Sarah, you talk of 'Contemplation as Action' rather than 'Contemplation and Action.' That subtle shift in language suggests that prayer isn't just the fuel for active work—it is the work itself. Can you please elaborate on that?
Yeah, it is quite a subtle shift.
And it’s not that I don’t think there’s a profound connection between contemplation and action, and that contemplation transforms the way we act, that’s important and necessary. But I started to think about this other idea because I became a bit concerned that often you start to feel as though contemplation is being justified because of the action that it gives rise to and that somehow, because we’re anxious not to be accused of ‘navel-gazing or quietism’, we always point to action almost as a justification for contemplation.
And when that happens, we do risk losing sight of that deeper understanding, that contemplation itself and that deep work of prayer is itself effective in the world.
But how it’s effective in the world and how it matters is perhaps difficult to bring out. It’s a more subtle thing than being able to point to how I’m a less reactive person.
During the retreat Contemplation As Action, I’d like to explore that question with the people who come. What I would like to do is to raise that question and to see how that resonates with people, and then to offer some reflections of mind, some input about that. But also then to have some space for people to deepen their own prayer. So there will be times of silence and invitation to contemplation and then a chance to to reflect together.
In a world of urgent need, even contemplatives are constantly being exhorted to ‘do’ something. This retreat led by Revd Sarah Bachelard explores not only the connection between contemplation and action, but the nature of contemplation as action. What is the vocation of prayer itself? How, with integrity, do we give ourselves to it?
