Resting

I would not try to separate meditation from any other kind of prayer.  I think it is part of an overall pattern in which we find God in reading, pondering what we read of some spiritual material, even giving thanks for a sense of God’s goodness, and love.  Then slide more easily into meditation which might lead to contemplation.  Some people concentrate on method or technique.  They can be doing something in which they are not even thinking about Ultimate Reality or God or Power, and then put it aside because it is their time to meditate.  For me, I try reading some scripture, thinking about it, and then giving thanks or asking for guidance/help to grow interiorly.  Then I enter into meditation time.  Meditation is not so much finding God, as it is a time of resting in the God you have found.  Or resting in a sense of being found.  Meditation is not so much a method as it is a relationship.