Rhythms of Prayer

CONTEMPLATION

and

ACTION

John on Patmos, Med. illum.

All human experience can be conceived as a kind of alternating rhythm, a life-giving, energizing movement back and forth, between the the two poles of “activity” and “receptivity”:

From the perspective of the spiritual life these two poles have been referred to as “action” and “contemplation”. “Action” (praktiké), however, does NOT refer to any external activity, but rather to the inner asceticism (spiritual training) of discovering and rooting out vices, while growing in virtue. “Contemplation” means spiritual “vision”, what Plato called theoria, an inner apprehension by the nous, or deepest level of the human person. To behold with theoria / contemplatio is to be changed by the experience of vision.

In Christian antiquity it was well-understood that their are two principal kinds of “contemplation”:

first, theologia, an apprehension of God beyond all concept or even thought;

and, second, theoria physiké, the contemplation of God in and through creation (nature). In the Christian monastic tradition this was preeminently exercised through the study and spiritual interpretation of the bible. The practices of lectio divina, psalmody, and meditative recitation of bible verses while working were the core of the monastic “contemplative life”.

PRAKTIKÉ	THEORIA PHYSIKÉ	THEOLOGIKÉ

ASCETICISM	CONTEMPLATION of GOD IN CREATION	CONTEMPLATION of GOD BEYOND WORD or IMAGE

(Purgation)	(Illumination)	(Union)

The three poles of PRAKTIKÉ, THEORIA PHYSIKÉ, and THEOLOGIKÉ came in time to be associated with the triad, Purgation, Illumination, and Union: however in Christian antiquity these were NOT successive stages in spiritual development, but three movements or capacities of the innermost self, all of which are ALWAYS present, although in different combinations at different times.


IT should be added that what may appear to be a (depressingly) recurring cycle when viewed in only two dimensions, is seen to be an ascending helix when the dimension of time is added. The inner rhythm of our spiritual life is a “spiral staircase” on which we ascend to God.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the desire to systematize spiritual growth caused the aforementioned triads to be described less as notes in an ever-evolving inner symphony than as stages to be successively attained and (at least in the case of the first two) transcended. The complex “spiral staircase” is unravelled into a simple stepladder.


		Unitive Way
		THEOLOGIKÉ,
	Illuminative Way	CONTEMPLATION of GOD BEYOND WORD or IMAGE
Purgative Way	THEORIA PHYSIKÉ, CONTEMPLATION of GOD IN CREATION
PRAKTIKÉ,
ASCETICISM

RHYTHMS of EXEGESIS
and SPIRITUAL PROGRESS

SPIRITUAL PROGRESS	EXEGESIS Origen	EXEGESIS Cassian
UNION	ENOPTICS	ANAGOGICAL
ILLUMINATION	PHYSICS	ALLEGORICAL
PURIFICATION	ETHICS	MORAL

ἡ πρακτική

Praktiké

ASCETICAL PRACTICE

ἡ γνωστική = ἡ θεωρητική

Gnostiké (= Theoretiké)

CONTEMPLATIVE KNOWLEDGE

Observation and
understanding of the self:

elimination of vices

acquisition of virtues

ἡ φυσική
Physike

Contemplation
of the scriptures
and of creation

ἡ θεωλογική
(= ἡ θεωλογία)

Theologiké
= Theologia

Knowledge
of God/Divine Nature

“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)

“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

The original version of this Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1998....x.... .