THE USE OF THE IMAGINATION IN PRAYER
Father John Walsh

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesuits, had his remarkable imagination drive the mental quality of his thought. Ignatius first grasped the importance of the imagination during his long convalescence from his battle injuries. His key insights about God came through his imagination. He understood the source of his feelings and it is the foundation of the process of Ignatian discernment. He continued to make liberal use of the imagination and integrated imaginative prayer into the approach to …

WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU PRAY?
Rabbi Michael Whitman

Prayer is vital for our three traditions and I am thinking about ways in which our prayers and methods of prayer are similar and different. One aspect of Jewish prayer that even many Jews are not conscious of is visualization. Many of us may not realize that visualization is actually an important part of traditional Jewish prayer. While many of us are familiar with the Jewish requirement that we face Jerusalem when we pray, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan (in his Mishneh Brurah) …

FORGIVING GOD
Rabbi Michael Whitman

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. …

DOUBT IS THE JOY OF BEING A BELIEVER
Father John Walsh

We often forget that there is one thing that faith and belief require and that is the element of doubt. Unfortunately many people allow their doubts to overwhelm them. Doubts are challenges to rethink faith and belief. The reality is that there can be no faith without a good dose of doubt. The lack of doubt would turn faith and belief into absolutes. Absolutes define faith and belief in such a way that divide believers from non-believers. The defense of the …

FINDING OUR WAY IN A SECULAR WORLD
Father John Walsh

We are surrounded by a secular culture in which few people publicly make mention of God. Today, God is shelved into history. In our Western culture people can live and see themselves thriving without any reference to God. The culture has voided God. The question still begs to be asked: who is the God we have abandoned? Many people express the thought that the God they believed in let them down. Prayers were not answered when people pleaded with God to help …