Contemplative Prayer in Carmelite Spirituality

In Carmelite spirituality, contemplative prayer is the practice of becoming present to God so that God may increasingly become present within us. It is less about saying something to God and more about creating the interior silence in which we can listen, receive, and simply remain with God.

Fr. Ernest Larkin, O.Carm., spoke extensively on contemplative prayer and described it as choosing quiet and silence and simply “being very present to the Lord…being loved by God.” (Read one of Fr. Larkin’s interviews at https://carmelites.net/carmelite-review/comtemplative-prayer-ernie-larkin-o-carm/)

In the Carmelite Rule (https://carmelites.net/the-carmelites/#rule), the first hermits on Mount Carmel were instructed to remain in or near their cells, “meditating day and night on the Law of the Lord and keeping vigil in prayer.” The purpose was not withdrawal for its own sake. Their solitude created a space of attentiveness: attentiveness to the Presence of God encountered within the depths of human life.

In Carmelite spirituality silence is not simply the absence of noise. It is an interior clearing away of distraction so that one can listen. In the article, Provincial Novitiate in Mexico City, Fr. Luis Jesús Paz, O.Carm., has described silence for a Carmelite as the “anteroom of contemplation,” because silence allows a person to hear God speaking within the depths of the heart.

Now, it is worth noting that Fr. Larkin makes an important distinction between contemplative prayer and contemplation.

Contemplative prayer is something we can choose to practice. We can become quiet, place ourselves before God, relinquish our constant thinking, analyzing and speaking, and offer God our attention. Contemplation itself, however, cannot be manufactured. It is something received. By practicing contemplative prayer, we make ourselves receptive to what Larkin calls the possible “in-breaking of God.”

So there is a kind of journey, the Carmelite Journey, from speaking to listening, listening to presence, presence to receptivity, and receptivity to transformation.

Larkin identifies certain characteristics of Contemplative Prayer: It is Scriptural, formed by the continual encounter with the Word of God; Christological, centered upon Christ and a gradual transformation into His likeness; and marked by what St. John of the Cross describes as a kind of loving attention to God, where the need to reason, imagine and produce religious thoughts gradually gives way to simple attentiveness.

This also explains why Lectio Divina fits so naturally into Carmelite contemplative life. Reading Scripture, meditating upon it and responding to God gradually disposes the person toward silence. At a certain point, there may be nothing more that needs to be said. One simply remains with God.

But there is another essential dimension of Carmelite contemplative prayer.

It does not end with the individual.

In its Mission Statement, the Province describes its own Carmelite identity, the Pillars of Carmel, as living in a “prophetic and contemplative stance of prayer, common life (community), and service (ministry).” To a Carmelite, these three are intertwined. Contemplative prayer, authentic prayer, changes how one sees other people.

Contemplation ultimately becomes a way of seeing others and the world around you – The Carmelite Way.

One becomes more attentive to God, and therefore more attentive to people.

More aware of God’s presence, and therefore more aware of suffering.

More silent internally, and therefore more capable of truly listening.

More rooted in God, and therefore more capable of acting courageously in the world.

Carmelite spirituality is not an escape from the world’s problems. Deep prayer leads toward action, and contemplation becomes a source of courage and compassionate engagement with the world.

Contemplative prayer is the intentional practice of placing oneself silently, lovingly and receptively in the presence of God. Through Scripture, attention to Christ, silence and openness, the person gradually learns not merely to think about God but to live consciously in God’s presence. Contemplation itself is God’s gift, but contemplative prayer creates the interior openness in which that gift may be received. And its fruit is transformation: learning to see God, ourselves, other people and the world differently.

In other words, Carmelite contemplative prayer is not about becoming good at being quiet.

It is about becoming quiet enough to be changed.

Contemplation is not a fourth, separate pillar of Carmel. It is the thread that brings Prayer, Community and Ministry together.