It can be helpful to picture Jesus next to us during prayer

When we are at home trying to pray, it can often be difficult to feel God's presence. That is when we can use our imagination to aid us in prayer.

Have you ever had a difficult time praying at home? Many of us may try to put ourselves in a spirit of prayer, but inevitably feel empty or uninspired.

One helpful tip that comes from a variety of saints is the practice of using our imagination during prayer.

Typically we might think of this during Lectio Divina, but we can also engage our imagination by simply picturing Jesus at our side.

Jesus sitting next to us

St. Francis de Sales suggests this practice in his Introduction to the Devout Life, encouraging the reader to think of Jesus in the same room as us:

[E]xercise your ordinary imagination, picturing the Savior to yourself in His Sacred Humanity as if He were beside you just as we are wont to think of our friends, and fancy that wesee or hear them at our side.

This type of prayer can be very powerful and God can use it as a way of speaking to us.

We may picture Jesus sitting on the same couch as us and spiritually feel the warmth of his presence.

Sometimes we may even feel Jesus embracing us in his arms, as God desires to show his closeness to us.

St. Francis de Sales also adds that being in the presence of the Eucharist is an even more powerful experience, as Jesus is truly there in front of us:

But when the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar is there, then this Presence is no longer imaginary, but most real; and the sacred species are but as a veil from behind which the Present Savior beholds and considers us, although we cannot see Him as He is.

If you have never used your imagination during prayer, try it the next time you sit down to pray.