| Tongues & Contemplation
Pat Collins CM, an author and lecturer in spirituality at All Hallows College in Dublin looks at the link between the gift of tongues and contemplation.
|
|
Spiritual writers have always maintained that there are two interrelated forms of contemplation. The first, known as “the positive way” stresses the knowability of God, albeit in an incomplete and veiled way, in the form of ideas and images. The second, known as “the negative way” stresses the un-knowability of God whose incomprehensible mystery, ultimately, lies beyond the grasp of the mind and imagination. Prayer Without Ideas or Images Down the centuries there have been many writers who have advocated methods which would help people to engage in the second form of contemplative prayer. For example, in the 4th century, John Cassian said that those who wished to pray without ceasing in a contemplative manner should use a mantra. He suggested that they should repeat the verse, “O Lord come to my assistance, O Lord make haste to help me” (Ps 70:1), in the belief that it summed up the spirituality of the entire bible. He stressed that those who used this formula shouldn’t dwell on its meaning. In the Middle Ages, the anonymous English author of “The Cloud of Unknowing”, encouraged people to repeat a single word, such as “God” or “love” rather than a religious phrase. In the 19th century the unknown Russian author of “The Way of the Pilgrim” discovered that he could pray unceasingly, in a contemplative way, by repeating the Jesus Prayer, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.’ In the 20th century, a number of spiritual guides, such as John Main and Basil Pennington have advocated the use of mantras in what is known as Centering Prayer. Phyllis Campbell expressed one of the central aims of these forms of prayer when she wrote: “Serene Light, shining in the ground of my being, draw me to Yourself! Draw me past the snares of the senses, out of the mazes of the mind; free me from symbols, from words, that I may discover the Signified, the Word unspoken, in the darkness which veils the ground of my being.” Tongues and Mantras Contrasted When I read what writers like Cassian had to say about the negative way of contemplating the Lord, it struck me that many of those who pray in tongues are familiar with this kind of prayer. As St Paul wrote in 1 Cor 14: 2:14 that those who pray in a tongue, “do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit…if I pray in a tongue my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive.” In Rm 8: 27 he added: “and God who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit prays…according to the will of God.” It has also occurred to me that when charismatic activity faded during the first three centuries, people like Cassian and the others had to find an alternative. So they resorted to the repetitive use of selected phrases and words, in order to pray in an imageless, conceptless way. But with the contemporary revival of the charism of praying and singing in tongues, a growing number of people have rediscovered a truly scriptural way of enabling their spirits to commune with God without the aid of mind or imagination. Cassian stated that by using a mantra people are prepared to read the scriptures with spiritual insight. Like a surgeon’s scalpel, their minds are enabled to cut to the most intimate meaning of God’s word. Those who use the gift of praying in tongues have a similar experience. The charism ploughs the soil of their hearts, making them ready to receive the seed of God’s revelatory word and the refreshing waters of the Spirit. One is reminded in this connection of the two kinds of prophetic experience in the Old Testament, ecstatic and classical. The earlier Old Testament prophets experienced an ecstasy in the divine presence without any apparent conceptual or verbal content (cf. 1 Sam 19:20-21). Some time later, the classical prophets, such as Elijah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah, expressed in words what had first been revealed to them in a non-conceptual, ecstatic way. As scripture scholar, George Montague has observed, “In Old Testament prophecy the pendulum swings between the ecstatic, non-rational, pre-conceptual element and the intelligible, rational, spoken word. But in either case prophecy is essentially a gift of inspiration.” Having prayed in tongues, divine inspirations can come to contemporary Christians in ordinary and extraordinary ways such as, inspiring words of scripture (cf. Heb 4:12-13), prophetic messages (cf. 1 Cor 14:24-25), visions (cf. Joel 3:1) religious dreams (cf. Job 33:15) words of knowledge (cf. 1 Cor 12:8), Spirit prompted intuitions (cf. Gal 5:16) etc. Anyone who prays in tongues will find that whatever inspiration he or she receives can be expressed by praying, firstly, with rational understanding, and secondly, in a non-conceptual, imageless way by means of tongues. As a result, in charismatic prayer there is a reciprocal relationship between non-conceptual imageless prayer and conceptual and imaginative prayer. Conclusion Having stated that he prayed in tongues more than anyone (1 Cor 14:18) St Paul said that he would like everyone to exercise this gift (1 Cor 14:5). Those who regularly use this gift know that it can take a number of forms such as heartfelt intercession, loud and enthusiastic praise, and quiet, reverential worship. However, it is important that those in the Charismatic Movement should also appreciate the fact that praying and singing in tongues can lead those who are granted a special touch of the Holy Spirit, into one of the deeper forms of contemplative prayer. So earnestly desire the spiritual gifts (cf. 1 Cor 14:1), especially the charism of tongues which leads the loving will, if not the mind and imagination, into the mysterious presence of the One who lives in light inaccessible.
|
Be
advised. There is no simple way to write this article. However, I
will try to make it as clear and straightforward as possible. The
word “contemplation” is often misunderstood. It is derived
from Latin, and literally means “to look at, to pay sustained
attention.” We can contemplate anything, either the Bible of
the created world, or the Bible of sacred scripture when we focus
our minds upon them in a single-minded, undistracted way. As we do
so, God’s mysterious presence can be, partially and indirectly,
revealed to us. 
