Study Guide: The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 26

As Anonymous in Chapter 26’s summary tells us, what we experience in contemplative prayer is God’s grace at work: “That without special grace or a long commitment to ordinary grace, contemplative work is very hard, and how the soul absolutely requires grace for this work, while, grace, in turn, is God’s work alone” (65-66)

At this point Anonymous believes it is time to encourage us to “work hard” as we pray contemplatively. Yes, it is difficult, and the hard time we have doing it should not surprise us unless somehow God has blessed us in a special way or we’ve been doing it so long that it become a habit.

So why does contemplative prayer often seem difficult?  The difficulty lies simply in our “thoughts of every creature that God has ever made” (for example: What am I supposed to do this afternoon?  Wasn’t that person dreadful! Do I need a haircut?) In contemplative prayer we need to keep such thoughts (and many others!) “covered under the cloud of forgetting.” Keeping them down in hard work. Yes, God helps us “roll [our] sleeves up” for contemplative prayer, but we still have to do it ourselves. When God sets things in motion, we need to do our part.

So do it. Work hard at it, Anonymous urges.  Once you get into the rhythm of contemplative prayer, “you’ll feel the enormity and difficulties of this work ease.” In fact, “as your devotion grows, contemplation ceases being hard and instead becomes very restful and easy. It will hardly seem like work” (66).

Once in a while, Anonymous tells us that something quite wonderful may happen: “Sometimes God may send out a ray of divine light, piercing this cloud of unknowing between you and him and letting you see some of his ineffable mysteries” (66). Anonymous can’t describe either your experience or his own because often it’s “beyond words.”  The experience of simply being with God is so quietly profound that it creates and establishes its own validity within us. We may not be able to find the words to describe it.  At times we can only knowingly smile.