05: Teaching how to comtemplate

Some people have as a motto: "Contemplating and sharing what we contemplated". This means: one needs to have a personal spiritual life, and a deep prayer life, and therefore become able to contemplate God, have an experience of God, and then he or she can share it, speak about it, about what he or she saw, experienced.

Wow... 

Saint Dominic de Guzman

Others have a slightly different motto. They say: "Contemplating and teaching others how to contemplate". I would put it this way: "teach the poor how to fish, better than feeding him". A bit harsh no? Or: "teach people how to cook good meals, better than feeding them", or selling them good meals. One would argue: 'we don't have time to cook'. - Rightly so. In the case of spiritual life, learning how to contemplate is certainly higher than just reading a book speaking about God or listening to a talk.

I feel it makes more sense to me if somebody is treating me like a human being, and not like an "under human being". I don't want to be harsh, but I find it difficult to just drop it, renounce to a higher call: learning how to contemplate.

People are often fed up with what they find in the "market" of religion and spirituality, they want to do it by themselves, they don't want people dictating to them what to think, what to do, what to eat. They want to be treated as adults... 

My feeling is that today (and tomorrow), the motto is more this one: "Contemplate, and teach people how to contemplate".

Fr Marie-Eugène: "my vocation is theological, to unite people with God"

Or, if you prefer: "Learn to contemplate, see how it works, perfect your art, grow, reflect and ponder upon your art, and then start to teach it to others".

What would you do?

JK

PS1: By the way, "teaching how to contemplate" is the core of "Spiritual Theology".

PS2: On that same note, one can see the spread of a new "virus": books that have on their title: "Lectio divina", and when you open them, you find that they are offering you their own "lectio divina". It feels to me like a person ate and is just offering you what they ate (direct from their stomach). Disgusting no? A book on "lectio divina" should teach people "how to listen to God".