Contemplative prayer requires a release of control, precisely because we as human beings are not the primary actors in contemplation. Our conscious efforts to let go are in the service of welcoming God to heal, convict, dance, play, enflame, and love as God sees fit. It’s not really possible to control a boundless God, and even if it were, the Presence and Action of God are so wondrous, so magnanimous, so good that it can be difficult to imagine why anyone would want to rein in such a God. Nevertheless, the story of history, and our own personal histories, confront us with the fact that people are fearful of the unknown and the unpredictable (even if, in the final analysis, all of life is unknown and unpredictable). Jesus drew the ire of the political and religious authorities in his own time, precisely because he loved beyond the limits of the control structures of his time. Contemplative practices themselves continue to draw suspicion, perhaps for the same reason: the inner experience of God fostered in contemplative practice can perhaps be named and supported by a doctrine, but it is far less easy to control than a simple subscription to a set of doctrinal beliefs. Likewise, there is also an enduring suspicion that the relinquishing of control somehow leaves the self open to dark or demonic forces… but this concern only has merit if you believe those forces to somehow be equal to God, a notion which our faith denies flatly.
Submitted by Andy Dapron