Saint Ignatius believed that God could speak to us just as clearly in our imagination as through our thoughts and our memories.
In his Spiritual Exercises he writes of meditation as a very active way of engaging your feelings, emotions, and senses to place yourself in the scene described.
Imaginative meditation isn’t about trying to place yourself in a historic setting, like dreaming you were back in the Middle Ages, it’s about trying to encounter Jesus in a personal and unique way.
Through imaginative meditation, the Holy Spirit makes present the mystery of Christ found in a particular passage,
Let the events of Jesus’ life described in your reflections 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 and meet Jesus there.
- Pray with Your Imagination by David L. Fleming, SJ
- How Do We Pray with Our Imagination? at Creighton Online Ministries
- Examples of Ignatian Imaginative Contemplation at Creighton Online Ministries
Imaginative prayer exercises
from Pray as you go
Imagine
Mystics from all traditions throughout the ages have spoken of the wisdom of direct experience as a way of encountering the Mystery at the heart of things. Join us live on the first Wednesday of each month, 8-9pm UK time on Zoom, for a guided time of engaging with your own experience of that Mystery, through imagination, desire, body, story, scripture and image.
The recordings will then be posted here shortly afterwards. Everyone is welcome – just bring an openness and curiosity!
Link to join the live Zoom Meetings: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81534467879?pwd=c1FzYnd0RHoxdE5FYkp1MXdZUTBnUT09