The biggest thing that every person needs to do in order to have a relationship with God is prayer. Prayer is the back and forth conversation that we have with God, but not everyone can pray the same way. People are fickle beings because what works for one person will not work for another. One person who understood that was St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. St. Ignatius knew that prayer is the cornerstone to knowing, loving, and understanding God. He wanted to teach the men who were entering his religious order to understand that prayer has to be an integral part of our lives that he set up many different forms of meditative prayers and every Jesuit has to complete a full 30-day silent retreat. One way that St. Ignatius prayed was using his imagination to put himself into the Gospel. He felt that being able to use all five senses to put oneself into the Gospel can help us dive deeper into the messages and feelings that are conveyed throughout the sacred texts. To those who are very creative and imaginative, or to those who want to try a different way to pray, then this form of prayer is highly recommended. Though it is very difficult at first, it can increase your faith and understanding of the Gospel.
A few things to keep in mind for this form of prayer is to start off slow and short, remember to try and use all five senses, and lastly, don’t get discouraged. If you struggle at first, keep at it and ask God to help guide your meditative prayer. Two Gospel Passages that are great to start out at and are amazing uses for this form of prayer would be Luke’s account of the birth of Christ (Luke 2), where we can put ourselves in barn outside of Bethlehem, or we can focus on the multitude of Angles appearing in the sky to praise and glorify the birth of Jesus. The second Gospel passage recommendation is Jesus Calming the storm ( Luke 8:22-25). This is great because we can imagine ourselves on the boat, the hailing storm, the taste of sea water, and the sense of fear the Apostles had and the sense of awe at the power of Jesus calming the sea before their very eyes. |
