Patricia A. Merlo, M.P.M.

Mary delights in all our holiday preparations — the decorations and gifts, the festivities and hospitality — all that we do to celebrate the birth of her Son.

More importantly, however, is Mary’s wish that Christmas 2014 be a time when each of us will come to know and love Jesus more intimately. In fact, Mary wants to show each of us how to provide a sacred space for Jesus just as she did.

Spending time with our Savior, Incarnate in the person of a vulnerable baby, is a deeply personal experience. It can fill us with the grace to follow Mary’s lead: to allow the Living Word of God “to take flesh” within us and, through the action of the Holy Spirit, to make God present and visible to those around us.

So please accept Mary’s invitation to accompany her to Bethlehem and receive her gift of Imaginative Prayer.

Prepare Your Heart for Christmas!

Monday, December 8, 2014 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception)

      

9 -10 Registration / Villa assignments 10:15  Welcome /Explanation of Imaginative Prayer 11:00  Annunciation Private Meditation followed by Group Reflection 12:30 Lunch 1:15  Journey to Bethlehem Examples: Praying with Sight & Sound Private Meditation followed by Group Reflection 3:15  Meeting the Newborn Messiah Examples: Praying with Touch & Smell Private Meditation followed by Group Reflection 5:00  Mass  - Feast of the Immaculate Conception 6:00 Dinner 6:45  Shepherds Examples: Praying with Taste & Emotion Private Meditation followed by Group Reflection 8:30 Evening Prayer

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

  

8:00 Breakfast 8:45  Visit of the Magi Review: Praying with the Senses Examples: Going Deeper Private Meditation followed by Group Reflection 10:45  Flight to Egypt Examples: Going Deeper Still Private Meditation followed by Group Reflection 12:30  Closing Prayer 12:45  Lunch and Departure

• An Open Heart
• Comfortable clothes and shoes
• Flashlight (for Monday evening session)

 Explanation of Imaginative Prayer

Imaginative Prayer, also called “Gospel Contemplation,” is a way to pray with the Bible, rather than to simply read or study it. This form of prayer leads to a personal encounter with Jesus, the living Word of God, because it engages our thoughts and insights, our feelings, our memories, and our images, as well as our deepest desires.

This form of prayer helped me (and many saints before me!) make that long journey—those 18 inches between the head and the heart.

How does this happen?

“Moving from the head to the heart” means allowing God to touch/interact with our whole heart, not simply with the heart as a physical organ in our body, but with the whole person. (This is the biblical sense of the word “heart.”)

Our imaginative interaction with the living Jesus connects what appear to be two very different stories. In fact, the two are deeply intertwined: our personal stories and those who encountered Jesus 2,000 years ago.

The beauty and power of Imaginative Prayer is that it gives God “permission to work in us.” The Holy Spirit is freed to fashion us into a likeness of God—a reflection of the Son, as we are intended to be.

Getting started

1. Find a quiet spot where you can spend a set amount of time in prayer every day.
    
2. Keep paper and a pen nearby so that you can jot down distractions and put them “on hold” until after your prayer time.
    
3. Spend a few minutes becoming aware of the Lord’s presence.
    
4. Ask for a particular grace.

St. Ignatius (who taught this form of prayer in the 16th century) recommended that we begin by asking for a particular grace. For example, we might ask “the grace to know and love Jesus more intimately. (It is hard to imagine how God would ignore that prayer!
 

Asking for the grace or action of the Holy Spirit is like giving God permission to speak to our heart—to our mind, body, soul, and spirit—about our real lives, to shine the light of the gospels on the circumstances and relationships that are a part of our everyday lives.
 

5. Select a short gospel passage where Jesus is interacting with others.  Slowly read it twice to familiarize yourself with the details of the story.
    
6. Allow your imagination to reconstruct the scene, letting the event play out in your mind. This form of prayer avoids analyzing or studying the passage. Instead, simply focus on Jesus. What is he doing? How does he look? Is he speaking to one or many persons? Is he touching someone?
    
7. Look at the people in the scene. What they are doing? What emotional reactions do you see? Listen to the sounds you hear. What are people saying? What feelings are expressed in their words? What other sounds do you “hear”? Is there a smell associated with the scene? Perhaps, you can even “taste” or savor the mood of the scene in the manner of Psalm 34:9 which encourages us to “taste and see that the Lord is good.”
    
8. You may feel a desire to be present or interact in the scene. Ask yourself: “Who or where might I be in this story?” Are you one of the main characters? A disciple? Someone asking for something? A curious or skeptical bystander? Perhaps an animal or inanimate object in the scene?
    
9. Pay close attention to how you feel as you immerse yourself in the story (your inner sensations) and to any insights or thoughts that occur. This time of reflection is the most important part of your prayer—this is when you can speak “heart to heart” with Jesus, when the Word of God can touch and transform you.
    
10. Stay with the passage as long as some of the words resonate within you. Open your heart, asking God for the grace to be receptive to a deeper interior knowledge and love of Jesus.
     
11. Trust that the Holy Spirit will “open the eyes and ears of the heart” for anyone who approaches prayer with a sincere attitude of receptivity. In fact, God’s answer to a prayer “for the grace to know God more intimately” is already given in the Gospel of Luke: “If you, then, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?” (Lk. 11:13)
     
12. Do not be concerned if you are “not creative” or “do not have a good imagination.”

Although an active imagination helps to “bring the gospel stories to life”, the goal of this prayer is not to pretend that you are in first-century Palestine. Your desire and receptivity to God’s grace (not your imagination) uncover the hidden treasure within the gospel stories: a more intimate knowledge and love of Jesus.

People access their imaginations in different ways. Some immerse themselves in a scene via feelings and inner sensations; others use visual imagination to “see” the scene, almost like in a movie; others use auditory imagination to “hear” conversations to bring a scene to life.

FAQ, Doubts, and Objections

1. “I don’t have any imagination.”
   Think of a time when you found yourself waiting, perhaps you were standing in line at a store or waiting to see a doctor. Now imagine that there was a person next to you who has a crying baby and a toddler who demands a candy bar. How might you react if you overhear the mother scolding the child, “Stop being so bad!” What if you see her slap the child? Do you experience that “fight or flight” sensation? Perhaps, you want to say something to the mother, or you may want to move as far away from them as possible.
   
   Conclusion: If you could imagine this experience of waiting in line with strangers, you can be assured that you have an active imagination! You can bring this gift that God has given to each of us into your prayer and into a deeper awareness of how God is present and active in everyday life.
    
2. I am not “worthy” of God's love and/or forgiveness.
   No kidding! None of us can earn or merit salvation. We were made “worthy” through Jesus’ Passion, Death, and Resurrection. But God is not waiting for you to change. God is already drawing you to himself. Your very presence here (or the fact that you are reading this) is your positive RSVP to God, expressing your deepest desire to say “Yes” to God’s invitation to a relationship of mutual love.
    
3. “I am not sure if I can trust God.”
   Most of us experience this unspoken but lingering doubt, and our prayers often reflect our belief that we could do a better job of running the world. Many people are afraid that if they listen, God will ask them to be a missionary in Africa or something outside of their comfort zone. Perhaps you, too, worry what God might ask of you. But God does not ask anything that does not reflect a desire of one’s heart. God's plan is not to make you miserable. God’s dream for you is a relationship based on mutual love.
    
4. Imaginative prayer is not a spiritual self-improvement plan.
   This is not like a “self-help talk” carried on in our head where we tell ourselves what we should/should not be doing. Imaginative Prayer is a way to open our whole self—the nitty-gritty details of our everyday lives and relationships—to the power and guidance of our Creator who loves us unconditionally and tenderly.
    
5. How do I know that I am not just making this up?
   When people first begin to pray in this manner, they may wonder: “Isn’t this all in my head? Am I just making it all up?” The best answer comes in the form of another question: If God can speak to you through other people and through the circumstances of your life, if He can communicate with you through your mind, your heart, and your soul, why can He not speak to you through your imagination? And, as a sort of litmus test, look at the fruits of your contemplation. If your prayer leads to greater faith, hope, or love, you can trust that it is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If you feel called to turn away from sinful patterns in your life by a God who loves you (and not by a voice that condemns you or makes you feel unworthy of love or forgiveness), then you can trust that it is the work of the Holy Spirit within you.
   
   Gospel Contemplation is more than a mere play of the imagination. It provides a window through which we look at our lives in a new way—with greater compassion, trust, and respect for others. It is a way of digging for the hidden treasure which the gospels contain. It helps us to recognize the gifts and blessings we already have, and unveils the Lord’s resence in the here and now of the ordinary events and relationships of our lives.
   
   
   Gospel Contemplation unveils God’s unconditional love which permeates His creation. It is a way to encounter the Son of God—the One who has already redeemed us and invites us to become one with the Father, just as the Father and Son are One (John 17:20–26).
    
6. Isn’t this kind of prayer only for “holy people”?
   As a form of contemplative prayer, Imaginative Prayer is a gift given by God.

Paradoxical as it may seem, it would not even occur to a person—no, nor to an angel or a saint—to desire contemplative prayer were it not already alive within him. . . Contemplative prayer is God’s gift, wholly gratuitous. No one can earn it. And, it is the nature of this gift that the one who receives it also receives the aptitude for it.

(from The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 34)

(Page Last Updated 11/3/2014)