Contemplative prayer is a gift that can only be received in humility and poverty. The love of God can then conform each soul to his likeness as an image of God. Contemplation teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth. Our love becomes a reflection or mirror of God s. Contemplation brings prayer to those to whom God grants the kind of spiritual vision to which both reason and faith aspire.
Contemplation is always beyond our knowledge and beyond our very selves.
It reaches out to knowledge, as a gift of God in ourselves, for we are touched by God. Contemplation is, at the same time, an awareness of the question and awareness of the answer given by the Spirit. Contemplation is a pure gift and is a sign of the goodness of God. It enables us to believe more firmly in his goodness, to trust in him more, and provides growth in our friendship with him. God completes in us the awareness that he dwells in us and we in him.