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Parish Prayer Retreat: Week 3
Imaginative Contemplation
What is Imaginative contemplation?
Imaginative contemplation is all about getting to know Jesus. It is a method of prayer in which you imagine yourself as present in a Gospel scene, stepping into the story and encountering Jesus there. It was St Ignatius' firm belief that God can speak to you just as clearly in your imagination as through your thoughts. This way of praying will help you to see more clearly, love more dearly, and follow more nearly the person of Jesus Christ.
The idea that God can speak to people through their imagination can seem a bit strange. Isn’t this just making things up in your head? On the contrary, the imagination is foremost a gift from God in the same way that a person’s intellect or memory is a gift from God. Christianity is clear that God speaks to people through the scriptures and the sacraments, through daily experiences and their emotions. If God can do all of these things, He can speak through the imagination too.
How does it help?
Imaginative contemplation is a way of praying that engages your full person: your imagination, your senses, and your heart. St Ignatius believes that this is essential for bringing about interior transformation, by going beyond the intellect, moving from the head to the heart, and meeting Jesus there.
In imagining Jesus and contemplating how He acts in the Gospels, you will also be challenged. The first step is to come to know Jesus Christ, the second is to love Him more, the third is to follow Him and imitate His example of radical love, living it out in your own life.
How does it work?
Choose a text from the Bible (suggestions below)
Read the description a few times before trying the prayer.
Imagine the place
The first step in an Imaginative Contemplation exercise is setting the scene. So, what is the location? What does it look like? What details do you see? Getting into the details here will help. For example, here is how St Ignatius writes about beginning a contemplation on the Nativity:
‘Composition, seeing the place. Here it will be to see with the eyes of the imagination the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem, considering the length and breadth of it, whether it is a flat road or goes through valleys or over hills; and similarly to look at the place or grotto of the Nativity, to see how big or small it was, how low or high, and what was in it.’ St Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises
Engage all your senses
Imaginative contemplation goes beyond just what you can see, it requires you to engage all of your senses. In doing this, you can fully immerse yourself into the story; this means exploring what you smell, hear, taste and touch. Once you have filled out your sensory experience of the place, you can move into the ‘action’ of the scene, having finished ‘composing the place’ fully.
Let the scene play out
This is to let the story unfold and to allow yourself to be drawn into what has captured your imagination. Sometimes people are not drawn to the main action of the story but towards other things. When this happens, it is best not to judge that but to allow yourself to follow what you are naturally being drawn to.
It is important to understand that, at this stage, you are not just watching the scene play out as though it is a scene from a movie and you are a viewer. Instead, see yourself as a character inside the story.
Open your heart to Jesus
Conclude with a conversation in your imagination between Jesus and yourself, as one friend speaks with another. Express what is in your mind and heart and let Jesus express His responses too.
Reflect on your experience
After the contemplation has finished, it is very important to take some time to reflect on what you noticed. Look back at your prayer and honestly ask yourself:
- What did I find myself thinking and feeling? What moved me?
- What struck me (especially the unusual or unexpected) and why did I react the way I did?
- Did anything in the contemplation change the way I see God, myself, or others?
- How did Jesus’ words or actions in the contemplation make me feel?
Write your answers in your journal and reflect on them through the week
The result of this reflection should be an insight into ourselves, our relationship with God, and our relationships with others.
Taken from: Jesuits in Britain
Exercises
You may wish to try the following guided imaginative contemplations. Click the link.
Jesus and the woman with the haemorrhage: https://pray-as-you-go.org/player/special/2276-jesus--the-woman-with-a-haemorrhage
Jesus & the healing of blind Bartimaeus: https://pray-as-you-go.org/player/special/2275-jesus--the-healing-of-blind-bartimaeus
Jesus and Zacchaeus: https://pray-as-you-go.org/player/special/2277-jesus--zacchaeus
Jesus walks on water : https://pray-as-you-go.org/player/special/2278-jesus-walks-on-water
Mary and Martha: https://pray-as-you-go.org/player/special/2279-mary--martha
The Resurrection: https://pray-as-you-go.org/player/special/2280-the-resurrection
Remember capture your thought and feelings in your prayer journal and review them through the week.
Try the following passages, you may wish to try the same passage on different days. The link will take you to the gospel chapter then scroll till you find the appropriate verse.
Matt 6: 1-21 https://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=47&bible_chapter=6
Matt. 8: 1 -13 https://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=47&bible_chapter=8
Luke 1: 21 – 38 https://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=49
Luke 7:36-50 https://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=49&bible_chapter=7
Reflect on the Week
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Look through your prayer journal for the week. Is there a theme or anything that stands out to you?
Overall has this prayer form ‘worked’ for you?
What did you find useful?
Did you find anything difficult about it?
Did you learn anything about yourself and your prayer life from the experience of this week?
Going forward will this be a prayer form you re visit?
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