Have you ever prayed for someone? No, I don't mean, "Dear God, please be with Susie..." What I mean is praying instead of that person or as if you are that person? I did for the first time today.
I prayed for a depressed person as if I were that person. I imagined myself as that person and then prayed from that perspective.
Yes, it was kind of weird, but at the same time, it pushed my imagination beyond any previous point with this close friend of mine. Somehow I understood this person better by, in my imagination, becoming that person for a brief period of time.
Has anyone ever done this?
Is this sane?
What do you make of this kind of prayer?
7 comments:
Yes, sort of. When my very best friend in all the world was diagnosed with breast cancer, I prayed for her, as if her and with her. It was a strange feeling, yet powerful in itself.
I see not much difference than that of the men taking the sick man to Jesus through the roof. It was because of their belief, not the person's, that he was healed.
So from that story alone, I see potential in praying as if I were the person. But I would think the closer you are to the person, the easier it is to pray in this manner.
Not in this way, but for a while I prayed through the rosary through the eyes of St. Joseph. Usually, when meditating on the mysteries of the rosary (the scenes from the life of Jesus and Mary) one just thinkgs / imagines the scene - I tried it from the vantage point of Jesus' father / Mary's husband. I hadn't thought about it for a while - your post jogged my memory.
It gave me some insight into what it must have been like for him, and I remember clearly thinking at the time (in college) 1) I should write a book about this and 2) this would be a great way to pray once I get married and have children.
I've got one wife and one son now . . . maybe I'll pray like that again one day.
Blessings & Peace,
Hugo
I am not sure that I have prayed like that, I have felt the burdens of others so heavily that I prayed continually for them, but probably not as if I WAS them.
I think it is not only sane, I would covet that kind of prayer in my behalf when I am walking in the valley.
I haven't prayed like that, but it sounds like an awesome way to pray! I think prayer is mostly about us and our attitudes, since God doesn't NEED us to ask him to help us or others, he already knows what we need. So this kind of prayer is helpful to you, to help you love and appreciate and even find ways for God to work through you to help that person. I'll have to try it sometime soon, I have some serious prayin' to do!
It sounds like Lectio Divina to me - which is less about petition and more about meditation. Evangelicals are typically more focused on petitioning God for what they want than contemplation of mysteries for purposes of personal formation.
It would be an interesting twist on the prayer of Jabez, wouldn't it?
"Lord, increase my neighbor's borders ...."
Might be a step that would get me closer to Matthew 5:44, too: "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you."
It goes along with our being the temple - or sanctuary - of Christ.
Where we go, we bring Christ, the High Priest. We facilitate the convergence of the spiritually sick with the One who offers healing and restoration.
There have been times where I have "laid hands" on a friend in our prayer and literally experienced the emotional or even physical pain they were going through -- a headache, or the heartache.
I was raised in a tradition very suspect of this kind of "mysticism." But experience convinces me that it is more normal to Christianity as it was intended than the hollow replica we often find in church these days.
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