THE ART OF BEHOLDING: THE SPIRITUAL PRACTICE OF A FORGOTTEN WORD

Late afternoon, a shadow suddenly passed over me, and I stumbled to gaze upward. In the milky blue sky, I saw a homely turkey vulture swooping and banking in search of a meal. Above it, I spotted another bird and, seeing its fanned red tail, beheld a so-named hawk. Many hawks live across the US, and plenty are in the rural areas of Connecticut, where I live. Their piercing cry splits the quiet of many sultry summer days, a lonely call that touches the soul. The sun and the sky highlighted the hawk’s tail, heightening its elegant burgundy. That one glimpse remained with me the rest of the day.

The moment is difficult to describe without the right word. I beheld a moment of God’s simplicity and majesty, the stunning beauty of creation, and the universe’s workings. That interaction caused me to pause and remember where I was — not standing in a driveway — but in one small, privileged location in a galaxy mostly inhospitable to and void of life. I let go of my daily worries and concerns, the weariness from a long day, and my own mortality drawing nearer with each breath. I forgot myself, and silent, restorative emptiness filled my body, mind, and spirit.

To behold is a life-giving spiritual discipline. In her 2014 book Silence, the Anglican solitary Maggie Ross defines behold as “an understanding that does not ask for what something is, but simply opens itself to the mystery of it being.” (1) To behold is more than seeing or observing an object. It is a personal encounter without self-interest. (2) To see is to recognize something or someone. Noticing is watching a thing or person, and looking at a person or object happens as one becomes aware of its features. When a person beholds an object, one becomes deeply aware of it and can sense the Holy Spirit at work in, through, and beyond what is observed. Behold is a signal flare that causes a person to anticipate the revealing of “something startling.” (3)

In my opening example, I employed behold in a non-religious activity, but the Bible is steeped in beholding. Depending on the translation, behold may be as familiar as a stop sign or as foreign as an Egyptian hieroglyphic. The King James Bible uses the word nearly 1,300 times, but the New International Version includes it fewer than 200 times. Ross states, “The word Behold is arguably the most important word in the Bible and by extension in spiritual life.” (4) Consider these verses: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29 KJV), and “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him” (Revelation 1:7 KJV). 

Beholding is different than mindfulness practices and the like. Mindfulness can become spiritual — even mystical, and one can enter into beholding during such a session. However, mindfulness, meditation, and even prayer are human activities; beholding is from God. (5) Beholding cracks open our world to glimpse the infinite divine that supports all humanity and transfigures and resurrects us to become the human God desires for all.

The fourteenth-century Anglican contemplative mystical tradition embraced behold. For example, Walter Hilton uses behold to describe the process by which one develops the ghostly or spiritual ability to view Jesus and cleanse one’s soul. (6) The anchorite Julian of Norwich infuses the word throughout her long text, for instance, writing, “God himself will teach how a soul may behold him.” The anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing imbues beholding throughout the work. (7) The fourth great fourteenth-century Anglican mystic Richard Rolle views beholding similarly, writing, “Wherefore in this burning of sweetest love they are taken up to the beholding of their Beloved, and by means of this most happy flame they are flourishing in virtue, and freely enjoy their Maker.” (8) Other mystics, across the centuries, used behold because it was a common way of seeing God’s handiwork. For pre-Enlightenment Christians, the word needed no defining.

Contemporary Christians can recapture behold and beholding as a spiritual practice. Its practice is simple, and one can unexpectedly and surprisingly slip into beholding. However, with deliberate attention, one heightens the skill and ability to behold. 

The beholding process is straightforward but takes frequent practice. First, silence is key. Regular periods of extended silence are foundational. First, Ross notes, “There is no such thing as material silence. The universe hums in very low B flat.” (9) Understanding that absolute silence is unattainable, a person enters a place of stillness and peace with little or no disruptions. Extended silence involves mental attention and discipline because the mind likes to drift and often fills these moments with negative thoughts or forgotten chores. A person will usually struggle after eight minutes as the mind begins to let go. Peacefulness can more easily settle upon the person after that point.

Second, an appropriate method helps. Ross notes that one-pointed meditation through repeating a word, counting breaths, or using another point is helpful. A single word or sound can elevate the mind and soul, opening a new way to encounter God. (10) One can choose a familiar phrase or comfortable words. The devoted Bible reader may find a favorite verse or line from a Psalm that assists in focusing the mind. Prayer can work, too, but one must avoid petitionary pleas or intercessions. The point is not to seek God’s assistance.

The third step is challenging. The Cloud author instructs, “Center all your attention and desire on him and let this be the sole concern or your mind and heart.” (11) One must let pass away all material and earthly issues, concerns, objects, and wants. The Cloud author identifies this step as moving through and above the cloud of forgetting, abandoning all in it. The goal is to allow one’s thoughts to dissolve into God’s peacefulness and to open oneself in awe, reverence, and adoration, stripping away all else before God. (12)

Fourth is patience. Our four medieval Anglican mystics’ practices and writings teach that a person enters into beholding not with an expectation or desired outcome. Beholding is a matter of faith. Julian of Norwich lived in the shadow of the bubonic plague’s horror and devastation that killed up to half of England’s population and yet remained utterly faithful. She confidently believed that God would suddenly appear to those that love God because he is kind and accessible even when hidden from perception. (13) The other three agree that beholding God takes time, and customarily, a person must go through a process involving stages through which one develops a full love of God. (14) The development of the soul through beholding will last as long as God deems it necessary to complete a person’s full transformation.

To behold is to stop, pause, and see God in the smallness or greatness of the world. One can behold a miracle or the most ordinary event and be swept away by God’s caress. The ability to behold creation’s wonder or the Godhead requires attentiveness, commitment, discipline, and practice. One must stop one’s daily activities and regularly pause in silence to create space to notice God, who is at hand, ready to love and help one thrive. Beholding is essential to thriving and is how one can fully experience oneself and the world Ross also aptly concludes, “To paraphrase Julian of Norwich, seek [him] to the beholding, and everything shall be added unto you: peace, joy, glory.” (15)

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(1) Maggie Ross, Silence, A User’s Guide, Vol. One: Process (Eugene OR: Wipf and Stock, 2014), 108. Her definition draws on Karsten Harries Infinity and Perspective (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2002),180 in which the author quotes Meister Eckhart.

(2) See Robert Flanagan, The Letters of an Unexpected Mystic: Encountering the Mystical Theology in First and Second Peter, (Eugene OR: Wipf and Stock, 2022), 31.

(3)  Maggie Ross, Silence, A User’s Guide, Vol. Two: Application, (Eugene OR: Wipf and Stock, 2018), 72.

(4) Ross, Silence, Vol. Two, 72.

(5)  Ross, Silence,Vol. Two: 74.

(6)  See Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection: Book II, Chapters 37 and 40.

(7) Ross, Silence, Vol. Two, 73.

(8) Richard Rolle, The Fire of Love, trans. Richard Misyn (London: Methuen & Co., 1914), 62.

(9)  Ross, Silence, Vol. One, 39.

(10)  Ross, Silence, Vol. One, 56.

(11) William Johnston, ed., The Cloud of Unknowing. (New York: Doubleday, 1993), 48.

(12) William Johnston ed., The Cloud of Unknowing, 53-54.

(13)  Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, trans. Elizabeth Spearing (New York: Penguin, 1998), 57.

(14)  See for example Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, trans. Evelyn Underhill (London: John M. Watkins, 1923), 356-365.

(15) Ross, Silence, Vol. Two, 75.