Shifting to imaginative prayer

Your imagination is a powerful gift, but what happens when you pair it with prayer? That’s where imaginative prayer comes to life. The Ignatius prayer method encourages believers to read the Gospels and enter them, using all five senses to imagine the scene: the sights, sounds, smells, textures and emotions. You become not just an observer, but a participant. I am a huge fan of the St. Ignatius method of prayer, but the other day I did things a little differently.

The other day, I prayed live with my favorite rosary group, Many Hail Mary’s at a Time. During our time together, the ladies shared two beautiful ways to practice imaginative prayer. The first was to spend three minutes in silence, simply allowing God to love you. The second was to pray for three minutes with Mary, asking her to reveal something about her son, Jesus, that you’ve never known before. Both practices have in common the sacred gift of silence in prayer.
Posing those questions allows the imagination to become a visualization tool and a vessel for spiritual conversation, a sacred space where the Holy Spirit can move freely. 

I chose to sit with the second question. I stepped outside, found a quiet spot, and silently prayed for three minutes. With a sincere heart, I asked Mary, “Please reveal something to me that I do not know about your son.”

As I rested in stillness, surrounded by nature's beauty, my eyes were drawn upward to the birds in the sky. In that peaceful moment, I heard a gentle whisper in my heart: He loves the sound of birds. 

I have always focused on Jesus’s ministry, teachings, miracles and sacrifice in prayer. Rarely, if ever, have I paused to ponder what he might have loved during his time on earth. I must constantly remind myself that he broke into this world as a human man, fully divine but also fully human, feeling, sensing and experiencing the fullness of earthly life, including its quiet joys. 

It reminds me of the verse from John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” 
Sometimes, a small shift in how we pray can be amazingly fruitful. Moving from rote prayer to imaginative prayer can awaken something new in our hearts. Ask a question, sit in silence, use your imagination, and let your heart wander with him. You never know what he or his mother might reveal when you make room for wonder.