Jesus, tell me Your Stories

Ignatius of Loyola lived from 1491-1556. He believed God could speak to us through our sanctified imagination just as much as through our intellect. He suggested not just reading scripture but also imagining it, because after all, it really did happen.

I love this idea because I desire to not just know about Jesus but to experience Jesus. And I know a sure way to experience Him is to do so through the gospels. My problem is that I tend to fall back on “Bible study”, focusing on a lesson to learn. So, I have been trying to take a cue from Ignatius and use my imagination to focus on Jesus in the narrative. The problem is that my imagination is not particularly vivid.

I was getting bummed that I wasn’t very good at this when I had a thought: when I want to know someone, I don’t just hang out and watch them. I listen to their stories.

Remember when you first met someone and started falling in love? I bet you could sit for hours and just listen to them tell stories about themselves, their family, friends, dreams and desires.

That’s when I had the idea of reading the gospels from the perspective of Jesus telling me about His adventures. I have decided to make this my scripture meditation method for Lent. I am meditating on one story a day in the gospel of Mark. I picked Mark’s gospel because the stories are brief and I can do this exercise using one of them in about 15-20 min.

In case you want to try it:

1) Begin by asking the Holy Spirit to come and sanctify your imagination and reveal to you more about Jesus. Remember this is not Bible study, you are not searching for the “lesson”; you want to know Jesus personally.

2) Pick your story and read it once for familiarity.

3) Read it a second time and imagine you are in the scene. What do you see, hear, observe? (this is the traditional Ignatian form of imaginative scripture meditation).

4) As you read it the last time, imagine you are with Jesus and He is sitting across from you telling you the story in past tense from His perspective. Use appropriate pronouns (insert “I” for “Jesus”). What do you notice? How does the story seem different when it is from Jesus’ perspective? What do you learn about Jesus?

I noticed in Mark 10 (the story of the rich young ruler) that the young man rejected Jesus. I had never noticed before because I was always so preoccupied with the young man walking away. But the truth is, Jesus loved him, extended an invitation to him, and it was rejected.

I would love to hear about your experience and the things you notice if you try this method of scripture meditation.