayer, fraternity and service): it is the dynamic element which unifies them all. The desert on the other hand is the process by which we become more open to the gift of God.

Contemplation and open attentiveness go together.

There is so much going on in an average day. We are never able to pay attention to everything. We try perhaps to pay attention to what is most important. In prayer we pay attention to the things of God and relate them to our own lives. We might give the name cry to all that relates to our own life. The Scriptures in different ways assure us again and again that God hears the cry. In specific terms it says that God hears the cry of the poor. In this context the poor are clearly those who turn to God in prayer, honest prayer, unpretentious prayer, humble prayer that recognises that we are sinners and God is God. This is a way of understanding our open attentiveness to God. It bears the marks of some desire to be heard, some urgency in wanting to know.

Once we have established this relation of prayer and attentiveness between ourselves and God, we then begin to see that my being attentive is not entirely my own decision. I am not in a position to say that now I will be attentive, now I will contemplate. Somehow we recognise that there is something else going on. It is the action of God. It is in the nature of God to be working all the time. The more we accept that communication the more we become God-like. This then is our understanding of contemplation: God’s action that transforms us and leaves us transformed as little by little we grow into god-likeness. [article continues...]