If meditative prayer is like walking the beach, thinking about the ocean's breadth and pondering where you fit in God's scheme of things, then contemplative prayer is sitting at the same seashore and being totally present to the beauty and the power of God.
Contemplation is prayer without words.
It is similar to the experience we sometimes have unexpectedly with a sunset, a starry sky, a sleeping child's face. We don't try to analyze it or understand it. We are simply captivated by it, transfixed, and we remain with it wordlessly. In contemplative prayer, we are captivated by, transfixed by remaining with God. We bask in the luxury of enjoying God's company, he says.