SCRIPTURE/PRAYER

Praying the Scriptures: The Ignatian Method

Praying the Scriptures

The Ignatian method of praying the Scriptures is very different from that of lectio divina. The lectio divina method, which arises out of the ancient monastic movement, aims to quiet the interior so as to allow God into ourselves. The call of Ignatian meditation, which arises out of the experience of St. Ignatius of Loyola, aims to quite us externally so we can use our imagination to reflect on the Scriptures.

The Ignatian Method

To help understand the Ignatian method at a glance, I have found this equation very helpful:

IVE=R

imagination vividly experienced = reality

The theory is this: If we can bring ourselves mind and heart to experience the Scriptures - in our imaginations to see the sights, to smell the smells, to hear the words, to allow the words and actions to have an impact on our lives, to participate in the events of the text, and to come to insight within this application of the imagination to the text - then we have experienced the reality of the Scriptures. If we have vividly experienced a Scripture event in our imagination, then we have shared in the Scriptural event itself. And this experience of the Scriptures in the imagination draws us to learn something about God's work in our lives through our affective response to this imagined reality.

A Word About Affectivity

The theory underneath this focus on affectivity in our prayer is this. God lives in the deepest recesses of our being. Our affectivity, our spontaneous and deep-felt feelings, are what is closest to those deepest recesses. Our deep feelings, then, are what distinguish us from others. They are most genuinely what is ourselves. For instance, any two of us may have the same opinion: the U.S. ought to get out of Iraq as soon as possible. One of us may feel passionately, the other may feel more ambivalently. The opinion is the same, but the feelings reveal our uniqueness and suggest different life experience underneath our understanding. Our shared opinion reveals our commonality. Our different feelings reveal our uniqueness.

Our feelings, therefore, reveal God's work in us, what is deepmost in us. Our feeling consoled by one Scriptural message, or our feeling disconsolate about another, reveals where God is in our lives and how God works.

But by feelings I am not referring merely to our emotions. Rather, there is a deep level way within that is the ground of our well-being at any given moment. As he faced his approaching arrest and passion in the garden, Jesus struggled in anguish, yet on the deep level way within he felt God's presence and abiding love, he felt a profound sense of well-being. Why? Because he trusted in God and knew absolutely that God was with him even as he faced passion and death. Thus he was able to face soldiers, high priest, Pilate, Herod, fleeing disciples and the crowds in a way that was self-possessed and clear that God's will was being done - even in the torture of it. Jesus went to crucifixion fundamentally consoled, not desolate.

Therefore it is extremely important that, in our prayer, we not presume that our feelings at the moment govern our lives during the period of weeks and months within which we abide. In prayer we are attempting to open to the deeplevel way within, where God abides in us.

Consequently, for Ignatian prayer, the aspect of our praying we need to watch is our affectivity. Does praying this text make me happy? Bring me to tears? What does that reveal to me? Ignatius' hope is that our praying the Scriptures will teach us the dispositions and feelings that draw us toward God and the dispositions and feeling that draw us away from God. Within and after the praying, therefore, the Ignatian method asks that we monitor affectivity in order to reflect on the meaning of God's presence in our lives, and so come to mold and shape our feelings in such a way that we will be increasingly opened to God.

Ignatian Prayer

The experience of Ignatian prayer seems highly structured. Yet, in the experience it is free and powerfully freeing because of the wonder of the application of the imagination.

Before Praying:

1. Carefully prepare:

a. Select the text, preferably a story or parable.

b. Select three points, or idea clusters, for meditation. The purpose of the selection is to keep you moving through the text in your praying.

2. Imagine the scene of the Scripture text.

a. Imagine it in very particular detail: what do you see? what do you hear? what do you smell? what do you touch? what do you taste?

b. Place yourself within the text. Are you Jesus? Are you a disciple? Are you a Pharisee? Are you outside the action watching? Let God give you your place in the picture.

3. Ask God for what you desire in the praying, i.e., how you desire to be moved by the text.

Within the Praying:

4. Begin the prayer time with the following prayer, and feel free to refer back to this prayer if you become distracted:
   
   O God, give me grace, that all my intentions, actions, and operations may be solely for the praise, reverence, and service of your Divine Majesty.

5. Pray the points of the text.
   Stay with a given point as long as it engages or moves you. If you start feeling dry, move forward. If you finish the whole text in two minutes, start over and apply your imagination to more details within the text, e.g., How does Jesus look? Who is he relating with most? How are people around Jesus reacting?

6. End with a direct address to the three persons of the Trinity and Mary according to the light (the insight or movement) you have received from the text.

7. Close with an Our Father.

After Praying:

8. Spend some time after the praying to reflect:

• What was the experience like for you affectively?
• What does your affective movement reveal to you?
• What insights came to you as you prayed?

Just a Note

Don't be afraid of the silence or the feelings this form of praying might reveal. Stay in what comes. Let it teach you. Let God teach you in it because God is with you in it.

Remember, the Scriptures are God's half of the dialogue with us. Use the praying time to give yourself over to your half of the dialogue: the words of the ext, and the silence.