Post hope sermon thoughts ~ playing into prayer

Hope in the Dessert
by
Margaret Almon and Wayne Stratz

I am grateful to my friend Michelle for getting me to think about prayerful play.  I often have heard people say they are not artistic or creative when they are looking at my work.  I tell them to play with colors whether the colors are deep inside paint, glass, pencils, water colors, fabric, yarn, beads... It doesn't matter.  Hope is the force that leads us into new creations.  Hope can create something beautiful.  Hope can lead to the right color.  Hope helps to make it turn out better this time.  Sooner or later you find the right play objects and it becomes joyful.  No need for patience since as Michelle put it, we "are caught up in the joy of the work at hand, be it messy or even risky."  

But what about prayer, how does creativity come into place.  Hanging out with Jesuits and those trained in Ignatian spirituality has helped.  Imagine yourself into the Bible passage.  Rewrite a passage to imagine how God would be speaking to you instead of Jacob or Mary.  Take the basic principles of the Examen and play with it.  Let it evolve into a prayer that is messy and risky.  

What activity in your life takes you into the land of joy experienced by a child playing with his imagination at full tilt?  Can you imagine being that focussed during prayer because you are being playful?  I hope that we can.