The Universal Call to Contemplation
The contemplative life is not limited to nuns and monks.
It is the call God makes to all of us. It is challenging, like every relationship, but it is rewarding, the most rewarding activity that we can experience, for it leads us into the presence of God.
We hope to share with you some thoughts and suggestions that will attract you to prayer and contemplation if you are not already drawn to it.
We also ask you to share with us and with others your own experiences, both encouraging and challenging. Many people feel alone when they try to pray. Hopefully, you will find here that you are not alone. Many people down through the ages into our own time have accepted God’s whispered invitation to “come and see”. We hope that you will be one of them.
—Sr. Gabriela of the Incarnation, O.C.D.
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Articles
Read about the universal call to contemplation in the articles on our blog.
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Videos
Watch our insightful videos on the Called to Contemplation YouTube channel.
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Community
The Golden Road is an online space to join with others seeking to come closer to God.
“Thus it is evident to everyone, that all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity.”
Thoughts From God’s Garden
A Monthly Pondering from Sr. Gabriela
Less Can Be More
Reading the list of ingredients on a food package is a good study of words. The list is usually fairly long and too often includes words that take me back to my high school chemistry class. These are the words that I don’t recognize, the words that sound so very scientific. I’m sure that an ingredient indicated by such a word can be very good in itself. After all, sodium chloride is simply the chemistry name for table salt. It has nothing to do with Chlorox, so a food that includes sodium chloride (in a reasonable dose, of course) should be safe to eat, and this may be true of all the other unknown and unpronounceable ingredients on the list.
However, I really do prefer food that is just itself, food that is not a conglomerate of all sorts of additional ingredients. Isn’t that what “pure foods” means? Food that is just itself? Food that tastes like itself because is itself? Food that is not influenced by other ingredients?
When you think of it, that is what it means for us to be pure. “Blessed are the pure in heart”, blessed are they who are not influenced by other “ingredients.” Blessed are we when we are totally ourselves, totally the persons God made us to be.
“Behold, the Lord invites all. Since He is truth itself, there is no reason to doubt. If this invitation were not a general one, the Lord wouldn’t have called us all, and even if He called all, He wouldn’t have promised, ‘I will give you to drink’.”