December 11, 2001
Blue Journal
“Jesus chooses for each person the type of suffering which He sees is most suited to sanctify that person, and often the cross which He imposes is the one which, accepting all the others, one would have refused if one had dared. The one He gives is that which one understands the least.” (Charles de Foucauld)
There is one “method” of contemplative prayer that I like very much.
To be strictly true, any method implies a discursive or measured use of our thoughts, our reason, and so on. So it’s better to say that it relates to meditation, not contemplation.
But as far as methods go, there’s one that throws itself straight at contemplation. I picked it up from Blessed Charles de Foucauld, who seems to have “invented” it. Brother Charles was a great reader of Saint Teresa and Saint John of the Cross. As much as he loved to meditate on the Gospels, he placed the right value on talking with Jesus, on contemplation, on love. He put that first. For Charles, all methods, all meditations, came second.
Blessed Charles’ method is like this.
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Witnesses to Hope 