The Ignatius Examen

In Ignatius Spirituality (依納爵靈修), Examen (意識省察）is another important way to pray to God.

Examen refers to the process of reviewing one's own experience, say, in the previous one day or half, identifying a grateful and perhaps also an ungrateful experience, clarifying and understanding the associated emotions, and based on these, praying to God.   There follows a plan for the way forward for the next day.

This may seem like what we are told when we were little, to reflect one's own doings in the day and find ways to improve oneself in the near future.

In the spiritual context, it is perhaps part of the process of opening to God one's deepest feelings and emphasizes the togetherness with God during the reflection.

For both the Examen and the Contemplation of Gospel, there are two essential requirements.

First, as they are both a form of prayers, one needs to invite the Holy Spirit to guide the prayer.

Second, the prayer involves a conversation, or called "colloquy", between one who prays and Jesus, or the Father, or Mary, or any of the saints.  Because of the conversational nature, there needs to be the elements of both speaking and listening.  The former is to express one's emotions accurately, and the latter to give time for silence for listening.

Reference:
1. Ignatius Spirituality.  The Daily Examen.  (http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/)

2. Wright VH.  Three ways to pray Ignatian.  At Days of Deepening Friendship.  (http://deepeningfriendship.loyolapress.com/2014/07/30/three-ways-to-pray-ignatian/)

3. 依納爵靈修空間 (http://www.ignatian.org)

Ignatius way of contemplative prayer

Attended a workshop recently and had the chance to walk through the Ignatius way of contemplative prayer.

In contrast to "meditation" （默想）, the Ignatius way of "contemplation" (默觀）emphasizes using imagination to go into the scenarios described in the gospel to experience Jesus as if a member actually present in that scene.   When one has his mind and heart are fully engaged in the scene, he is asked to pay special attention to his thoughts and emotions aroused by the presence.

The purpose of the process is to explore the meaning of the section of the gospel to one's own life.   In Ignatius tradition, it is the way to communicate with God in a personal way.  A pre-requisite is to pray and invite the Holy Spirit to lead one into the journey.

Although it is said to be best used in experiencing Gospel passages, some also considers those in the Old Testament can be well experienced through Ignatius Contemplation.

One piece of passage good for Ignatius Contemplation is Jesus curing the blind man as described in Luke 18:35-43.

Note: "Contemplation" may be used in some other spiritual tradition to refer to praying without thoughts and images.

Reference:
http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/what-is-ignatian-spirituality/

Mysticism

When we talk about mystics, reference is often made to people such as Saint John of the Cross, Saint Therese of Lisieux, and also the recently canonised Saint John Paul II.  But what is mystics?  What is mysticism? 

According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, mysticism refers to "the experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality reported by the mystics", or "the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience as intuition or insights."

The online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy considered "mysticism" as "a constellation of distinctive practices, discourses, texts, institutions, traditions, and experiences aiming at human transformation, variously defined in different traditions."  As such, the study of mysticism covers the classification of mystical experiences, their nature in different religions and mystical traditions, and how they are modified by language and culture, as well as whether there is evidence for the truth of contents of the mystical experiences.

Mystical experience is therefore further defined in a wider sense as "a purportedly super sense-perceptual or sub sense-perceptual experience granting acquaintance of realities or states of affairs that are of a kind not accessible by way of sense perception, somatosensory modalities, or standard introspection."  However, more commonly, it refers to a subset of the above focusing on a "unitive" experience which involves a "de-emphasis, blurring, or eradication of multiplicity."

Examples of unitive experience are the "oneness of all nature", "union with God" of Christianity, Atman if Brahman (the the self/soul is identical with the eternal, absolute being) in Hinduism, and that in Buddhism.  Such unitive experience is in contrast with a dualistic experience of God when the subject and God remain strictly distinct.  On example quoted by the website for the latter is the Jewish tree of life kabbalistic experience.

Mystical experience is considered not equivalent to but a subset of "religious experience".  The latter refers to any experience having content or significance appropriate to a religious context, such as religious visions and auditions, non-mystical Zen experiences, various religious feelings, as well as the "feeling of absolute dependence".

Reference:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mysticism/)

基督信仰中的崇拜和祭獻

傳統宗教一般認為崇拜和宇宙的關係，是根據一個上下「生發」(exitus) 和「回歸」(reditus) 的循環：非神體是由神聖的高處墮落及下墜；而當人類對自身墮落產生頓悟而感到懊悔時，便是朝著祂上升回去。崇拜就是瞻仰那在萬有之前及萬有之上的存有，也包含救贖的意向。

基督信仰內的神與人的關係，也是帶有「生發」和「回歸」兩個基本方向。 特別的是，「生發」是一個造物主自由的及積極意志下的創作行為；而「回歸」則是一個自主的受造物，以自由回應天主的愛，建立全新的契合。在這個獻祭中，受造物不但不被銷毀，反而獲得圓滿及成全。

基督信仰內的崇拜，有以下的強調：

首先，朝拜的對象必須是天主，而不是其它代替品。 這是相對於那些「認為唯一真神不能以牲祭來侍奉，便索性不去崇拜祂，而去以祭獻以取悅每天的『率領者和掌權者』」的人來說的。

在祭獻方面，舊約強調祭品只是一個代替品，是用從祂而來的恩物作為祭獻。在新約，祭品則是在基督身上看到天主所賜的「羔羊」，也因此藉著基督的祭獻，令替代性的禮儀成為不必要的。

本書引羅馬書第十二章第一節，指示了「合理的敬禮」：獻上你們的身體，當作生活、聖潔和悅樂天主的祭品。並指出「言」(logos), 祈禱內的說話，就是祭獻。「它由人發出，連同人的整個存在，一起上升到天主那裏，讓他自己成為言。當人使自己與言相符，並透過信仰而成為言後，他就成了祭品。」「希臘思想更把言提升至與「羅格思」(Logos), 即一切事物的意義，神秘結合的概念。」承接這些發展，教會將感恩祭視為「祈禱」(oratio)，即「以言舉行的祭獻」。

『「禮儀的真諦」閱讀筆記之三』

註：「禮儀的真諦」拉辛格樞機著(1999)，李子忠譯(2013)，良友之聲出版社