Ascending Mount Tabor

Introduction. Since the 2nd Vatican Council, there has been a renewed interest, among lay people as well as religious, in the higher forms of prayer, especially contemplative prayer. The Council has made it clear that all men are called to an intimate union with God through prayer which, in its highest form, we call contemplation.

It is also a fact that today many Catholics, including lay Catholics, are being blessed with that gift of prayer: contemplation, and intimate union with God through prayer. We meet such blessed souls in many Renewal Movements in the Church. I personally have been very much involved with the Charismatic people and I know a lot of them who, in recent years, have come to develop a beautiful prayer life, a deep prayer life, through being members of such prayer groups.

I would like to speak to you today of this journey to the heights of union with God through prayer. This is undoubtedly the high point of all I had planned to tell you during this novena about "growing in prayer." We are going to have a general overview of the whole span of growth through mental prayer.

Our prayer life develops through three stages, and the prayer that corresponds to the first stage is called meditation. The prayer that characterizes the second stage is what I call the prayer of the heart. And, third, the highest point, is contemplation.

I shall try to show you tonight how our spiritual life is called to move along from meditation to prayer of the heart, and from there to the heights of contemplation. What I can say in just one short sermon will necessarily be skimpy. Nevertheless, my prayer is that it will at least give you a vision of God's plan for our spiritual growth through prayer and offer you, at the same time, an incentive to begin that journey. It's a marvelous journey, I assure you.

I would compare this journey to the three years the Apostles spent with Jesus. Yes, they spent three years with Jesus, getting to know him. Those three years they spent together was like a courtship, where they got to know each other. They came to admire Jesus very much. They trusted him because he was so sincere and honest, and he really spoke with the authority of God. And in the process they fell in love with him. They were ready to commit their whole life to him, even to die for him. That's the story of the Apostles.

That's something like our journey with God through prayer. It's a beautiful romance, and we're all called to it. Let's make no mistake about it. It's our vocation. We are all called to a life of intimate union with God, nothing less. So, my friends, let's not sell ourselves short.

First stage in this journey with God: meditation.

When we begin our journey with God, the first thing we need to do is like the Apostles did: get acquainted with him, get to know him. We need therefore to refer the mysteries of our faith, reflect on God. Who is God? He is the one who created all things. He is divine Providence, who supervises the whole order of creation and leads us in our life. Then, we reflect on the love of God, especially as manifested to us in Jesus Christ We need to spend a lot of time reflecting on the life of Jesus: what he said, what he did, to get to really know him, if we want to fall in love with him, and through him to get to know the Father.

We also need to learn about the Christian virtues. That's our way of loving God, of growing in holiness. We need to reflect, to understand the virtues of faith, hope and charity; the virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. All these virtues are necessary if our love of God is to grow. We need not only to learn about these virtues, but also to practice them. We also need to learn how to overcome sin in our life, how to resist temptations. That's part of our spiritual growth. There is no love of God unless we uproot our bad habits little by little. It takes quite a while.

You see, our prayer life is a love relationship with the Lord, and if we want to grow in love, we have to eradicate from our life everything that is contrary to the love of God: selfishness in every form, pride, and all the bad habits that are like weeds in the garden of our soul. We also need to know how to overcome temptations, practice self-denial and carry our cross. It's what Jesus told us: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross every day and follow me." (Lk 9:23) If we don't do those things, we shall never have much of a relationship with the Lord, and therefore we shall never have much of a prayer life. You see, all those things hold together. When we do all those things, we grow in virtues, we grow in holiness.

We have a lot of learning to do when we begin our spiritual life, to develop a real, close friendship with God, with Jesus. That's why the first stage of our spiritual journey is characterized by the kind of prayer we call meditation. To meditate is to think, to reflect, and thereby to learn about God, about how to live our Christian life, how to grow in virtue, all those things we've just talked about. And in this, the activity of the mind is predominant. It's a learning time.

But then, if it were just learning, it wouldn't be prayer. Prayer is not study. Study in itself is not prayer. It is necessary before, but then, if it is to become a prayer, we must reflect on God and all we have been talking about in a prayerful way, as if listening to God speaking to our heart, and responding to him, receiving those teachings as a word from the Lord. And when we do that, we are engaged in a personal relationship. We're not just studying from a book. We are listening to God who is teaching us. And we welcome that word as a word of God. We thank God for teaching us. We try to respond when he tells us something. We rejoice as he reveals himself to us, etc. That's what meditation is about.

There is a part of meditation that has to do with prayer of the heart, but what is distinctive of this first stage is that we spend more time reflecting and perhaps reading about the things of God and the spiritual life. Because there is so much we need to learn. But, little by little, as we come to know God better, we spend more time loving, rejoicing in God, praising him. We begin to learn to listen, to be silent and quiet in his presence, and this leads us little by little into the second stage of our spiritual growth in prayer. But before we get there, I would like to make a few suggestions on how we go about learning to meditate.

We usually begin by using a little book. It could be the Gospels. But there are other books that are helpful. The Imitation of Christ is a classic. It's all short chapters. You can read one a day. Each chapter begins with thoughts, as if Jesus were speaking to me, and I respond to him. He teaches me about the ways of holiness, of virtue. Another book which is very popular today: My Bread of Life. A contemporary book. It's excellent. It's written a little bit in the way of the Imitation of Christ. Each chapter is divided into 3 parts: Christ speaks to us; then there is a paragraph: think, reflect. Third paragraph: a prayer by which we respond to the Lord. An excellent way to teach us how to meditate. Both books are excellent. Then, you can go on to read the Gospels, once you have mastered the technique, the "mechanics" of meditation. You read a few lines, then you pause. Let those words sink in. That's meditating. It's reading slowly, prayerfully. Once again, this is not study time; it's a time we focus on the Lord, reading slowly, prayerfully. Let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart. This is most fruitful.

In this first stage of our prayer journey, it is very important to be attentive to weeding the garden of our soul. If you have a garden and you let the weeds grow, you won't get much out of it. Well, we all have a lot of weeds in the garden of our soul. They are called selfishness, pride, arrogance, anger, being judgmental…all sorts of bad habits. To destroy these weeds, we have to practice mortification, so that charity may grow freely. That's an especially important thing to do in that first stage of spiritual growth, which is characterized as prayer of meditation.

Second stage on our journey with God: prayer of the heart.

Let us remember here that all 3 stages are important. Don't skip anyone. Don't rush into the next until you are ready. Otherwise you will never make much progress.

The second stage is one in which we pray mostly with our heart: loving God, praising him, admiring him, rejoicing in him, longing for him, expressing trust in him, asking him to help us to love him more and more. It's our heart that pours out its affections and desires. What happens is that these affections of the heart begin to express themselves more and more, even in the first stage we call meditation. Little by little, as we become familiar with God, as we grow in his love, the affections come to predominate. We do less thinking and more and more loving. And that's what prayer is all about. And when the prayer of the heart predominates, we have passed from meditation to the second stage in our spiritual growth. It's just as simple as that. The three phases merge into one another in a very natural way.

Examples of what I mean by "prayer of the heart." Aspirations, like: I love you, Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. O my God, how wonderful you are. Praised be God! Thank you, Jesus, for dying for me on the cross. How can I ever repay you? You see, it's a love talk. Heart to heart. Two friends. I admire you, my God. Dwell in my soul. I know you are there. I give my heart to you, my life I give to you. Perhaps on occasion we might like to say the Gloria of the Mass: "Lord, God, heavenly king, Almighty God and Father." Expressions of our faith: We worship you, we give you thanks. Or the beautiful Magnificat of Mary. It's a prayer of the heart. I'm giving you that as samples of what I mean by praying from your heart. "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. You are so great, my God! Holy is your name. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. He who is mighty has done great things in me. O God, how good you have been for me. He has looked down upon the lowliness of his handmaid and done great things for me." I was nothing. Just a poor creature, And you looked down with favor upon me. How wonderful you are. I'm so happy, Lord, that you cared for me so much. That's all prayer of the heart. Heart-to-heart talk.

It's important also that you learn to be silent for some moments once in a while. Let the Lord speak to your heart, and he will. For example, if you read one of those little books: The Imitation of Christ, or My Daily Bread, words are put as if coming from Jesus and you receive them as if coming from him. Listen to him. Listen to what he is saying to your heart. You are not just reading a book. Think that Jesus is talking to you. It's a dialogue between Jesus and you.

Now, as we learn to meditate, little by little we shall feel like spending more time just loving God, praising him, thanking him, asking for his help, telling him we trust in him, or just rejoice in his presence. More and more we let our hearts speak, flow...

Third stage: contemplation.

This leads little by little to the third stage in our spiritual growth through prayer. One day Jesus took Peter, James and John, his 3 closest Apostles, up on a high mountain, usually identified as Mt. Tabor, and there before their eyes, he was transfigured. You remember the story. The 3 Apostles were in a rapture as they beheld Christ in his glory. What did they do? They were just gazing at him. They weren't speaking or doing anything; they were just there immobile, fascinated, enraptured by the sight of Jesus in his glory. The mind was still, just gazing intently. Their heart was caught. They weren't saying words of love. They were just there in awe, admiring, silent, until finally Peter broke the spell saying: "Lord, it is good to be here. Let's make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” who were part of the vision.

That's contemplation. Something extremely simple. You just think with love and joy of God present in your soul. It's a wonderful experience. The great saints were given the grace to spend much time in this kind of contemplation. It's the work of the Holy Spirit in us. If we ask the Holy Spirit to help us as we begin to pray, there will be moments, even before we arrive at the higher degrees of prayer, perhaps very early if we are really in love with God, when the Holy Spirit will give you a glimpse of what I have called contemplation. It will, at first, be just a passing experience, maybe just a brief moment, but this will give you a taste for more that the Lord has for you, if you are faithful to your prayer life.

In contemplation, my friends, we don't read, we don't reflect any longer on many things. We don't even produce many acts of love of God or aspirations. Our minds and hearts are still, quiet, just gazing on the Lord. Just aware of his presence. Some spiritual writers call this "a prayer of simplicity." In contemplation everything becomes so simple. That's a gift of God. The Holy Spirit grants us this gift if we seek it earnestly; if we go through the different stages…if we earnestly desire to grow in prayer. We are drawn to God by such an experience in a marvelous way. We then experience a deep, intimate union with God. We are transformed, a little bit like the Apostles were when they beheld Jesus in his transfiguration. Something precious happens in our soul. We grow spiritually beyond all measure. Our love of God grows by leaps and bounds as we experience God in contemplation.

This is not something you will experience frequently in the beginning, but it will become more frequent if you apply yourself to prayer faithfully.

Conclusion. We are all called, Brothers and Sisters, to the heights of union with God in contemplation, but we must prepare for this grace. Contemplation comes later in our journey with God. It's the summit of the mountain, so to speak, which we ascend slowly, by degrees.

Few attain these heights for two different reasons. First, some don't know that God calls them to a higher form of prayer life. This is sad, because we're all called to this deep prayer life. A second reason: many don't want to renounce themselves, practice self-denial, mortification. This is necessary to weed the garden of our soul, so that the tree of charity and love can bear fruit. Only then can we follow Jesus.

Why not start right now, if you haven't done so, meditating every day a little while, say 10-15 minutes a day? Jesus is inviting you right now: Come, follow me. Amen.

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