Horizons of the Heart is an Ignatian Retreat based on the notes of my own 30-day retreat in 2022. See an index for the whole series.

What would it be like to encounter Jesus face to face?
To witness the moment of the annunciation of the angel Gabriel to Mary?
To see him walking on the water in the midst of a storm?
To feel the joy of Mary Magdalene at the Resurrection?

Ignatian contemplation is a method of prayer that involves using our imagination to bring scripture to life. The Word of God comes alive when we pray in such a way that we feel ourselves to be present at an event that is occurring before our very eyes, seeing what is happening, observing how people are engaging with each other, hearing what they are saying. When we pray this way we deeply enter into the person Jesus (or Mary or St Joseph or one of the apostles), so much so that a word or a gesture from them can affect us personally, touching us in a way that changes us from this point forward. “It is through our senses that we feel the ‘touch’ within the heart (Exx 335), and then the heart expands in feelings of happiness, peace and serenity, and in a renewal of spiritual strength, along with desires to ‘move forward’ (Exx 315, 329). St. Ignatius mentors retreatants in this form of prayer in his Spiritual Exercises.

Preparing for Prayer

Begin by relaxing. Take a deep breath, hold it, and then let it out with a sigh. As you do this several more times, intentionally relax the muscles in your face, your shoulders, your arms, your legs. Offer a quiet prayer of gratitude. Rest in your Father’s arms. 

As we begin our contemplative prayer today we are going to focus on the way awareness of our senses and sense perceptions can be a powerful way to quiet our whole being before God. As you pray with this guide, lead longer and longer pauses for silence, stretching the outer limits of your comfort zone just a little each time. 

Begin by noticing what you hear around you…. Then notice what you hear within you…. What two things are you grateful for? 

Next, notice what you see around you…. When you look within you what do you see…. What two things are you grateful for. 

Become aware of where you are sitting. Any physical feelings. Anything you are touching such as the arms of a chair. You might reach out and touch a flower or plant, put your hands around a cup of coffee or glass of wine. What feelings accompany these actions. Physical feelings of touch. Emotions. Connection. What two things are you grateful for. 

Observe your thoughts. Do not judge them or follow them. Just observe that you are thinking. Imagine that you see Jesus on the other side of your thoughts. Or that the Father is reaching his arms out to you, as he stands on the other side of the curtains created by your thinking. As if you could turn a key and turn off the generator, just let your thoughts stop for a moment. Notice the silence, if even only for an instant. 

Settling into Prayer

Ask Jesus that every aspect of this prayer will please him and will give glory to God.

Slowly read the passage for your meditation once. Leave some moments of silence and then read it again with the intention of entering into the story, of observing the details of what is happening. Take some time to set the stage and picture the environment in which the story takes place.

Let the story expand from the few verses that are recounted in Scripture to what that would have been like for Jesus or Mary, what they would have experienced or needed or felt, how they lived these events interiorly, how they expressed themselves. With your senses immerse yourself into the event. Is there any way you can be of help to them. If so, imagine yourself entering the story through these actions.

Look around for a particular moment that seems to be of greater importance to you, to catch your attention. Perhaps it is a look on Jesus’ face, an attitude of Mary or Joseph, the feel of the touch of the Master as he heals, the compassion you see in Jesus’ eyes as he looks out over the crowds or the joy he feels when he watches them eating after he has multiplied the loaves, the reaction of the apostles when they hear Jesus tell them to take up their cross and follow him.

Ask for the grace “to know Jesus intimately, to love him more intensely, and so to follow him more closely.”

Entering into the Mystery

This deeper contemplation of Jesus in the Gospels is an apprenticeship of our feelings and senses in which we are formed in such a way that we feel with Jesus, that our feelings becomes those of Jesus, and our spontaneous reactions of personal promotion and self-protection are gradually curbed and re-invented so that we spontaneously react as Jesus does.

For example, we know that Jesus calls us to take up the cross and follow him. We want to take up our cross and follow after him. But when faced with the cross our spontaneous feelings say, “Absolutely not!” and we end up running the other way, even though we desire to follow Jesus even to Calvary. This Gospel prayer affects us more deeply than our knowledge and what we want to do to follow Jesus. It begins to engulf us with the sentiments and spontaneous reactions of Jesus himself so that we are transformed into Jesus from the inside out. When our thoughts, our desires, and our spontaneous feelings all want the same thing, we will truly imitate Jesus at every moment of our life.

Entering into the mystery of what we contemplate, we humbly allow Jesus to be our Master, to educate our senses and feelings according to the pattern of his own life and teachings. It is a matter of becoming saturated with Jesus’ own way of being and feeling. It is learning how to resonate with everything Jesus resonates with, as we gain this felt understanding through our contemplation, and of rejecting whatever Jesus rejects.

As you begin to enter more deeply the mystery of the event you are contemplating, gently consider in turn with your senses of sight, hearing, tasting, and touching, the images, sounds, smells, flavors and physical feelings associated with what is occuring. You may notice that one of your senses may dominate the way that you imagine a moment in your prayer, so allow this sense to “lead” you into the events of your prayer — and toward other sense memories.

Allow these sense images to surface in your consciousness without trying to control or interpret them as they emerge. Simply find pleasure as these images and feelings come to you and you quietly soak in the range of memories and meaningful impressions.

Entering still deeper into the mystery of Christ, allow your heart to taste, to smell, to touch the infinite gentleness and sweetness of Jesus or Mary. Wonder at the mercy of God as you see it pouring itself out on this earth in Christ. Deeply feel how infinitely sweet it his kindness. Ignatius would have us even use our sense of touch, ‘embracing and kissing the place where these persons tread and sit’ (Exx 124–125). Allow your spirit to soak up what has been felt and known in this contemplative prayer.

As you do this your mind’s activity will fade into the background, and the mystery you are intuitively contemplating will begin to take over and engulf you, planting within your spirit an inner knowledge of the Lord.

Gradually you will begin to intuitively sense and affectively taste God. Even your bodily senses will take on the image of Christ himself as he teaches you how to feel as he feels in different situations, to gaze on others with the dispositions of his heart, to touch the presence of God radiating even in the most difficult situations of your life, to taste the sweetness of his grace moving within you.

You will at some point begin to intuitively sense the difference between the way Jesus spontaneously feels, speaks, and acts in a situation and the way you yourself feel, speak, and act in similar situations in your own life.

Rest in that awareness as Jesus helps you to resonate with what he resonates with. As you enter into his feelings and the way he uses his senses, you will gradually lose interest in your own spontaneous reactions, defenses, and self-promotions. Jesus will bring you to his way by attraction, sweetness, and beauty. He will make you feel safety, belonging, and hope.

Colloquy

Allow an image or object that encapsulates all these experiences to form in your mind. Take some time to speak with God about the meaning or significance of this object.

Ask Mary, Joseph and Jesus to show you one specific gift they wish to give you. Receive it and remain in stillness and quietly relaxed presence under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Reviewing the Graces of Prayer

When you finish praying, write down the main gifts and discoveries from this time of intimate contemplation. What is one concrete thing you can do to solidify these gifts in your life.

Image credit: juanplancarte via Cathopic