I came across an article in my reading this week that was just what I needed to read that day. I was in the process of sending an E-card from Gratefulness.org when somehow I spotted this piece written by Brother David Steindl-Rast on contemplative community. I’ve really come to appreciate the importance of community and to see myself more and more as a contemplative and a mystic. Yesterday, I was the guest at a wedding of a young couple and as I heard the minister preach his message, which was very thoughtful, I appreciated my contemplative nature.
By contemplative life we do not mean life in a cloister. Contemplative life as a vocation means a particular form of life in which, ideally at least, every detail of daily living is oriented towards recollection. By recollection we mean mindfulness, ultimately unlimited mindfulness, the inner attitude by which we find meaning. Contemplative life in this sense is a form of life designed to provide an optimum environment for radical search for meaning.–Br. David Steindl-Rast