Praying with the Imagination

Praying with the Imagination

“Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus.  ‘I look at him and he looks at me.’” (The Catechism)

“The heart is commonly reached, not through the reason, but through the imagination.” (Blessed John Henry Newman)



“Imagine yourself in conversation with Jesus or some other person in the gospel story and interact with that person as you would in your day-to-day life. Express your thoughts and your feelings. Be with the other in silence. Look at each other. Say crazy things and deep things to each other. Don’t monitor what you are saying and trust whatever comes. Be as spontaneous as possible; be as real as possible. Be your true self. You don’t have to impress the person(s) you are conversing with; they don't have to impress you.”
(John Veltri)


Imaginative contemplation has a special place in our English spiritual heritage. In the time of persecution after the Reformation, Catholic families in England would often shelter priests in their houses, especially the Jesuits who came as clandestine missionaries for the faith. In return the priest would act as spiritual director to the household.

One such was St Robert Southwell, the Jesuit priest and poet, who was sheltered by several Catholic families but was eventually captured, tortured and martyred at Tyburn in 1595.Southwell was concerned to help Catholics, deprived of the beauty of their church buildings and liturgy, to maintain a rich prayer life. As a Jesuit he was able to draw on the practice of Ignatian imaginative contemplation. In his words:

“I must in every room of the house where I dwell imagine in some decent place thereof a throne or chair of estate and dedicate the same & the whole room to some saint, that whensoever I enter into it, I enter as it were into a chapel or church that is devoted to such a saint and therefore in mind do that reverence that is due to them.”

We’re also told that he suggested:

“Certain spots in the garden or orchard could also be linked to particular saints, so that walks could become, ‘as it were, short pilgrimages’. The technique could be deployed throughout the meditative exercises, a visit to the dining chamber, for example, prompting thoughts of the last supper.”

Try it! 

We can use our imagination to speak to the saints, or to Jesus, wherever we are.


“Imagine you see Jesus sitting close to you. In doing this you are putting your imagination at the service of your faith: Jesus isn't here in the way you are imagining him, but he certainly is here and your imagination helps to make you aware of this.

Now speak to Jesus... If no one is around, speak out in a soft voice. Listen to what Jesus says to you in reply… or what you imagine him to say…

If you do not know exactly what to say to Jesus, narrate to him all the events of the past day and give him your comment on each of them. That is the difference between thinking and praying. When we think we generally talk to ourselves. When we pray we talk to God.

People sometimes ask me how they can meet the Risen Lord in their lives. I know of no better way to suggest to them than this one.” (Anthony de Mello)