Study Guide: The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapters 69-75

We’ve been reading and talking over The Cloud of Unknowing since September, 2013, and today we enter our final discussion concerning this classic text for Christians practicing contemplative prayer. Once again, as we come to the closing chapters (69-75), I trust it’s all right if I highlight three or four major insights and/or concerns Anonymous gives us, making a special effort to emphasis the most significant observation he makes in Chapter 75.

When reading Chapters 69 and 70, I thought of the beautiful comments Martha, a friend of mine, several weeks ago last as she described the transformation that Centering Prayer has brought about in her life. She echoes Anonymoous when he says, “Experiencing this nothing (no-thing-ness) in its nowhere (no-where-ness) miraculously transforms a person’s soul, outlook, and capacity for love.” 

In Chapter 70 our Teacher once more urges us in contemplative prayer not to pay any attention to what our five senses are telling us.  For example, concerning our sense of touch, he says that it “can only teach you whether something is hot or cold, hard or soft, or smooth or sharp. 

In Chapter 71 Anonymous urges us to be utterly realistic about our expectations when practicing contemplation. For some wonderful experiences come quickly or suddenly; for others nothing much happens. Either way is just fine.  Moses found contemplative prayer a real struggle; Aaron found it all coming easily as a gift from God.  So we should not, as Anonymous says in Chapter 72, “take your own experience as the rule of thumb by which you judge other contemplatives.”  So we all should “close-minded ways of thinking, for you can’t judge another’s unique contemplative experience by your own.” For Anonymous, the story about the Art of the Covenant in Exodus 25-27 gives us hints about “the grace of contemplation,” as he noted at the end of Chapter 71. To catch the drift of Anonymous commentary on the Art of the Covenant story and how Moses, Bezalel, and Aaron show forth various experiences regarding contemplative prayer, it’s best to slowly read Exodus 25-27. Anonymous says that “these three men symbolize the three ways that we advance in the grace of contemplation”:

In Chapter 74, our Teacher reminds us that he has covered many areas of our contemplative relationship with God in his little book.  He’s given us a great deal to digest and remember.  For that reason, he suggests that we might wish to read his Cloud a second or third time. Several readings will clarify things and bring out important teachings that we have not previously noticed. Moreover, we should not lightly recommend this book for everyone to read.  Some people simply are not “equal to its contents.”  Here Anonymous is not being judgmental; he’s simply giving good advice.  We have read the book with benefits because we’re quietly disposed to appreciate it; others are not. So don’t push things. After all, we who know the truthful realizations expressed in this book don’t want “habitual gossips, brownnosers (see Butcher’s note [260-61] on this one!), faultfinders, complainers, whisperers, and all kinds of character assassinators reading this book” (164).  Again, don’t push things.

Now we come to Chapter 75, the last chapter. Here Anonymous answers this question: who then should read this book?  His answer is straightforward.  The person who reads this book should have a desire and the determination to live a good Christian life. This doesn’t mean that you should be perfect. If that were the case, no one could pursue the loving search. As a reader, you must be willing to make use of the normal means the Church offers for the Christian life. This includes, of course, frequently weekly worship, active participation in the Divine Services, frequent participation in Holy Communions, study of Scripture, and engagement in works of mercy and the pursuit of justice.  All of these are expected from any decent Christian.

Then too you will want to feel an interior attraction to the simple prayer described in this little book.  Such praying (like Centering Prayer) does not have to take the place of all your usual devotions, but you should have a desire to give yourself, now and then, with greater or lesser frequency, to this work of loving God.  And if you begin this kind of praying and then find that you are neglecting it, please don’t despair or give it up altogether.  The desire to love God increases as we give ourselves to that love in prayer.  Sometimes we may not even feel the desire, but we still know that somehow this prayer is for us.

So be sensitive to that gentle tug of love, that tiny stirring in your heart that is the sure sign of God’s calling.  Do not be concerned with your unworthiness.  You are unworthy.  If you were ever to feel that you were worthy, then you would be in real trouble!  Do not be concerned with what you are or what you have been.  God is more interested in what you desire to be and in what God wish you to become.  Remember: no one less that St. Augustine teaches that “the whole life of a good Christian is nothing but holy desire.” 

But God has none of these dimensions. In fact, nothing spiritual has [the] characteristics [associated with sight, sound, or taste, or smell]. So we dismiss them when they come to us in contemplative prayer. It’s in this chapter that he first refers to St. Dionysius, a  contemplative whom Anonymous much admired and appreciated.

Sometimes we make progress by grace  alone, and then we’re most like Moses, who for all of us climbing and hard work on the mountain, only saw it seldom, and even then the vision only came by our Lord’s grace, when it pleased God to reveal himself; it was not a reward for Moses’ diligent efforts.  Sometimes we advance in contemplation by our own spiritual skill, helped by grace, and then we’re like Bezalel, who could not look on the Ark before he constructed it with his own skill, assisted by the blueprints given to Moses on the mountain.  And sometimes we advance in contemplation through the teaching of others, and then we’re like Aaron, who was accustomed to seeing it and touching it whenever he wanted, but is Bezalel who made the Ark and handed it to him. (162).

These three—Moses, Bezelel, and Aaron—symbolize, in a general way, the ways contemplatives experience the presence of God.  Moses struggled and eventually experienced the Divine Presence in the cloud, and when he did, it came by God’s grace; Bezalel possessed some spiritual skill, but he needed the help of a blue-print to see the Ark of the Covenant where God abode; Aaron was so blessed that he entered the Presence whenever he wanted, but, of course,  is was “Bazelel who made the Ark and handed it to him.”  Each one of these contemplatives, working together in a small community, entered the Presence by a different path, just as those of us in our little community share different comings and goings (pardon the “directional” implications!) with God.

Anonymous is now about to put down his pen, that is, his quill.  But he dips into his ink, and write one more little paragraph; it’s a blessing for all of us who have read his small book:

Good-bye, dear friend. Go in God’s blessing and mine.  And I ask almighty God that true peace, wise advice, divine joy, and abundant grace be with you always and with all on earth who love him.  Amen.

One couldn’t ask for a more beautiful last page, last paragraph, last blessing.