On prayer, mindfulness and contemplation

A lot of people seem to mean a lot of different things by ‘prayer’.

I once went to what was advertised as an Augustinian prayer day. That sounded eminently attractive, I thought: I’m interested in Augustine, and I’m interested in prayer. What we were told to do, however, was to sit in silence, individually, for 30 minutes, concentrating on our breathing.

Well, that’s not prayer. That’s mindfulness, the Westernised and tamed version of Buddhist transcendental meditation. (In fact, we were even told to use a phrase such as ‘Our Father’ to repeat if we found it hard to concentrate; that sounds very similar to a mantra.)

I’m actually very much in favour of mindfulness; there is documented evidence that it changes brain structures in a way that demonstrably improves conditions such as anxiety, and helps people function better under stress. It’s a very useful form of brain training, with all sorts of benefits. It’s a good thing. It’s just not prayer.

Other people talk a lot about contemplative prayer, which was something I always thought sounded interesting, but I wasn’t sure what anyone meant by it. Part of the problem is that people who use what they call contemplative prayer often say it is indescribable, and speak of it only using metaphors.

However I came across a very helpful definition of contemplative prayer by the late Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. He says: ‘Prayer then means yearning for the simple presence of God, for a personal understanding of His word, for knowledge of His will and for a capacity to hear and obey him’ (Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer, 2005 (first published 1973).

That sounds excellent. Those are all good things that I would encourage every Christian to have. We should yearn for God’s presence, for understanding His word, for knowing His will and to hear and obey Him. ‘As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God’, says Psalm 42. That’s exactly the kind of yearning that should characterise our lives.

I would not, however, call it prayer. I would call it ‘yearning’.

Prayer is a means of satisfying at least part of that yearning. It’s a method of working towards it and encouraging it in ourselves. We can ask God for that kind of right desire as we pray. We can also enjoy the presence of God as we pray to Him. But prayer is not the same thing as yearning.

Prayer, essentially, is speaking to God. It is not just asking for things, so if people in their definitions are trying to expand our idea of prayer beyond requests, then they are right to do so. Prayer can involve wondering at all God’s wonderful attributes, thanking Him in detail for all that He gives and does, recalling the day we have just had and sharing our ups, downs, and reactions with God, and asking Him for godliness as we remember and deal with it. There are all sorts of things we may say to God, and we may say them out loud, silently, with pauses, with thoughts and emotions, written down, spontaneously, or reading prayers that other people have written. We can pray using words of Scripture, using psalms or other parts of the Bible. There are all sorts of ways in which we can pray. But as far as I can see, in Scripture prayer always does involve words. It is talking to God.

We can also sit in God’s presence and enjoy thinking about Him, knowing that He’s there. That’s a good thing to do. That is contemplation, and is an excellent way to spend one’s time. It is another way of helping to satisfy the right yearning that Merton writes about. We might also try to create that yearning, that longing for God, within ourselves, and work to satisfy it, by reading, studying and mulling over God’s word. And for praying for more of all of the things Merton listed. Prayer then can be both a cause and a result of such right longing. It’s just not the same thing.

Prayer is also not just sitting, waiting for God to speak. That is a very easy route to listening to anything but God – my prejudices, my culturally shaped assumptions, my own desires. God speaks very clearly, in Scripture, and never contradicts Himself. We pray for God’s Spirit to enlighten us as we read His word. That is how we listen to His voice.

By all means contemplate God. By all means spend time thinking deeply about Him and about Scripture. Do encourage within yourself a desire for more conscious awareness of His presence, and for obedience to His word. Also by all means spend time in mindful meditation. But make sure that none of these supplant prayer.