I want to share a fun way to pray and interact with scripture. The fancy schmancy term for this style of prayer is "The Ignatian Method," named after St. Ignatius of Loyola, the great teacher of this method. (You've just learned your new fact for the day...unless you already knew that). :o)
Those employing the Ignatian method of prayer strive to participate in the actual event by projecting themselves back into the historical happening to try to become a part of the scene in order to draw some practical fruit for their life.** You try to see the sights, smell the smells, hear the sounds of a story.
Below is the story of the bleeding woman in the gospel of Mark. After the scripture is my own prayerful encounter with the woman, as well as how I see it affecting my life today. I chose to enter the scene after the woman interacted with Jesus, however, you could also place yourself with her as the interaction is taking place. There are many different angles you could come from...let the Spirit lead you in prayer.
This is something you could easily try with any of Jesus' interactions with people in the gospels. I LOVE seeing how He interacts with people. Incredible!
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And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:25-34)
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I walked up to the woman and touched her on the shoulder. She turned. There was a look on her face that was at the same time both amazement and peace. The fear she had previously experienced had quickly faded.
"What happened?" I inquired.
"He said, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you,'" she replied.
Slowly and deliberately she repeated, "Daughter, your faith has healed you....Go in peace....Be freed from your suffering."
Each time she repeated the words of Jesus, her smile grew wider. Soon she was laughing uncontrollably. She raised her hands to heaven, praising God, in utter freedom. She grabbed my hands and we began to dance right there in the road. There was no room for being self-conscious. Her joy was contagious and I began to laugh as well, praising God along with this woman who had just begun a new chapter of peace after so much suffering.
In my own life - I could really use a good dose of the joy that that woman experienced. It was a visceral, infectious joy. I smile even now as I picture her. Father, I want to rejoice at the work of Your hand in my life, just like this woman. May it be so.
**Definition found in "Prayer and Temperment" by Chester P. Michael & Marie C. Norrissey
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