Salesian Literature

Chapter 5  :  The second way in which meditation and contemplation differ

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Meditation is a reflection in great detail, point by point, on those things which are capable of touching our hearts; contemplation, however, takes a single concentrated look at what we love – a concentrated reflection that has greater energy, greater power to move the will.  In meditation we tell over to ourselves, as it were, each of God’s several perfections which we see in any given mystery; but in contemplation we add them all together and view them as one.

 

Meditation is like smelling first a carnation, then a rose, then rosemary, thyme, jasmine, orange-flower, each one separately; contemplation is equivalent to smelling the scented liquid distilled from all those flowers put together.  Undoubtedly the combined scents in the liquid are sweeter, finer, than the separate scents of each flower.

 

Blessed are those who reduce all their motives for loving God to one, who gather all the thoughts of their meditation into one conclusion, who engage their minds in the unity of contemplation.  They are imitating St. Augustine[1] and St. Bruno, as they murmur with lasting wonderment in the hidden depths of their souls: “What goodness, what loving kindness, ever ancient, ever new!”  Or, like St. Francis of Assisi as he spent the whole night on his knees in prayer (according to Brother Bernard of Quinteval, who witnessed it), they merely repeat these words: “My God, you are my God and my all!”

 

When we have aroused a number of pious emotions through the numerous reflections that go to make up a meditation, we concentrate them until we produce a quintessence – an emotion that has greater vigour, more power, than all the other emotions from which it springs.  In this single emotion are contained all the characteristics of each of the others; and we call it contemplation.

 

 

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[1]  Cf. Confessions 10.27.

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