Let’s contemplate contemplation
“Contemplation,” like “awesome,” is one of those serious and solemn words that has drifted into a casual understanding and use in our daily speak.
According to the memorial plaque above, “contemplating” is what Chip Thompson did for hours on this park bench.
What was he contemplating?
“Stuff,” the plaque says.
Was his contemplation simply that of the current google.com definition: Contemplation is the action of looking thoughtfully at something for a long time.
Or that of vocabulary.com: Contemplation is long, hard thinking about something.
Casual contemplation, both.
The cambridge.org definition comes a bit closer to the true solemnity of the word: Contemplation is serious and quiet thought for a period of time.
We’re making progress, but to get to the point—to the forgotten tone we’re looking for, here is the oft-quoted Trappist monk Thomas Merton:
“Contemplation is the highest expression of man’s intellectual and spiritual life. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant source. Contemplation is, above all, awareness of the reality of that source.”1
We’re getting closer.
Here is that of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain, the husband-wife French philosophers: “Contemplation is a silent prayer which takes place in recollection in the secret of the heart and is directly ordered to union with God. It is an ascent of the soul towards God, or rather an attraction of the soul towards Him, for the sake of Him.” 2
Amen.
That’s a far cry from the google.com definition — in short order we’ve presented a range of the understanding the word but have only scratched the surface.
Contemplating more? Because there is more, plenty more.
For starters, flip though the pages and take a look at the following paragraphs in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Contemplation
the Church and, 771
Eucharist and, 1380
man’s contemplation and God, 1380
man’s contemplation of Jesus, 2715
prayer and, 2651
of sacred icons, 1162
Who knows? Maybe this was the stuff Chip Thompson was contemplating on that park bench. May he rest in peace.
Found in “New Seeds of Contemplation,” 1961.
From “Liturgy and Contemplation,” 1960.
And let’s remember Chip was doing his contemplating in Potter County...aka, God’s Country 🙏