Contemplation

Every monday at 12.30 pm at Liberiet (Mediaval building next to Cathedral).

In Christianity, contemplation refers to a contentfree mind directed towards the awareness of God as a living reality. In meditation, mind and imagination and other faculties are actively employed in an effort to understand our relationship with God. In contemplative prayer, this activity is curtailed, so that contemplation has been described as ”a gaze of faith”, ”a silent love”.

John of the Cross described the difference between meditation and contemplation by saying: ”The difference between these two conditions of the soul is like the difference between working, and enjoyment of the fruit of our work; between receiving a gift, and profiting by it; between the toil of travelling and the rest of our journey’s end”.

An Oriental Orthodox expert on prayer says: ”Meditation is an activity of one’s spirit, while contemplation is a spontaneous activity of that spirit. In meditation, man’s imaginative and thinking power exert some effort. Contemplation then follows to relieve man of all effort. Contemplation is the soul’s inward vision and the heart’s simple repose in God.”

Brief introduction for beginners is held every Monday at 12.10 pm.