When, living in the present in profound attentiveness, we experience "timeless moments" of radical present and Presence, we come very near to God.
To live a contemplative life is to be open enough to see, free enough to hear, real enough to respond. It is a life, and so has its own rhythms of darkness, dying-rising. Simply enough, it is a life of grateful receptivity, or wordless awe, of silent simplicity.