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Meditation:

What is Christianity Meditation? | Christianity Meditation | Meditation for Christianity | Christianity

Christian meditation dates back to the beginning of Christianity its objective is to daily empty the self to experience the fullness of God. It is consonant with Jesus’s invitation to his disciples to take up their cross daily and follow him. It is central to Easter celebrations, ‘dying’ to rise to a New Life.The word meditation has come to have two different meanings continued, intent, focused thought and a state of quiet, intentionally unfocused, contentless awareness. This double meaning has contributed to misunderstanding and disagreement about the nature, role, and even the appropriateness of Christian meditation.

Christian meditation that has been used by believers since at least the fourth century AD is the lectio divina. It has been traditionally used in monastic religious orders and is enjoying a resurgence today. Lectio divina means sacred reading and has four stages lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio. In the lectio stage, one finds a passage and reads it deliberately. The next stage, meditatio, is where one ponders the text.

Just before we fall asleep, we can have God’s Word be the last thing that occupies our mind. Upon awaking, we can have God’s Word be the first thing to fill our minds to start the day.Silencing the ceaseless chatter of a mind buzzing with thoughts is not easy. The way to silence is the way of the mantra. Choosing a sacred word and repeating it from the beginning to the end of the period of meditation
forms part of the essential teaching of Christian meditation. It is advisable to choose a word of four syllables and pronounce them with equal length.

To really get into this kind of prayer one needs a daily commitment which is kept consistently. It is often said that grace builds on nature and that is very true. In this case it is true because we need to become habitually open to the way in which the Spirit works within us. We shall not achieve that unless we become habitual in our habits of prayer.It is quite different and essentially Christian. Very often it is associated with Ignatius of Loyola because, after his conversion, he developed a particularly clear method of approach.

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