Editing Contemplation (section)

===Meditation===
In Christianity, contemplation refers to a content-free mind directed towards the awareness of [[God in Christianity|God]] as a living reality.{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}  Meditation, on the other hand, for many centuries in the Western Church, referred to more cognitively active exercises, such as visualizations of Biblical scenes as in the [[Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola|Ignatian exercises]] or ''[[lectio divina]]'' in which the practitioner "listens to the text of the Bible with the 'ear of the heart', as if he or she is in conversation with God, and God is suggesting the topics for discussion."<ref>A contemporary discussion of differences between ''meditatio'' and ''contemplatio'' is available in Father Thomas Keating's book on contemplative centering prayer, ''Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel'' (1986) {{ISBN|0-8264-0696-3}}. Brief descriptions of centering prayer and ''lectio divina'' are available online at http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/.</ref>

In Catholic Christianity, contemplation is given importance. The Catholic Church's "model theologian", St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: "It is requisite for the good of the human community that there should be persons who devote themselves to the life of contemplation." (''Sentences'') One of his disciples, [[Josef Pieper]] commented: "For it is contemplation which preserves in the midst of human society the truth which is at one and the same time useless and the yardstick of every possible use; so it is also contemplation which keeps the true end in sight, gives meaning to every practical act of life."<ref>[http://zenit.org/article-21671?l=english "Says Pope a Universal Voice for the World"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205004758/http://www.zenit.org/article-21671?l=english |date=2008-02-05 }}, Carrie Gross, February 1, 2008, Zenit.org.</ref> Pope John Paul II in the Apostolic Letter "Rosarium Virginis Mariae" referred specifically to the catholic devotion of the [[Rosary|Holy Rosary]] as "an exquisitely contemplative prayer" and said that "By its nature the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord's life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In this way the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are disclosed."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/2002/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20021016_rosarium-virginis-mariae.html|title=Rosarium Virginis Mariae on the Most Holy Rosary (October 16, 2002) &#124; John Paul II}}</ref>

According to Aquinas, the highest form of life is the contemplative which communicates the fruits of contemplation to others, since it is based on the abundance of contemplation (''contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere'') ([[Summa Theologiae|ST]], III, Q. 40, A. 1, Ad 2).

[[Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange]] elaborated upon the broad calling to Mystical Contemplation. <ref>https://catholicweekly.com.au/a-history-of-holiness-and-jubilee/</ref>