
First time I heard somebody talk about meditating on divine mysteries, I didn’t understand what she was talking about. “She” was a
Some of the problem—other than my anti-Catholic bias—is the fact the Protestants I worshiped with, didn’t understand
The other part of the problem is most Protestants didn’t know what mysteries are. To be fair, Catholics use the term way more often than Protestants do. That’s why when Protestants say “mystery,” we think it’s something we don’t know. “Contemplating mysteries” sounds to us like we’re thinking about all the things we don’t know. Contemplating divine mysteries sounds like we’re thinking about all the things about God which we don’t know—and that’s a lot, ’cause he’s an infinite God, and we got finite brains, so there’s an infinite gap between what we know and who God is.
I’ve heard more than one ignorant Protestant actually rebuke the Orthodox and Catholic for thinking about divine mysteries: “Why are they wasting their time meditating about what we don’t know about God? Shouldn’t we think about what we do know?” Yeah, this statement sounds all the more ignorant once you do know what mysteries are.
In the scriptures,
But this wrong definition of what mystery means, still kinda permeates Protestant thinking. Look up “sacred mysteries” on the internet and you’ll find plenty of Protestants—and even some Catholics!—claiming mysteries are “profound truths which are beyond human understanding.” Yeah, they used to be beyond human understanding. Not anymore! Jesus revealed ’em. He figures we’re ready to know about them. So we can get to know them. And that is what meditating on them is all about. It’s not some weird intellectual exercise where we’re looking into the void and hoping this somehow makes us deeper people; it’s getting to know God.
Meditate on atonement and salvation.
During
Okay but how? Well, you could listen to preachers and theologians talk about how in great detail. Or you could read your bible, read what the apostles had to say about it, then meditate on what they said. They said a bunch! Here’s a taste.
Hebrews 9.23-28 CSB 23 Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these.24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence of God for us.25 He did not do this to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another.26 Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself.27 And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment—28 so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.Ephesians 5.2 CSB - …and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.
Galatians 1.4 CSB - …who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.
1 Peter 3.18 CSB - For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit…
1 John 3.16 CSB - This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
There’s a lot more. Sometimes they go into detail, like the writer of Hebrews did; sometimes they just drop a one-liner here and there, like Paul did. Go dig around your New Testament; you’ll find more.
You can also meditate on
And no, this doesn’t mean sit down
You don’t have to do this during Lent and Holy Week, either. You can do it all year. You can do it for the rest of your life; it’ll take the rest of your life. But of course you first gotta get started.
