What do you visualize when you think of God?

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mVitus

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So what do you visualize when thinking of God? Sometimes I’ll look at the sky, but that’s not always practical, hence I wonder what you visualize as I’ve got Jesus on the cross for Jesus and a dove for the Holy Spirit.
 
I either think of Him as the sunlight coming through clouds and you don’t see Him, just hear His voice, Cecil B. DeMille style, or else I think of Him as he looked in Michelangelo’s painting where he’s reaching to Adam.

I picture Jesus as looking something like the traditional image/ Shroud of Turin and the Holy Spirit as a dove, sometimes bringing flames. I saw a painting of Pentecost on a calendar handed out by a bank when I was little (this was in the day when a bank would happily sponsor a Catholic calendar for the local church) and it had the Apostles at Pentecost each with a flame on top of their heads to signify that the Holy Spirit came to them. I was about 4 or 5 and the picture of men with flames on their heads scared me because I thought their hair was on fire. My mother tried to explain the picture to me but it still made a very big impression on my little mind so I have never forgotten it.
 
Because of our parish “yearbook” (I think that’s what it was) back when I was a kid, I thought God was an old guy in a white robe with a short, white, neatly shaved beard, short white hair, and glasses… With lightning at His fingertips. That’s what was on the cover.

I still think that way. Can’t help it.
 
This question was asked one day in a parish where I belonged. We were downstairs in the parish hall during a community feed. One of the parishioners answered, “I see God as balding with a fringe of white hair around his head.” Immediately Father came between the tables on his way to say the next Mass, setting up laughter for meeting the description.
 
I don’t visualize anything when I pray. I’ve always prayed that way.
 
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