Take yourself back into the Bible narratives through contemplative reimagining of the sights, sounds and other senses. As an exercise in prayer, look and listen to what God might say to you as you experience these events. This is a book of guided prayer meditations based on Scripture in the Ignatian tradition. Each meditation is followed by some questions for personal and group reflection.
From the introduction:
“Perhaps you are familiar with Bible studies that involve reading the Bible verse by verse then thinking about what those verses mean for our lives today. This book is different. It is for groups who want to explore the Bible using their imaginations – an approach with a long and respected history in the Christian church. Each meditation invites people to approach the gospel stories about Jesus as a way of entering a prayer dialogue with God. In this way God reaches out to us and `reads’ us through the Bible stories.”
Encounters with Jesus was first published in 1992 by the Joint Board of Christian Education and contains 18 meditations written by experienced Christian educators from the Uniting Church, Anglican and Catholic traditions. I edited the book, wrote two of the meditations, as well as some introductory material on how to lead, including centring exercises.
Since the book went out of print, many people have asked me about the resource. The book has now been made available electronically by the Uniting Church’s national Assembly for non-commercial distribution. You can download it here and it will also be available on the Assembly’s document resource library RECOLLECT.
DOWNLOAD Encounters with Jesus (2.7mb PDF)
I studied three semester units in spiritual formation and spiritual direction as part of my Masters Degree in Religious Education at Duke University in the late 1980s. John Westerhoff was my teacher and academic supervisor. This was my introduction to the Ignatian tradition, and hence the springboard for this publication.
I’m grateful for the creative contribution of friends and colleagues, many of whom I still connect with today. I hope that you find this to be a useful resource.