Have you ever been in prayer and had a really powerful image and a sense that you were entering into really deep prayer–maybe even contemplative prayer–and then you realized that you were thinking about mashed potato shampoo and you weren’t actually having a vision, you were actually half asleep and dreaming?
Yeah, that happens to me at least once a week.
It’s not that images don’t have a place in prayer, it’s that coffee does. And when I’m good and jacked up on caffeine, I can use my imagination to pray and get some images that make a lot more sense than mashed potato shampoo. Prayer isn’t just a left-brained experience of memory and recitation, nor is it an introvert’s Mecca of silence and solitude. Prayer is about relationship and God wants to encounter you in so many different ways.
So sometimes I put away my rosary and close my breviary and even try to turn off my interior monologue. I turn to the Gospels and try to meet Christ there. When the Spirit’s moving, I can open the Scriptures and insert myself into a scene, imagining that I’m encountering Christ just as the characters of the Gospel do.
This style of prayer is often called Ignatian, after St. Ignatius of Loyola whose Spiritual Exercises use this technique. The idea is that you enter into the story and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you through, essentially, daydreaming.
What’s most important here is to be open to the promptings of the Spirit. Don’t try to dictate who you are in the scene or what you experience. Instead, try to let go and see what happens–do you find yourself cast as a Pharisee? Are you too distracted to listen to Jesus? Are you afraid to approach him?
One of my students, after a meditation on Jesus calling Peter to walk on water, told me that he knew Jesus was calling him out of the boat but he couldn’t hear what he was saying because he refused to listen. “Were you afraid of sinking?” I asked him. “Oh, no,” he said. “I knew I’d be safe. I was just afraid that I wouldn’t be happy, so I turned my back on him.” Very telling.
A seventh-grade boy explained after a meditation on the woman caught in adultery that he was a Pharisee. When I pushed him, he got very quiet and then said, “I think I have the same struggles that the Pharisees did.” Twelve years old.
An Ignatian meditation can definitely be done with just you and a Bible, but a guided one can be a good way to start. So I’ve got a meditation for you on the woman who anointed Jesus. Throughout the meditation (about 20 minutes), I ask a lot of questions. Ignore them if they don’t help. Definitely don’t feel the need to figure out your answer to every question. The idea here is to immerse yourself so completely in the scene that you let go of yourself and allow the Spirit to speak to you. (You’re going to need speakers.) So set aside some time, get comfortable, silence your cell phone, and see what the Lord has to say.
Anointing at Bethany Meditation
After your meditation, take some time to process. Who were you in the scene? What emotions were you feeling? What did Jesus say to you? What look did you see in his eyes? Where did you go at the end? What does all this mean?
This kind of meditation doesn’t work for everyone, but I thought I’d throw it out there for those of you who were interested. I do a lot of these (on retreats especially) and I’m trying to get into the habit of recording them for y’all. You can find others on this page.
Hey, friend-
So, do you know the source of the last image you have there? If you don’t… It was painted by a man named Keith Johnson of the Alleluia community. He was a professional artist and did incredible work. He passed away about 2 years ago, and was still quite young (maybe 60y/o).
God bless!
I didn’t know that! I first saw the picture on your fridge, which is why I thought to look for it. Does he have a website I can link to?