Spirituality: Ignatian Prayer

Practicalities

• Find a quiet place where distractions are minimized.
• Aim to be still (seated, standing, kneeling or prostrate.) Avoid moving around.
• If you have been busy or agitated, allow a little time to quiet and center your heart and mind. Try muscle relaxation – slow deep, and conscious breathing.
• Allow sufficient time either side of your conscious prayer so that you do not feel hurried.

Approach to Prayer

1. After going to bed, think for one or two minutes about the time to get up and the prayer that I am going to make.
2. Upon waking, let your thoughts attend to the subject of the prayer.
3. Maintain this recollection as you wash, dress, etc.
4. To establish a context for prayer, stand for a minute or so to acknowledge and welcome God’s presence with you and offer God this prayer as an act of love.
5. Ask for the grace you seek. What are your deepest desires.
6. Various postures can be helpful for prayer.
7. If you sense that you are obtaining what you desire, do not change your posture. If, however, you begin to grow uneasy, restless, or distracted, perhaps a change of posture may help.
8. Stay quietly at any point where you find what you desire, with no eagerness to move on until you are satisfied.
9. Conclude the prayer time with the Lord’s Prayer or another vocal prayer.
10. After each prayer time, take a break.
11. Spend 15 minutes or so on the review.
12. Give thanks, where appropriate, ask pardon where necessary.
13. Make a few notes – See Reviewing your Prayer.
14. Maintain the mood of the particular phrase or “week” of the Spiritual Exercises as much as possible.

Scripture Prayer

• Slowly and reflectively read the passage,
• Pause
• Read it again,
• As you absorb the reading, attend to your feelings. They may be no more than zephyr strong, positive or negative.

Imagination – Contemplative Prayer

• Imagination engages the heart more than the intellect, the right side of the brain more than the left.
• The scriptures, especially the Gospels which are well suited to this type of prayer, are more than historical biographies in the modern sense. Rather they offer a vision of faith colored by the essentials “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” The Jesus we meet is the risen Lord active in the community today. By using our imagination we are appropriating the eternal trust of the scriptures to ourselves here and now, just as we are. We are rightly asking, “What would have happened if I had been present with Jesus?”
• Use all your senses to imagine the scene described in the scripture selected. What do you see, hear, smell, feel, taste.
• Then let the story take shape: the different characters. What are they doing? Saying? Where are you? Perhaps you are identified with one of the characters, one of the disciples, one of the crowd, an onlooker, etc. Perhaps you will speak with someone, or touch someone, or simply connect with someone through a gaze.
• Do not hurry. Trust the experience and let it unfold itself. Do not try to intellectualize or judge what occurs.
• Notice your feelings, desires, etc. (positive or negative) and stay with them; let Jesus (or God or a character you are relating to in the story) know how you are feeling or ask them to reveal something more of themselves to you.
• When you sense the prayer has come to an end, do not rush to the next stage; sit with what has happened for a period, savor it especially if you have received a grace. This may motivate further dialogue with Jesus (of God, a character) or a desire simply to gaze upon Jesus and enjoy the sweetness of the moment longer in your heart (i.e., contemplation.)

These suggestions to facilitate your prayer are not a mechanical technique. They are often helpful but do not guarantee an experience of God. God cannot be manipulated. All prayer is God’s gift.

Sometimes prayer can be dry. Nothing much seems to happen. Providing we have given ourselves generously to prayer and sought to follow the guidelines, many saints have proven over time, we can leave the ‘result’ to God who will always offer us the best and often we grow more in dryness and shadows than in abundance, material or spiritual.

Distractions: These are quite common. Simply acknowledge them and return to your prayer focus. Each turning from distraction to prayer is in effect an act of love and faithfulness.

Pray as you can, not as you can’t. The goal is a relationship with God which brings conversion that bears fruit and honors God so that we make a difference in our families, communities, workplaces, nations and world. The goal is NOT to feel good or have some ecstatic experience of God.

From Joseph Sobb, S.J. of the Australian province