Sacrifice As Gift

8. Contemplation and the Eucharist

238 • This chapter develops more fully de la Taille’s theology of contemplation , going beyond basic questions of the nature and role of contemplation in the spiritual life to more specific issues concerning contemplative experience and theory. We shall witness de la Taille’s serious engagement with the contemporary discussions over mystical theology, as well as his effort to enunciate an analogy between contemplation and the grace of the Eucharist. His impressive “Théories mystiques” uses Dom Cuthbert Butler’s appended text to Western Mysticism as a springboard to engage some important and controversial questions on passive prayer. Three of these questions will occupy our attention, as they significantly nuance what we have outlined already about his thought on contemplative prayer. I shall consider first the question of an “intermediate” state between common prayer and contemplation: if such a state exists, how is it defined, named, and related to contemplation, properly speaking? Secondly , since Butler inquires into what John of the Cross intends by the “substantial touch” of contemplation, de la Taille offers his own astute gloss, illuminating the concept with his theology of grace—“created actuation by uncreated Act.” Finally, de la Taille grapples with the issue of contemplative knowledge. He appears particularly eager to counter the position that intellection is “annihilated” in genuine passive prayer. This defense of contemplative knowing neatly circles back to his portrayal of the relationship between the intellect and the affect in passive prayer. 8 239 • Contemplation and the Eucharist The second part of this chapter collects what we have learned from de la Taille about passive prayer and focuses on how he confirms his intuition about the integral relationship between contemplation and the Eucharist. We shall see that this integration is founded upon Christ and an integral connection between the eucharistic and contemplative altars of sacrifice. Disputed Questions in Mystical Theology The “Passage” between Common Prayer and Contemplation De la Taille joins Butler in reflecting upon the boundaries of common and passive prayer. He presents his own solution, based on theoretical and practical concerns, for a possible middle or transitional state of prayer before contemplation. Butler, leaning upon the authority of John of the Cross, Francis de Sales, and the anonymous fourteenthcentury author of The Cloud of Unknowing, calls the intermediate state of prayer “the prayer of loving attention,” a terminology that de la Taille finds apt for Butler’s theory.1 De la Taille purports that there is little practical difference between what Butler intends by this “prayer of loving attention” and the so-called “prayer of simplicity,” popularized by Poulain in his Graces of Interior Prayer. Even so, the crucial difference between the two thinkers lies in where this “intermediate” prayer is placed. Is it really outside of passive prayer, properly speaking (Poulain ’s assertion)? Or does it in fact lie within the interior of contemplation itself (Butler’s position)? The distinction might appear to be without significance, but de la Taille carefully presents each position, giving the “two schools” their day in court. If Butler is correct, then the prayer of loving attention belongs to the “body” of contemplative prayer, and one is “already on the way” to the successive stages of passive prayer. For Poulain, on the other hand, this intermediate state is yet distinct from contemplation: its physiology, one could say, is different from that of contemplation. It is yet a “working moment” directed toward infused prayer. More, if Poulain is right, this “inferior” sort of prayer 1. De la Taille, “Théories,” 297. 240 • De Contemplatione et De Baptismo can develop indefinitely “according to its own rule.”2 Dissatisfied with both positions, de la Taille cleverly charts a third course. Drawing attention to the work of his own teacher, Maumigny, de la Taille accepts that there is some intermediate state between common and contemplative prayer. However, he argues for a more salutary distinction , namely, that within the “prayer of simplicity” or “loving attention ” there are actually two sorts of prayer that often appear so much alike that it takes a shrewd spiritual director to discern the difference.3 The first sort of prayer of simplicity occurs in “favorable circumstances ,” emerging from a serendipitous temperament and from effective pious practices. By contrast, the second sort is pure gift: a special grace “carrying the will” away to “a habitual adherence to God.” The will is “under the sway of a secret taste” for the uncreated divine; its...