A Template for Biblical Contemplation

Mark Virkler's picture

Today is our second article in the three-part series by Shelley Maw. Enjoy!

A Frame for Biblical Contemplation From Joseph Tetlow, S. J. "Choosing Christ in the World".

The imagination turns out to be a powerful way of knowing.  Using this power that you have, you can pull together images or data that might seem to be worlds apart and make coherent sense of them. Great scientists and inventive technologists say that, after you've gotten all the information, then real knowing begins: you have to re-envision things, see them anew, differently. That demands imagination.  So you use this great God-given power in prayer. 

Here is one proven way to focus your imagination for the sake of coming to know, love, and follow Jesus better.  This is the frame of contemplation in the Ignatian contemplations on the Incarnation and on the Birth of Jesus.  It is a "method" - everyone uses it in his or her own way and gets out of it something uniquely their own. You will readily find how much and in what ways this frame of contemplation helps you.

I come into God's presence and feel His loving gaze, and then I offer myself completely to God.

  1. First, I recall for a moment some details of the particular part of sacred history that I am going to pray about.
  2. Second, I compose myself in the scene I am going to contemplate, or in the location where it takes place.
  3. Third, I ask for what I want: I want to know Jesus intimately, friend to friend.  I want to share great love with Him.  I want to go where He goes and do what He does.
  4. Then, I enter into the event.  I can do that in many different ways, and nothing constrains me to do it one way rather than another.  I notice the people themselves, keenly, lovingly.  Then I listen to what they say.  Then I watch how they are acting.  Or I simply get involved in the event, at whatever point I feel drawn into it.  I act in it, a part of the event - holding the light, fixing the hayrack, helping with the animals. Or I go along with one of the persons in the event, letting the event be a dynamic background. We talk with and listen to one another.
  5. Whichever of these ways I use, I try to keep myself involved.  For intimate knowledge reaches both into the one known and into the one knowing, and deep love of God comes only to the one who knows himself or herself loved even while loving.

It should be noted that the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius are completed with the accompaniment of a Spiritual Director.  The Spiritual Director plays an important role in helping the participant go deeper, by providing helpful feedback, encouragement, observations and questions along the way.  They also serve to highlight any concerns and provide confirmation and affirmation of the work of the Holy Spirit in the retreatant's life.  

Most people do the Spiritual Exercises through an organization.  In my case this was a para-church ministry.  Others I know have taken it through a university or college course.  These organizations provide help with finding a director for the journey who is trained in leading people through the exercises.  

The following websites may be helpful as well.  


A note from Shelley - As with our childhood memories; different personalities notice different things and even remember the same event entirely differently, because each of us holds different values, cares, priorities and learning styles.  There are details in all of these events that matter to me or don't matter to me, things that resonate with my own experiences, feelings I relate to and linger with, or pass over because I don't at all. For all of these reasons my experiences in these contemplations are unique to me. They are not meant to be an attempt to tell you what I think might have 'really' happened or even what it might have been like for you.  Should you embark on this journey with Jesus yourself, your experience, like my own sister's and my childhood memories, will be as different as you and I are different.   Also, because the point of these contemplations is for me to encounter Jesus, I made no attempt to change myself to reflect the time period Jesus lived in.  I bring my vocabulary and my cultural context with me, because it is a part of who I am.  I believe Jesus, while he did walk this earth in a specific time and place, is also timeless in his desire to meet us and to share his life with us. 

I chose to enter these stories with Jesus and me as young children, and I as one of his playmates. And then as I progressed through the stories with Jesus I remained his friend, growing up with him and following along with him as he entered ministry and the gospel stories. I imagined that if I had lived then alongside Jesus I would not have known anything more about him or about the future than what was happening right in front of me.  As it turned out, this attempt to experience the stories as they happened and without prior knowledge or context caused me to see these all too familiar stories in a completely different light.

I saw Jesus in a new way, and the heart of the Father God in a new way as well – and this has really impacted me in my life today.  When I began this series of gospel contemplations, in my heart I saw God as a hard task master – as someone with a grand important purpose – a purpose that made God pretty far removed from my personal struggles as a human being trying to serve him.  I discovered that while my mind knew that God is love, my heart more often pictured him as impatient and sometimes frustrated with me and my human struggles. But my experiences with Jesus in these stories really showed me Jesus as a compassionate and understanding friend, and a Father God who had a heart for his Son that was loving, beautiful, and completely respectful and honouring of Jesus’ challenges as a fully human being. This experience has really changed my own relationship with God.

Each of these contemplations was followed with a conversation/reflection with God and me about it.  I have not included these because they are personal, between God and I.  I think it would be more helpful for you to have your own anyway, than to read mine. 


Biblical Contemplation Three Part Series - by Shelley Maw

  1. Combining Two-way Journaling with St. Ignatius Spiritual Exercises
  2. A Template for Biblical Contemplation
  3. Two Biblical Contemplations - Meeting John the Baptist and Resurrection of Lazarus

Related Resources: 

How to Hear God's Voice!   

Related Blogs: 

How to Hear God’s Voice   
Add new comment

Add new comment

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Results

Results 71 - 80 of 488

Pages

Dream Your Way to Wisdom Complete Discounted Package

Dream Your Way to Wisdom Complete Discounted Package

2 Books | 15 CD Sessions | 10 DVD Sessions | Save 15%

Do you often wake up feeling there was a significant message in your dream, but you’re just not sure what it is? Like Daniel and Joseph, do you long to be able to help others understand their own dreams and win them to Christ as you explain His night messages to them? This training package contains two books, two sets of CDs, and one set of DVDs. Mark Virkler authors one series and his daughter, Charity Kayembe, the other.

Price: $122.22

Dreams Mastery Package USB Flash Drive

2 eBooks | 21 MP3 Sessions | 21 MP4 Digital Videos | $190+ Savings!

Do you often wake up feeling there was a significant message in your dream, but you’re just not sure what it is? Like Daniel and Joseph, do you long to be able to help others understand their own dreams and win them to Christ as you explain His night messages to them? This training package contains two ebooks, two sets of MP3s, and two sets of digital videos. Mark Virkler authors one series and his daughter, Charity Kayembe, the other.

Price: $89.00
Ethical Network Marketing

Ethical Network Marketing

by Mark and Patti Virkler | 62 Pages

Direct selling, or network marketing, has been taking an ever larger niche of the business market in recent years. Network marketing allows the individual to begin a home-based business with just a few hundred dollars, and then nurture its expansion across the nation, or even the world. The network marketing business of a skilled communicator and promoter can grow very large. This book provides you with keys for building such a successful business.

Price: $9.95
Prayers That Heal the Heart Complete Discounted Package

Prayers That Heal the Heart Complete Discounted Package - Revised & Expanded 20th Anniversary Edition

by Mark and Patti Virkler | 2 books | 15 CD Sessions | 15 DVD Sessions | Save 15%

Did you know that you don’t need to be continually plagued by negative thoughts, feelings, pictures or memories?

It is not part of the "human condition" to feel the constant nagging of doubt, insecurity, or anger. No matter what sin you are trying to overcome, what lie you think you’ll always believe, or what traumas your heart has suffered in the past, you will receive total freedom and restoration by praying these prayers in faith. 

Price: $134.95

When Everything Changes

by Steve Stewart | 242 Pages

Jesus Christ declared a Gospel that is radical in its scope and implications, and powerful enough to bring change to everything it touches. When Everything Changes enlarges our worldview, inviting and challenging us to become active, passionate participants in God's Greater Story of rescue and restoration. As we learn to recognize and move in the rhythm of God's Kingdom, we step into a place of exciting new possibilities where healing, justice and mercy move through us to transform entire communities.

Price: $19.95

Everyday Angels Complete Package

Book | CDs | DVDs | Cost if Purchased Separately: $126.99

Act Now: 

You can partner with Heaven's angelic hosts!

Discover how to encounter, engage and experience angels in everyday life.

I GUARANTEE you will learn more about the angelic realm than you ever thought possible and you WILL experience a new awareness of the spiritual world!

Price: $99.00

Unleashing Healing Power Through Spirit-Born Emotions Complete Discounted Package

Book | 14 CD/DVD Sessions | 5 devotionals | 15% Off

Experience Healing for Your Body, Soul, and Spirit through Kingdom Emotions!

In Christianity, emotions are often considered to be misleading and untrustworthy—a lingering part of our fallen nature that distract us from God’s truth. But our emotions were created by God, and though the enemy may seek to manipulate our hearts, Jesus sets us free! This practical teaching will empower you to see emotions as unique channels through which the Holy Spirit works to bring miraculous life-transformation, deliverance and healing.

Price: $130.00

Words of Life: From the Father's Heart of Love

by Graham J. Marriott | 115 Pages

This is a book of two-way journaling accompanied by pictures on nearly every page. You will be blessed and inspired as you read! 


God has spoken to us most clearly through His Son, Jesus, the Living Word. He has also given us His written Word, the Bible. However, He is a living and loving Father God who delights to speak to us, His children, today. One of the ways of hearing what He is trying to communicate with us is to keep a journal.

Price: $12.50

49 Lies Complete Discounted Package – Religious Lies Jesus Told Me to Stop Believing

2 Books | 6 DVDs | 7 CDs | Save Over 10%

This package is a $122.90 value, and includes 49 professionally recorded sessions on CD and DVD. Each session is 5-12 minutes long, which is my testimony of breaking free from each lie. I discuss what the lie is, its impact on my life, what Jesus spoke, my prayer of repentance and the new freedom I experienced which allows me to step into a new life in Christ.

This package also includes two books, 49 Lies  (100 pages of God's revelation through two-way journaling) and Release from Religion which contains 100 pages of Bible meditation where we search the Scriptures to see if they confirm that these things are so. If you have ever believed any of the following lies, then this book is for you: "Emotions are soulish;" "Money is evil or secular;" "It is wrong to seek vision;" "Don’t trust experiences;" "God gave me a mind and expects me to use it;" "Politics are evil;" God is always beating on me;" or one of 43 more such deceptive lies...

Price: $109.00

Become the World’s Greatest Parent Package

5 books | 1 LEARN Notebook | 1 CD set | 1 DVD | Save $10

You can be the parent God wants you to be: loving, encouraging, trusting and able to raise up your children in the way they should go, fulfilling their own unique destinies. Parenting was not intended to be a burden, and anyone who tells you differently has bought into a lie. You will learn to enjoy parenting as an exciting, joy-filled, divinely-ordained opportunity, not a wearying responsibility.

 

Price: $89.95

Pages