"Contemplation is not just looking at God; for most of us, now
in via
, it consists in looking
for
God, and if from time to time some 'sight' of him is accorded, this will only be a glimmer granted by grace in what will always be a 'cloud of unknowing'. So when I use the term 'contemplation' I use it in this sense: looking for God. This looking for God is done through, with, and in Christ, in unity with the Holy Spirit so that we can give, within that very life of the Trinity, all honour and glory to God, the Almighty Father. That in brief is, I think, the essence of the monastic life." Cardinal Basil Hume OSB