“Play, for [psychotherapist] Winnicott, is a medium for the expression and elaboration of the true self–it is progressive, creative and developmental. Play can be the ‘work’ of psychotherapy. I believe it is also applicable to the ‘work’ of growing in interiority that is the task of contemplative monastics. We are at play with God when we are about the work of transformation. When we meditate or pray, for example, we are entering an area of potential space, transitional space. In this generative space created between God and us, we encounter God and God encounters us. We are no longer completely inside or outside ourselves, but in this space co-created by God and ourselves, a place to play, where we can be our truest self and pray.

“This potential space is not concrete, so it would be a misapplication to apply it to the cell, for example. We may indeed be able to co-create this space in our cell, and it may be a place of profound prayer. But this ground of encounter with God cannot be limited to a concrete place. It is, in fact, something that is part of our heart, here defined from a biblical and early Christian perspective. We take our heart with us wherever we go. In many ways the process of growing in interiority can be considered ‘heartwork’ that takes place i[n] solitude and in community. The potentiality of potential space means it can be co-created anywhere.”

Healey, Bede. “Psychological Investigations and Implications for Living Together Alone.” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), page 126.