Sitting in Silence or Darkness?

From The National Catholic Reporter: Sitting in silence, The prayer that emboldens and dissolves differences By THOMAS C. FOX

Contemplative prayer, a discipline revived in the West during the 1960s and having spread into Christian communities in the 1970s, is a growing movement, according to some of its most prominent teachers, who say the practice provides a healthy counterpoint to the hectic modern world.

Traditional religious differences seem to dissolve as Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists join in meditation sessions. You find meditators, especially the young, in church halls, in local communities and on college campuses across the nation.

The purpose of contemplative prayer, its teachers say, is not only to deepen one’s spiritual experience but also to help form and embolden Christian communities. Christian meditation communities now work with the poor in São Paulo, Brazil, meet in parishes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, teach nonviolence in Mumbai, India, and chant in Taizé, France.

“Contemplative prayer is expanding exponentially,” Benedictine Fr. Laurence Freeman, director of the World Community for Christian Meditation, told NCR. “There are more groups, more countries. ... The reason is that over the years -- we’re talking about 30 years now -- more and more of the people who started are maturing spiritually in this practice. They are now teachers. They are starting groups. They are running workshops. They are leading retreats.”

Editor's note:

Thomas Fox expands the history of Western & Catholic mysticism in his blog...

Contemplative prayer traditions are alive and spreading in the West and have been for the last four decades, resulting from a revival in interest in both Christian and Eastern meditation practices. While the revival was not necessarily a direct result of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the council helped open doors to interreligious dialogue and spawned interest in Eastern religious practices. It was in October 1965, as the council was drawing to a close, that Pope Paul VI proclaimed Nostra Aetate, the “Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,” which contained the following revolutionary paragraph:

“The Catholic church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these (non-Christian) religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.”

The council, in effect, gave permission to spiritual pilgrims, and some Western clergy traveled east. Trappist Fr. Thomas Merton, Benedictine Fr. Bede Griffith, Benedictine Sr. Pascaline Coff and Fr. Edward Hays, among others, traveled to Asia and began to share their experiences with Western Catholics. Hays opened an ashram, called Shantivanum, incorporating Eastern meditation practices, near Leavenworth, Kan.

Fox isn't the only one who believes mysticism can dissolve differences...see also
Campolo: Mysticism's the bridge between Christianity & Islam , Diabolical Connections , and related posts.