Conversasio, the word that St Benedict uses is the whole process of transformation, of change, like a conversation with God as the ground of our being, and a continual turning. Conversio means to turn, so a continual turning towards God. We have to take the attention off ourselves in order to place our attention on God. What does that mean? It means that we take the attention of the self-conscious flow of thoughts, sensations, self-aware-ness, self-judgment, all the constant flow of thought and feeling that is going on in our consciousness, and that refers to ‘me’. That can keep us within or behind the brick wall, so we turn away from that in meditation.
(The Art of Waiting by Laurence Freeman OSB)
