What does it mean to be contemplative?
Lexico defines contemplative as "expressing or involving prolonged thought; involving or given to deep silent prayer or religious meditation."
When the word "contemplative" rests on the page or computer screen, this definition gets at it. In practice, I find it to be like looking through a mirror at something just beyond. I bring my senses to bear on what is within my gaze – a person, a thing, a situation; I bring my feeling, thought, reason, imagination and spirit. Through this, I draw into my being that which I behold ... and I sit with it – holding it lightly in the presence of God, asking of God that I might see as God sees, sense as God senses. … If there is something to say, or an action to take, I’d ask that my words be what God would have me speak and that I might act as God would have me act. In other words, may I approach what I behold with Love, in all of its honesty and complexity.
This doesn’t happen quickly or with a casual glance – and opening to this contemplation, truly desiring to see, to speak, to Be, as God would call me, means that I might be invited to change, to grow … to let some things and ways of being go, in order to be free to see from a new perspective. Not easy – never complete – and by and large, an amazing adventure.
Kim King, RSCJ
