So how do we pray? There are many beautiful ways to pray, but our imagination is one of the most helpful gifts God has given us for prayer. We may not be able to physically ‘see,’ “hear’ and ‘touch’ Jesus, but we can use our senses and our imagination as doorways into the experience of encounter. I can close my eyes and imagine Jesus sitting beside me
on a park bench or imagine myself sitting leaning against God. If I pray with a story from the Gospels, I can imagine what Jesus is doing in the story.
We may think that imagination is simply “me making stuff up” that isn’t real, but in fact, our imagination is a gift from God that God can use to help me to experience God. We will know we are not just “making it up” because what we experience when we pray this way often comes as a big surprise.
One of the ways of prayer that St Ignatius invites us into is “imaginative contemplation.”
I take a scene in which Jesus is doing something in the scriptures, perhaps one of the healing stories like the woman suffering from a haemorrhage who touches the hem of Jesus’s garment. (Mark 5:25-34).
I then gently enter into the mystery. I am praying using all my senses as if I were present there at that moment with Jesus. I see the crowds, feel the warmth of the sun, notice what I can smell and taste and what I can hear around me. I become part of the story. I may be drawn to become one of the characters in the story – one of the disciples
perhaps, or even the woman herself.
I allow the story to unfold in my imagination – trusting that God’s holy spirit is drawing my mind and imagination in the way that God desires. I may be surprised at how the story unfolds as I bring my own need for healing into it. Trust that God is the one who knows what you need in this time of prayer and will lead you to the gift or grace you most
need to receive.
• I invite you to choose a favourite Gospel story and pray it using your senses and imagination.
• Have a conversation with Jesus about how you experienced this way of praying.
