Returning to Discursive and Passive Meditation

The Daily Meditation with Brother Richard · Jan 26, 2026 · 12m

In this meditation, I return with you to the two complementary modes of practice: discursive and passive meditation, and how they work together over time.

I reflect on why both forms are necessary, and how practices such as the rosary can help us understand this movement between intention and rest. Discursive prayer gives shape and direction, while passive meditation allows us to receive, to settle, and to be held.

We come gently into stillness, using the body as a place of awareness, beginning with the hands and the simple experience of openness. As intention is named and held lightly, a…