Using Scripture in Prayer

As these examples try to show, the meaning of the metaphors in the biblical stories are determined not only by what is there, but also by what we bring to them from our lives. In prayer, we walk around in the metaphor with our own experiences. If we do not bring our own experiences into prayer with scripture, we will have flat prayers and a sterile spiritual life, because we end up treating the biblical stories as mere one-dimensional descriptions of the way things were.

When praying with the stories by means of the imagination, we move in and out of the stories by freely associating the images of the story with our own experiences. That is the way metaphors and the imagination work. We move naturally from the biblical story to our own lives. For example, to move from a consideration of the temptations of Jesus to our own temptations is not being distracted in prayer. This is how prayer works! When we look at the tempted Jesus being faithful to his Father and his mission by affirming before the glamour of evil that he belonged to God and would be led only by the word of God, we may be brought face to face with our own temptations to use power to manipulate others, to be sensational, to be unfaithful, or whatever else our temptations might be.

In our prayer, we move into the past of the story only to be more alert to the present in our lives and open to the future possibilities of ways of being a disciple today. The metaphors of the story do not lock us into line the way railings for crowd control do. But the metaphors are like fireworks that explode in surprisingly new ways to touch new levels of sensitivity in our hearts and to open us to new ways of relating to God and to others.

Guide to Praying with Scripture

Here are a few helpful steps for praying with scripture by means of the imagination. This method shows a contemplative openness to the world of the story and an awareness of the personal concerns one brings to the story.

After an opening prayer that asks the Lord to reveal himself, I read the text slowly.

I ask, "How does the Lord seem to me in this text?"

Imaginatively I construct the environment of the scene. I become aware of the feelings of the characters, the mood of the setting, etc.

I allow my personal feelings, associations, etc. to become part of the meditation. Where am I in this story?

I complete the statement, "Lord, what I hear you saying to me is ...."

I notice what I am feeling when I hear the Lord speak to me this way. What do I say to the Lord in return? I continue my dialogue with the Lord.

I close my prayer by asking for the grace I am seeking: "Lord, my greatest desire now is..."  

Praying with a biblical story this way is not treating it as a source of new information about God, but as an invitation calling for us to participate in a relationship with God. The purpose of contemplating the biblical stories this way is to come to know the living God, to become an intimate companion of the Lord Jesus. We are not out to know the text better. We are out to know the Lord better. By entering into dialogue with the Lord through the scene, characters, questions, and action of the story, we bring our personal concerns to the Lord and allow the Lord to speak to us through the action and images of the story in which we are now personally participating. Praying with the imagination this way helps us center our awareness on God's presence within us and around us.

The task of the spiritual director now is to help the directee notice what happens in this prayer and recognize what kind of reactions and responses to God she or he had.  The director helps the directee, first, by asking her or him how the Lord seemed in this story. After all, this is the way relationships begin. The purpose of this question, therefore, is to help the directee come closer to the Lord by knowing what the Lord is like for her or him. Asking, "What is the Lord like for you?" is trying to get at the contemplative substance of the prayer. Looking at the Lord spontaneously evokes affective responses that gradually lead to a new level of companionship with the Lord.

From looking at the Lord and noticing the affective responses that are evoked in this experience, the directee gradually carries on a dialogue with the Lord, which takes in the other segments of the guide questions. In the spiritual direction session, the director encourages the directee to notice interior reactions that come with listening to the Lord in prayer, and then to respond to the Lord from the heart. But the director should not interfere with the dialogue. The director simply encourages the directee to listen to the Lord and to respond, and then to let happen what happens.

The final test of this form of prayer, and any other form for that matter, is whether it leads us to live according to the pattern of Jesus' life. We have Paul's list of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) to help us discern this. As these gifts show, we must rely on our living relationship with others to measure whether we have truly experienced the God of love.