Today, we try a kind of prayer popularized by St. Ignatius of Loyola: the Imaginative Contemplation.
This is a prayer that asks the person to use stories from scripture and your imagination together. For those who say they don’t really know how to imagine, I just tell them that everyone does. As a start, you can think about (in your mind’s eye) the house where you grew up. What did it look like? Remember the paint? Remember the floors? Remember where it is?
That’s easy enough! Everyone can use their imagination to pray.
It would help if you read through the instructions below first, and then find a quiet place where you can stay for 20 minutes at least, where you can close your eyes.
1. Begin with a brief prayer of intention and invocation of God’s assistance. Talk to God the way you would talk to a friend.
2-Choose a scene related to your desire for the contemplation. Think about your life at present. What is the current state of your life? What story in the Bible would help you at this point in your life? I am going to be a father, so I’m visualising Joseph when Mary told him she was pregnant.
Soak up the scene. What do you see? What other senses are employed? Visualize it and place yourself within it.
3. What is offered you in this scene? What grabs you and seems to be for you? How do you relate to the other characters present? Is one of them speaking to you? What do you do with the experience?
4. Close with the Lord’s Prayer, a Hail Mary, or a Glory Be.
prayersofapilgrim.com 