Living Contemplation

Caryll Houselander, a modern British mystic, wrote Never has my own heart so proved to me that the direct "contemplation" of Christ in men and women, in the world--done not only through our minds, but through our bodies also--is the way to him, the way to heaven on earth: and now I see how, without more than a necessary amount of egoism, we can contemplate him in our own life and come closer to him through it. This last means a more intense living and perhaps a more intense dying.

Houselander is telling us that--contemplation is not meant for only the monastics living within the secure and structured atmosphere of the monastery...it is meant for every serious christian. Contemplation needs silence, yes. But even more--it needs our heart and soul, our attention, our willingness to find him within our own hearts. Contemplation needs our own bodies. We cannot live up in the unseen world while we drag our bodies along. We must live in our bodies with joy and expectation. For what is to come can be here and now; that is, we can become so conscious of the life of God within us that we are living in his presence habitually. This is the goal of all monastics. But is should be the goal of all Christians. When we live in the presence of God, conscious of his life within, our own lives take on a different light.