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    Christian Meditation
    Christian Meditation
    Christian Meditation
    Ebook75 pages1 hour

    Christian Meditation

    By Hans Urs von Balthasar

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    About this ebook

    While von Balthasar's classic Prayer is unparalleled in its development of the Trinitarian, Christological, Mariological and ecclesiological dimensions of prayer, Christian Meditation is a short, readable and eminently practical guide to that form of prayer which God's revelation in Jesus Christ has made indispensable: meditation on the word of God revealing the inner depths of God to man and--since it comes from God made man--the inner depths of man to himself.

    In a treatment that is both fresh and profound, Balthasar describes the central elements of all Christian meditation, provides a guide for making the meditation and then points the way to the union that prayer achieves in the footsteps of Mary, within the Church and in and for the world.

    "Consequently, Christian meditation is entirely trinitarian and at the same time entirely human. In order to find God, no one need reject being human personally or socially, but in order to find God all must see the world and themselves in the Holy Spirit as they are in God's sight."
    - Hans Urs von Balthasar

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIgnatius Press
    Release dateOct 12, 2011
    ISBN9781681490915
    Christian Meditation
    Author

    Hans Urs von Balthasar

    Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988) was a Swiss theologian widely regarded as one of the greatest theologians and spiritual writers of modern times. Named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, he died shortly before being formally inducted into the College of Cardinals. He wrote over one hundred books, including Prayer, Heart of the World, Mary for Today, Love Alone Is Credible, Mysterium Paschale and his major multi-volume theological works: The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama and Theo-Logic.

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      Book preview

      Christian Meditation - Hans Urs von Balthasar

      HANS URS VON BALTHASAR

      Christian Meditation

      HANS URS VON BALTHASAR

      Christian Meditation

      TRANSLATED BY

      Sister Mary Theresilde Skerry

      Holy Spirit Adoration Sister

      IGNATIUS PRESS    SAN FRANCISCO

      Title of the German original:

      Christlich meditieren

      © 1984 Verkg Herder

      Freiburg im Breisgau

      Cover by Victoria Hoke Lane

      With ecclesiastical approval

      © 1989 Ignatius Press, San Francisco

      All rights reserved

      ISBN 978-0-89870-235-4

      Library of Congress catalogue number 88-83746

      Printed in the United States of America

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      I   The Son as Word of the Father

          1. The Mediating Word

          2. Introduction to Meditation

          3. The Light of the Holy Spirit

      II  Making the Meditation

          1. Presence

          2. The Silent Word

          3. Dwelling on the Word

      III  Union

          1. The Marian Way

          2. The Ecclesial Way

          3. On the Paths of the World

      Notes

      INTRODUCTION

      The decisive question is whether God has spoken to the human race—about himself, of course, and likewise about his reason for creating man and the world—or whether the Absolute remains the Silence beyond all the words of the world.

      If the latter is the case, then all the ways are open, and must be pursued, upon which man sets out in search, knowing well that this passing and therefore delusive world cannot be the truth. These ways lead to steep paths that leave everything fleeting and multiple behind in the quest for the Unutterable in heroic asceticism and mystical absorption, which allow a man to break through the prison walls of his own narrow self—perhaps momentarily, perhaps definitively. All the forms of meditation used by the one who gropingly seeks the Most High, hoping to be able to touch him (Acts 17:27), are similar, and all the more so, the more radical the search transcends everything temporal. These forms extend from those of the Far East to the final forms of Mediterranean antiquity in Plotinus, whose directions for attaining ecstasy even the young Augustine tried (in vain).

      If, however, the first possibility is valid, namely, that God has spoken, we thereby enter into the biblical sphere, that of the three monotheistic religions, for Islam too is very strongly permeated by Old and New Testament themes. In that case, meditation can only meaningfully be reflection on and assimilation of God’s Word about himself and the world. The sole remaining question is where this Word of God reaches its full stature, in which all the things that are individually valid converge in exuberant unity. Can this be the case with the Koran, which was said to have been transmitted to the prophet by the Angel Gabriel, the strophes memorized by the devout Moslem and daily repeated in an attitude of adoration? Can an angel speak of God in such a way as to reveal his inner depths? No one but God’s Spirit has recognized what is in the depths of God (1 Cor 2:11).

      A similar though not identical question has to be addressed to the Old Testament, whose law was also transmitted by angels (Gal 3:19; Acts 7:38), whose directives passed through the mouths of prophets (Thus says the Lord), in various prescriptions, precepts, promises, ordinances, commands (Ps 119) reflected on, mumbled and meditated on. Nevertheless, there remained deep unsolved and unsolvable problems on the level of the Old Covenant (Job, Qoheleth!). To solve them, that fullness of Covenant between God and man was needed. This Covenant simultaneously accomplishes two things: God speaks through himself and he speaks as a man who clarifies the questions of human existence: the meaning of suffering, transitoriness and death, as well as the fact that the whole of mortal life finds its finality in God, that is, in the resurrection of the dead human being into eternal life. The beginning of the Letter to the Hebrews summarizes all this with concise power:

      Often and in varied ways God spoke of old to our ancestors through the prophets. In these final days he has spoken to us [all] through his Son, whom he appointed as heir of the universe. He, the reflection of his glory, the imprint of his being . . . effected purification from sins [by his Cross] and [rising] took his place at the right hand of Majesty on high. He has become so much more exalted than the angels as the name he inherited surpasses them (Heb 1:1-4).

      The dimensions of Christian meditation develop from God’s having completed his self-revelation in two directions: God speaks out of his own depths and, speaking as a man, he discloses at the same time the depths of man. Christian meditation can begin only where God reveals himself as a man and, consequently, where this man reveals God to his very depths. Hence this point of departure may not be bypassed. And this meditation can take place only where the revealing man, God’s Son, Jesus Christ, reveals God as his Father: in the Holy Spirit of God, whom he truly communicates to us so that in this Spirit given to us we may join in probing God’s depths, which only God’s Spirit probes (1 Cor 2:10)—But we have received the Spirit who is from God so that we may realize what God has given us (1 Cor 2:12).

      Consequently, Christian meditation is entirely trinitarian and at the same time entirely human. In order to find God, no one need reject being human personally or socially, but in order to find God all must see the world and themselves in the Holy Spirit as they are in God’s sight.

      I

      THE SON AS WORD OF THE FATHER

      1. The Mediating Word

      No one knows the Father but only the Son and anyone to whom the Son wants to reveal him (Mt 11:27). No one has ever seen God; an only begotten Son of God, who is on the Father’s bosom, has explained him to us (autos exēgesato), has given us an exegesis (Jn 1:18). No one has seen the Father except him who comes from the Father: he has seen the Father. Truly, truly I tell you . . . I am the bread of life (Jn 6:46f.).

      It is not we who force a knowledge of the Absolute for

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