Apophatuic/Kataphatic contemplation – a misleading distinction suggesting opposition between the two; in fact, a proper preparation of the faculties (kataphatic practice) leads to apophatic contemplation, which in turn is sustained through appropriate kataphatic practices.
- Apophatic (darksome) – the exercise of pure faith; resting in God beyond concepts and particular acts, except to maintain a general loving attention to the divine presence.
- Kataphatic (lightsome) – the exercise of the rational faculties enlightened by faith; the affective response to symbols, reflection, and the use of reason, imagination, and memory in order to assimilate the truths of faith.
Likewise, one’s approach to Bible study can range from “literal” to “allegorical” and points in between. It seems that the most healthy approach is never to get locked in on either end of these spectrums but rather to seek a balance between the two. In the end, “It all leads to love!”
Attention – the focusing on a particular object such as God’s word in scripture, the breath, an image, or a concept.
Awareness – the act of being aware of a particular or general perception; another term for consciousness.
Centering Prayer – a contemporary form of prayer of the heart, prayer of simplicity, prayer of faith, prayer of simple regard; a method of reducing the obstacles to the gift of contemplative prayer and of facilitating the development of habits conducive to responding to the inspirations of the Spirit.
Consent – an act of the will expressing acceptance of someone, something, or some course of action; the manifestation of one’s intention.
Contemplation — In modern Western use, contemplation may be seen as mental prayer that is non-discursive and thus distinct from meditation. Contemplation is less the fruit of human effort and more the result of direct divine grace. Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina, are specific practices with instructions and actions that can be communicated in words, while contemplation is the more experiential resting that is communion in/with God, beyond the instructions and actions and concepts of any practice.
Contemplative living – activity in daily life prompted by the Gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of a contemplative attitude.
Contemplative prayer – the development of one’s relationship with Christ to the point of communing beyond words, thoughts, feelings, and the multiplication of particular acts; a process moving from the simplified activity of waiting upon God to the ever-increasing predominance of the Gifts of the Spirit as the source of one’s prayer.
Deification (Theosis) – a transformative process whose aim is likeness to or union with God. As a process of transformation, theosis/deification is brought about by the effects of catharsis (purification of mind and body) and theoria (‘illumination’ with the ‘vision’ of God). According to Eastern Christian teachings, theosis is very much the purpose of human life. It is considered achievable only through synergy (or cooperation) of human activity and God’s uncreated energies (or operations).
According to Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos), the primacy of theosis in Eastern Orthodox Christian theology is directly related to the fact that Byzantine theology (as historically conceived by its principal exponents) is based to a greater extent than Latin Catholic theology on the direct spiritual insights of the saints or mystics of the church rather than the often more seen as rational thought tradition of the West. Byzantine Christians consider that “no one who does not follow the path of union with God can be a theologian” in the proper sense. Thus, theology in Byzantine Christianity is not treated primarily as an academic pursuit. Instead, it is based on applied revelation, and the primary validation of a theologian is understood to be a holy and ascetical life rather than intellectual training or academic credentials.
Dual / Non-Dual – Dualism sees the reality of the world while the Non-dualist sees the world as a dream, an illusion in which entities do not exist in opposition to one another or separate form one another. Dualism sees the world (or reality) as consisting of two basic, opposed, and irreducible principles that account for all that exists. Dualism between God and Creation has been a central belief in many if not most traditions of Christianity, especially since the 15th century or so. Expressions of nonduality were perhaps the dominant mindset in earlier times.
Fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 4:22-24) – nine aspects of ‘the mind of Christ’ manifesting the growth of the divine life within us.
False self – the self, developed in our own likeness rather than in the likeness of God; the self-image developed to cope with the emotional trauma of early childhood, which seeks happiness in satisfying the instinctual needs of survival/security, affection/esteem, and power/control, and which bases its self-worth on cultural or group identification.
Holy Spirit – the third person of the Trinity; the Holy Spirit’s temple is not a body but a relationship.
Human Condition — The human condition is to be without the true source of happiness, which is the experience of the presence of God, and to have lost the key to happiness, which is the contemplative dimension to life, the path to the increasing assimilation and enjoyment of God’s presence. (per Thomas Keating)
Intention – the choice of the will in regard to some goal or purpose.
Interior silence – the quieting of the imagination, feelings, and rational faculties in the process of recollection; the general, loving attentiveness to God in pure faith.
Lectio Divina – reading or more exactly, listening to the book we believe to be divinely inspired; the most ancient method of developing the friendship of Christ by using scripture texts as topics of conversation with Christ.
Love – The idea that best combines all aspects of heaven is love. Love is joyous union. In its truest form, love is the holiness within ourselves rejoicing over and sharing itself with the holiness in another. It is the experience of perfect, boundless life, a joyous union. “God is love.”
Method of contemplative prayer – any prayer practice that spontaneously evolves or is deliberately designed to free the mind of excessive dependence on thinking to go to God. Some practices are more ‘concentrative’ and others are more ’receptive’.
Mysticism / Mystical Prayer – typically the fruit of a sustained and mature spiritual life, although by the grace of God such prayer could emerge in our lives at any time. Here God suspends the ordinary faculties of everyday awareness — the imagination, the intellect, and the will — thereby causing the praying soul to sink into infinity. Typically emerging out of other forms of prayer, mystical prayer can include transfigured states of consciousness, moments of ecstasy or rapture, a profound sense of inner purification or “dark night,” and the abiding sense of conscious union with, or the presence of, God. Mystical prayer is always a grace, never in our control. Many deeply holy, authentically contemplative Christians — people who deserve to be called mystics — go through their entire lives without ever having these kinds of extraordinary encounters with the Mystery, and those who do always caution us to remember that the goal of prayer is God — not an experience of God. Efforts to cultivate or engineer “mystical experiences” typically backfire, so it’s wisest to commit to practicing all the other dimensions of expressive or receptive prayer.
Pantheism/Panentheism – Thomas Keating speaks to this in his 1993 article, Clarifications Regarding Centering Prayer: Pantheism is usually defined as the identification of God with creation in such a way that the two are indistinguishable. Panentheism means that God is present in all creation by virtue of his omnipresence and omnipotence, sustaining every creature in being without being identified with any creature. The latter understanding is what Jesus seems to have been describing when he prays “that all might be one, Father, as we are one” and “that they may also be in us” (John 17:22). Again and again, in the Last Supper discourse, he speaks of this oneness and his intentions to send his Spirit to dwell within us. If we understand the writings of the great mystics rightly, they experience God living within them all the time. Thus, the affirmation of God’s transcendence must always be balanced by the affirmation of his imminence both on the natural plane and on the plane of grace.
Prayer – Here it will be enough to say that prayer may be divided into expressive and contemplative prayer. In expressive prayer individuals voice their faith and desires either in their own words or in those of the liturgy or in prayers composed by others. The four main types of expressive prayer are adoration, confession, thanksgiving and petition. Contemplative prayer is a prayer in which the individual waits in an open and receptive attitude, looking to the Lord. It has been called a prayer of loving attention to God. Additional forms of prayer are shown below.
Expressive Prayer:
- Liturgical (Eucharist, Office, Psalms, Canticles)
- Devotional (Grace, Written, Examen, Novenas)
- Personal (Adoration, Praise, Confession, Petition, Thanksgiving, Lament)
Receptive Prayer:
- Meditative (Rosary, Ignatian, Mental, Creative)
- Contemplative (Jesus Prayer, Centering, Body Prayer, Silence)
- Mystical (Illumination, Ecstasy, Dark Night, Unitive)
Purification – an essential part of the process of contemplation through which the dark side of one’s personality, mixed motivation, and the emotional pain of a lifetime stored in the unconscious are gradually evacuated; the necessary preparation for transforming union.
Spirituality – “Note that authentic spirituality is always about changing you. It’s not about trying to change anyone else.” Richard Rohr
Thoughts – in the context of the specific method of centering prayer, an umbrella term for any perception at all, including sense perceptions, feelings, images, memories, reflections, commentaries, and particular spiritual perceptions.
Transformation – (transforming union) – the stable conviction of the abiding presence of God rather than a particular experience or set of experiences; a restructuring of consciousness in which the divine reality (nature?) is perceived to be present in oneself and in all that is.
True Self – the image of God in which every human being is created; our participation in the divine life manifested in our uniqueness.
Unloading the unconscious – the coming to awareness of previously unconscious emotional material from early childhood in the form of primitive feelings or a barrage of images, especially during the time of prayer.
Principal Source: Open Mind Open Heart by Thomas Keating © 1986, 1992
The Continuum Publishing Company
(Slightly Edited by A. Thyssen, 8 October 2025)