If prayer is speaking to God and meditation is listening to God, there is another activity in spiritual practice which is just as important to our growth. It is contemplation. This is the concentration of the mind along a path from initial insight to personal practice. For example, I may read or hear that God created God and all of the universe from nothing and out of himself brought everything into existence. This strikes me as a great revelation; but until the everyday, underlying belief dwells in me naturally that I am thus a part of God and that all things are made of God, the insight remains just the germ of an idea. Contemplation of the revelation, deep consideration of what it means — to me, in my life — brings this insight from outside of me to inside, from germ to fruition, from Word to Life.
Nick Hilton - Reflections 