Scripture: Psalm 90:17
Journal: How do you allow the beauty of the Lord to rest upon you? What does that mean? How does this happen in prayer?
Reflection: There are two great mystical traditions in the
life of prayer, sometimes labeled apophatic and kataphatic. Apophemi is the Greek “no”; kataphemi
is “yes.” Apophatic prayer is nay
saying, the via negativa. It
shutsits eyes so as not to be distracted or diverted from the pure being of
God. Kataphatic prayer is yea saying,
the via affirmativa. It opens its
eyes, letting lihts and colors, icons and incense draw us into their, and our,
source in God.
There is certainly a place for apophatic
prayer: our imaginations are rampant with neurotic lust and escapist longings that
get projected against a cosmic widescreen we ignorantly name God. Marvel and miracle, sensation and sentiment,
doomsday fear and infantile eroticism are thrown together and made into what we
suppose to be a god. Prayers are
constantly being addressed out of and to such fantasies. Such prayers need fasting, and plenty of it,
to purge them of their fantasies.
But kataphatic prayer is surely normative:
the Psalms train us in it, the incarnation confirms it, and the sacraments
perpetuate it. The rubric for apophatic
prayer is, “fold your hands, bow, your head, shut your eyes, and we’ll pray.” But the psalmists are kataphatic to a man, to
a woman—they take us to the theater where we see “mountains skip like rams”
(Ps. 114:4) and hear “trees clap their hands” (Isa. 55:12); they show us how to
pray with our eyes open, wide open. (Answering
God by Eugene Peterson)
Prayer
Closing Prayer: Let
your beauty, O Lord, rest upon us, now and forevermore.
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