Episode #267--Where Wonder Leads: Finding God Through Story and Imagination--1:1 Conversation with Author Eric Clayton

<p>What if the stories we love could become invitations to prayer? </p><p>In this episode, Christina Semmens welcomes author Eric A. Clayton to discuss this question in the context of Eric’s sharing about his latest book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Where-Wonder-Leads-Finding-Contemplative/dp/0829460659/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3IO3IPCD00OQI&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.tfdqZ3qjvA0lcugogxBq0X4f4cXQ5KJfsOn6FdKyhN9lQSG-53nmK1lk5RojEQZ5lhuiDhcGQCnU7A9ygM93PeuoG4VtIYGdgEAoQbxaCTeUG-6leHODGNJGkJY-S27Muib7BMrgdOK32lUoo-W81g.G7vg8ypkyS4-V3rLOa_1w9JX3arh4KuR2jqwPh9hQnA&dib_tag=se&keywords=where+wonder+leads+book&qid=1791298060&sprefix=where+wonder+l%2Caps%2C950&sr=8-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><em>Where Wonder Leads: Finding God Through Fairy Tales, Myth, and Contemplative Prayer</em></a>. Drawing on Ignatian spirituality and his love of fantasy and science fiction, Eric explores how wonder, curiosity, and imagination help us recognize God at work in our lives. From Middle-earth and Star Wars to a minotaur and an ordinary onion, this conversation will help you connect storytelling with discernment, self-awareness, and everyday holiness. Eric also shares how to pray with the book’s 35 meditations and why even a few quiet minutes of daily prayer matter.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Key Takeaways</strong></p><p>- Wonder makes room for surprise.** Approach prayer with curiosity and openness rather than a fixed agenda about what God should reveal.</p><p>- Imagination can help us respond to God’s call.** Eric points to St. Ignatius’s story to show how imagining a different life can help us move beyond familiar patterns.</p><p>- Stories can reveal our interior lives.** Unfamiliar worlds and exaggerated characters help us notice desires, fears, resistance, and habits we might otherwise overlook.</p><p>- Bring the imagined scene into conversation with real life.** Enter the scene with your senses, pause to reflect on your everyday experience, then return to the scene with what you have discovered.</p><p>- Discern storytelling by what it awakens in you.** Eric suggests noticing whether a story deepens curiosity, empathy, and openness to God and others when distinguishing fruitful imagination from escapism.</p><p>- Holiness grows through ordinary attention and faithful prayer.** Finding God in all things includes mundane moments, uncomfortable invitations, and showing up to pray even when it feels quiet or unrewarding.</p><p>My conversation with Eric was an uplifting an