Imaginative Prayer

If you are desiring to have a more personal experience of Jesus, perhaps there is not a better place to start than the practice of imaginative prayer. This way of praying invites you to use your imagination to try to place yourself within the stories of Jesus in the Gospels.

In Ignatian Adventure, Kevin O’Brien describes imaginative prayer in this way:

Let the events of Jesus' life be present to you right now. Visualize the event as if you were making a movie. Pay attention to the details: sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feelings of the event. Lose yourself in the story; don't worry if your imagination is running too wild. At some point, place yourself in the scene.

Contemplating a Gospel scene is not simply remembering it or going back in time. Through the act of contemplation, the Holy Spirit makes present a mystery of Jesus' life in a way that is meaningful for you now. Use your imagination to dig deeper into the story so that God may communicate with you in a personal, evocative way. 

The hope of praying in this way is that you find yourself growing more comfortable relating to Jesus, and even feeling more intimate with him. You begin to have new awareness of Jesus as you see how he lovingly interacts with you and others within your imagined experiences. 

How to practice

• Begin by reading the story a few times to situate the broad details of the scene in your mind. The goal here isn’t to try to perfectly interpret the story, but to open yourself to see how Jesus was present in the story… and how you can be present as well.
• Find a way to place yourself in the story. You might imagine yourself as the primary person Jesus is talking with or healing. Or you might take the role of a bystander, whether it an unknown person in the crowd, or one of the disciples or even a religious leader who is opposed to Jesus. As you are first becoming familiar with this practice, find someone who you can most readily identify with in the story.
• Don’t just try to re-enact the story in your mind…try to live within it. Be aware of your emotions as you experience Jesus’ presence in the story.
• If you find it difficult to stay focused in the story… you are not alone. It can be a challenge to stay present in your imagination, so don’t try to force it. Give yourself the grace to set the story aside and perhaps try it again another time.
• After you finish, take some time to journal about what you experienced.

As you become more familiar with Imaginative Prayer, you might become comfortable engaging with just about any story in the Gospels. But as you are starting out, David Banner (in his fantastic book Surrender to Love) suggests you might start with these:

• Matthew 19:13-15
• Matthew 22:1-14
• Mark 6:45-52
• Luke 12:22-32