Contemplative prayer
Contemplative prayer is a form of prayer centered on silent, receptive attention to God rather than spoken words or discursive thought.
Centering Prayer: A Christian contemplative practice using a sacred word as a gentle symbol of consent to God's presence. It is a modern method for settling into the silent attention central to contemplative prayer.
Desert Fathers: Early Christian ascetics who pursued prayer and disciplined life in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. Their practices of solitude and repeated prayer helped shape later contemplative traditions.
Teresa of Ávila: A sixteenth-century Spanish Carmelite reformer and mystic whose writings describe stages of prayer and spiritual union. Her works present contemplative prayer as a developing relationship with God.
Vocal prayer: Prayer expressed through spoken or silently recited words, whether composed or spontaneous. Contemplative prayer does not depend on words, though vocal prayer can lead into it.
Jesus Prayer: A short Eastern Christian invocation, commonly phrased, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Repeated gently, it can anchor attention in a contemplative form of prayer.
Apophatic theology: A theological approach that describes God by negation, emphasizing the limits of human language about the divine. Its account of divine mystery helps explain why silence can be central to prayer.
Evagrius Ponticus: A fourth-century Christian monk and theologian whose writings influenced Eastern Christian ascetic and contemplative practice. His teachings connect stillness and purified attention with prayer.
Gregory of Nyssa: A fourth-century Cappadocian theologian whose writings explore divine incomprehensibility and the soul's ongoing movement toward God. His theology frames contemplation as an endless approach to a God beyond comprehension.
Meditation: A family of practices that train attention, awareness, or reflection, with aims shaped by particular traditions. Contemplative prayer is explicitly directed toward God, unlike meditation as a broad practice category.
Ignatian spirituality: A Christian spiritual tradition shaped by Ignatius of Loyola, emphasizing discernment, prayer, and finding God in daily life. Its prayer exercises provide a distinct, often imaginative path alongside silent contemplation.