Meditation: A Great Catholic Bonus
Meditation: A Great Catholic Bonus
by A K Whitehead
Is our primary objective in life to become like Jesus? Of course. How
do we do it? Well, ask another one that will take less than fifty books
to answer!
But there is an important way which can take us well down the road.
Moreover, it is a particular and integrated part of the Catholic
tradition: meditation.
Not any kind of meditation - and certainly none of the kinds imported
from eastern religions such as Hinduism. It is a Catholic traditional way
hallowed by time and the efforts of saints co-operating with God's
graces. These include such people as Ignatius of Loyola, John of the
Cross, Therese of Avila and many others.
Meditating On What?
One of the greatest expressions of God's love for us is that he has
provided for us a book which reveals much about himself, the way
to salvation and what he desires of
each of us. Most of all, perhaps,
there lies within it knowledge of how great is his personal love for each
of us.
That book is, of course, the Bible. Both the Old and, especially the
New Testament are there entirely for our benefit. Indeed, in recent
times the Catholic Church has drawn attention on several major
ocassion to the importance of Scripture and of the need for us to
avail ourselves of it.
Thus, for example, the Dogmatic Constitution On Divine Revelation
(promulgated by Pope Paul VI, 1965) stresses that ... the
Father who is in heaven meets his children with great love and speaks
to them; and the force and power in the word of God is so great that
it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith
for her sons, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of
spiritual life.
This latter point is of particular relevance here:
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