I recently read about a guide on contemplative prayer, “The Cloud of Unknowing.” A letter authored most likely by a 14th century Carthusian monk to his student with this advice: “Cut yourself off from needing to know things. Knowledge hinders, not helps you in contemplation. Be content feeling moved in a delightful, loving way by something mysterious and unknown.
The letter warns going deeper into the Christian life means bumping into the cloud of unknowing. “Un-knowing is a way of knowing God. Un-knowing means to relinquish what one knows with the mind, for just a moment, and sink into the depths of one’s soul, into a chamber without language, without meaning, of pure substance of the self. Thinking is suspended. You don’t know anything. You have entered the Cloud.”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8
“Who is it that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” Job 42:3
Job accepts God’s judgment that he has spoken without knowledge and understanding. Job wonders why all those awful things happened to him. God tells him he is unable to know. Job hears God and experiences a profound individual experience of God’s presence
The Christian mystics talk about the apophatic and cataphatic paths. The apophatic path is the way of unknowing, of darkness, of mystery. The cataphatic path is the way of discovering God in the colors and scents, in the incredible profound experience of God’s presence in creation.
Where is Job and where am I in all this? Poor Job has no answer from God and I wonder, do I. God knows who I am, when I go in, when I go out. God knows when I bump into the cloud of unknowing.
I would tend to say my path is cataphatic not contemplative. I cannot “relinquish what one knows with the mind.” But I am not obsessed with the need to know. That is not the faith journey I am on. I believe the cataphatic path is most in tune with who I turned to be. I read, reason and think about the creator God, about creation, about Creator becoming part of creation. I search for life’s meaning from existential mysteries of God as much as my finite humanity enables me. I believe this search for knowing about God increases the depth of my faith, gives strength and grace to my ministry.
“Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter4:10-11
Sometimes as I search and contemplate these mysteries, for a brief moment I sense a profound, ephemeral sense of God’s presence. Have I bumped into the Cloud of unknowing? Maybe I have. At that moment, words are gone, meaning absent. My mind has no object to think about here. Thinking is suspended.
But a caution about knowing what is essentially a mystery. We cannot really know who God is. We cannot predict the future or make right decisions every time. All we can do here is try living our happiest life, following Jesus, and try to become a more loving, just and wise people. With God’s help.
The letter warns going deeper into the Christian life means bumping into the cloud of unknowing. “Un-knowing is a way of knowing God. Un-knowing means to relinquish what one knows with the mind, for just a moment, and sink into the depths of one’s soul, into a chamber without language, without meaning, of pure substance of the self. Thinking is suspended. You don’t know anything. You have entered the Cloud.”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8
“Who is it that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” Job 42:3
Job accepts God’s judgment that he has spoken without knowledge and understanding. Job wonders why all those awful things happened to him. God tells him he is unable to know. Job hears God and experiences a profound individual experience of God’s presence
The Christian mystics talk about the apophatic and cataphatic paths. The apophatic path is the way of unknowing, of darkness, of mystery. The cataphatic path is the way of discovering God in the colors and scents, in the incredible profound experience of God’s presence in creation.
Where is Job and where am I in all this? Poor Job has no answer from God and I wonder, do I. God knows who I am, when I go in, when I go out. God knows when I bump into the cloud of unknowing.
I would tend to say my path is cataphatic not contemplative. I cannot “relinquish what one knows with the mind.” But I am not obsessed with the need to know. That is not the faith journey I am on. I believe the cataphatic path is most in tune with who I turned to be. I read, reason and think about the creator God, about creation, about Creator becoming part of creation. I search for life’s meaning from existential mysteries of God as much as my finite humanity enables me. I believe this search for knowing about God increases the depth of my faith, gives strength and grace to my ministry.
“Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter4:10-11
Sometimes as I search and contemplate these mysteries, for a brief moment I sense a profound, ephemeral sense of God’s presence. Have I bumped into the Cloud of unknowing? Maybe I have. At that moment, words are gone, meaning absent. My mind has no object to think about here. Thinking is suspended.
But a caution about knowing what is essentially a mystery. We cannot really know who God is. We cannot predict the future or make right decisions every time. All we can do here is try living our happiest life, following Jesus, and try to become a more loving, just and wise people. With God’s help.
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