Using the imagination in prayer has been a treasured tradition in prayer for centuries. It prompted St. Francis of Assisi to encourage people to create nativity scenes at Christmas, to imagine the Holy Family as people like we are. Four hundred years later, St. Ignatius of Loyola used imaginative prayer as a key part of his life-transforming Spiritual Exercises. Rather than just using our thoughts and memories, we place ourselves in a story encounter the Living Christ in a personal way by use of all or any of our senses. To receive Christ we must know him! This practice is inspired and adapted from the spiritual practice “Imaginative Contemplation” developed by Ignatius of Loyola.*
1. First we get settled in a comfortable chair and in a quiet place where we won’t be distracted. Our first gesture might be to open our hands on our lap, and to ask God to open our hearts and imaginations. Become aware of the presence of God and awake to Christ’s invitation. Take a moment to become calm and centered.
2. Choose and read a text in the spirit of prayer seeking to be closer to the Living Christ. Begin using your imagination as if you were actually there, What is around me? Who else is there? What do I hear in the scene? If I am in a house, what noises are in the house or in the street outside? What are the smells I can pick up?
3. Read the text a 2nd time and visualize and sense the scene or event by sensing the details: sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feelings of the event.
4. Place yourself in the scene and spirit of the story in a way that makes sense to you, whether in the Biblical time or a modern time or circumstance for a personal encounter with the Living Christ. You might imagine yourself as one of the characters. Sometimes it helps to imagine yourself as one of the characters in the story. After letting your imagination experience the story through that person, try imagining yourself as a different character. Feel free to paint this picture in any way your imagination takes you. If we worry about historical accuracy, it can be a distraction that takes us away from prayer. This isn’t scripture – this is letting God take our imaginations and reveal to us something of the intimate life of Jesus or others. If, in our prayer, Mary pulls the toddler Jesus onto her lap to tie his shoes or zip his coat, we can let it happen that way. We don’t want to fret about the historically accurate kinds of food served at a dinner or what kind of carpenter tools Joseph might have really had in his workshop. Here is an experience of prayer that lets our imaginations free themselves from anything that limits them. This is God revealing himself to us.
5. Invite the Holy Spirit to reveal the Living Christ in a way that is meaningful for you now. It helps if we imagine Jesus and his disciples as the real people they were who walked the earth.
6. End this time by reading the same passage of scripture in a spirit of prayer and conversation—heart to heart talk with Jesus—using your everyday language as you would with a friend.
Tips for the Process:
• Request the Holy Spirit to draw you closer to the Living Christ by remembering his promise to always be with you and his invitation to share life with you.
• Use your imagination. Although, it takes an ‘imaginary’ eye to see yourself in the scripture, this practice is enhanced when we use all of our senses and imagine the elements in the ‘scene’ of the scripture such as wind, the dry heat, the spray of water, feelings of joy, sorrow, tiredness, and any thoughts that would ‘go through one’s head.’
• Do not rush—take time. There may be days when you follow each step. Other days, you may want to stay with only one or two steps. There is no particular length—less or longer than 10 – 20 minutes is fine.
• The key is simplicity and not being constrained by each step. Find and follow a pattern that works for you.