What is the difference between a prayerful soul and a contemplative one?
From the outside, this distinction is impossible to discern. In neither case is it merely a matter of age, vocation, or life experience. It would be erroneous to conclude that those who live in monasteries or hermitages are therefore automatically contemplative souls, while those who live in the world or engage in active apostolates are merely prayerful souls. Such a conclusion reduces the matter to external circumstances and thus arrives at a superficial judgment concerning realities that are profoundly interior.
The distinction between a prayerful soul and a contemplative one lies not in outward form, but in interiority. Consequently, the only place where this distinction can truly be made is within the interior disposition of the soul itself.
A prayerful soul, like the contemplative one, loves and cherishes times of prayer. Such a soul understands that prayer must be a priority in life and therefore orders its life in such a way that prayer is never neglected but becomes its foundation. Accordingly, the prayerful soul is faithful to regular times of prayer, speaks to others about the importance of prayer, and continually seeks to grow in its life of prayer. Yet for the prayerful soul, even though prayer is its most important activity, it nevertheless remains one activity among many.
For the contemplative soul, the life of prayer gradually becomes the atmosphere in which the whole soul lives. This does not imply that a contemplative soul spends the whole day in a church, quietly absorbed in God’s presence. Contemplative souls can, and very often do, live and even minister in the world. Yet within the contemplative soul, even amid outward activity, there is gradually less distinction between prayer and life.
For the contemplative, every moment of life becomes a means of abiding in God and remaining in Him without interruption. This does not suggest that a contemplative is never distracted, frustrated or confused. Rather, it underscores that the whole of life is gradually transformed into prayer, and that the soul’s fundamental posture becomes one of quiet, receptive presence before God.
Ultimately, then, the difference between the prayerful soul and the contemplative one does not consist in effort, fidelity, or generosity, but in abiding. The prayerful soul faithfully goes to prayer; whereas the contemplative soul is gradually drawn into abiding in God. This abiding is not achieved by technique nor produced by human striving. Contemplation is not the fruit of a strong will, but a grace received from God that gently and steadily reorients the whole of life. As this grace deepens, the soul comes to abide more continuously in God and is thus able to rest in Him even while engaged in the ordinary demands of daily life. In this way, contemplation is no longer another one activity among many, even spiritual ones, but becomes life itself, where doing yields to being, and the soul learns, at last, to live from the Presence it has always sought.
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