- Imagine yourself alone in your own favorite, quiet place. Look around this place. What do you see? Are you outside seeing grass, trees, water, sky, buildings, roads, the horizon? Are you in your room surrounded by trophies and ribbons, old toys and stuffed animals, your favorite music chilling your worries? Where are you or what are you doing? Imagine the older person whom your family says you are most like. Ask this person to come and talk with you. Say hello and tell the person what he or she has meant to you. Ask another person to join you, someone whom you want to be like. Say hello and introduce this person to the first person; tell the two about each other. Tell your two friends what you have been doing and what decisions loom ahead for you. Lay this out for them. Then think or write out a conversation among the three of you. Before you conclude, invite Jesus to join your conversation. Ask Jesus what he sees as your purpose.
- Another way to use our imaginations to pray a vision is to use a symbol that puts our conscious selves in touch with our unconscious storehouse of memories. The following technique uses a doorway to build a bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind. Imagine you find a doorway standing mysteriously open in a huge lot or on a road. You go closer, intrigued by such an unusual thing. Undoubtedly, the door to a time warp, you think — to time past, time future. Or, a door to inner space or outer space, to anyplace. Probably locked, you think. You cannot resist; you try the knob; it turns. You push the door open slowly and step inside. What do you see? Describe the place, the people. What purpose does this place, these people hold for you? Write down or tell someone your vision. What vision do you discover for yourself?
- One of the most common religious experiences people have are feelings of wonder and at-oneness with nature, its stillness, its beauty. Nature becomes transparent with God’s presence. A skier stands alone on a moonlit hill; the endless rolling white seems to reach up and enfold her. A sailor merges with sun, wind, and water and loses all sense of self. A young man watches the sun silently sink over a lake and feels one with the quiet beauty. When have you had such experiences? They can happen anywhere — in a cornfield, at the Grand Canyon, under the stars while camping out. Write about it. Describe it to a partner.