Were you surprised by this image? What captivated you (if anything) about it? Where does your gaze linger? Did it stir up any emotion or bodily sensation in you? What thoughts, feelings, or connections come up for you? If you answered any of these questions, you are halfway through the practice of VISIO DIVINA, which is defined as sacred seeing. Throw in conversation with the Holy Spirit and voila – you completed the process!
I love God and I love art, so you can imagine how much I LOVE the spiritual practice of VISIO DIVINA. God uses ALL THINGS including art to get our attention and to create connection. How fantastic is that? God knows the power of the visual. He created us to be visual creatures who receive knowledge of God and self through the sense of sight.
With VISIO DIVINA we’re allowing the Holy Spirit to expose our hearts through art and images. It is an opportunity to prayerfully gaze, or pray with our eyes, with the intent to let God speak through the image. We often shield ourselves from looking at the ugly bits in our soul, or the pain we’re carrying, or the desires we’ve left unspoken. Images have the power to get past our emotional defenses and elicit in us a visceral response before our logical, analytical left brain kicks in to explain away our feelings. We practice prayerful gazing, focused attention on artwork, in order to open our souls to the work of the Holy Spirit.
There are two ways to approach VISIO DIVINA. The first way is to be intentional and select the images ahead of time that you’ll use for this practice. The second way is to allow yourself to be surprised by an image.
The first is through intentionally choosing a painting, photograph, or other artwork to contemplate. You seek out the art you want to use for this prayer practice and create the space in your day to actively engage in the discipline. You intentionally include it in your daily or weekly prayer times.
Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth J M W Turner
The second approach to VISIO DIVINA is to be attentive to God’s bid for your attention through an image. For example, you may not be intentionally choosing to engage in this prayer practice, but you’re open to responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit wherever you find them. Let’s say you’re watching a movie, or strolling through an art gallery, and an image catches your eye – and you notice a subtle shift in your spirit. Take a moment to see if this is God wanting your attention. Pause, gaze, and reflect with the Holy Spirit to figure out why this particular image attracted you. You’re giving the Holy Spirit the opportunity to reveal something to you about your interior life, or about how God thinks or feels about you, or to reveal an answer or confirmation to a question or issue with which you’ve been wrestling.
Christ of Saint John of the Cross Salvador Dali
As with all spiritual disciplines and prayer practices, VISIO DIVINA requires paying attention to those interior movements in our spirit. The Christian disciplines of prayer (in all its forms) are A WAY we give permission to the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, to know us in the nooks and crannies of our lives. They are a way of allowing God to shape us to be like Christ. They are simply a means to an end: being known and transformed by God.
TIPS AND RESOURCES
How to engage in VISIO DIVINA: The Process
- Partner with the Holy Spirit in this act of contemplative gazing.
- Focus on the piece, thoroughly looking at each art element: line, form, shape, color, texture, etc. Really READ the piece.
- Look at the piece as a whole. Pay attention to where you look first /why. What was your first reaction to the piece? Positive or negative? What feelings come up for you in your body? Where does your gaze linger?
- Notice what bubbles to the surface of your soul. What emotions, images, insights, thoughts, invitations, or questions come up for you? What is the Holy Spirit drawing your attention to in the image? What is connecting with your life (experiences, desires, longings, fears, joys, etc.)?
- Reflect with the Holy Spirit on anything that has arisen in you in response to the image.
- Respond to God’s invitation for connection. Perhaps you want to respond with praise, repentance, gratitude, confession, lamentation, or thanksgiving. You may want to respond by creating your own art, journaling, dancing, singing, going for a prayerful walk with God, or sitting in silent companionship with the One who loves you unconditionally.
TIPS: Curate your own collection of images. Art galleries often offer free show cards for current exhibitions or you can collect postcards from museum gift shops. Break them out when you need fresh inspiration for your prayer life, or when you feel emotionally stuck. And now you don’t need to feel guilty about buying postcards and then doing nothing with them! (Unless that’s just my problem!)
RESOURCE: https://christian.art – I recently came upon this website created by Patrick van der Vorst, a Belgian art evaluator /auctioneer for Sotheby’s turned Catholic Father. In his website, he brought together his two loves: art and God. His mission is: “To offer a daily Gospel reading paired with a related work of art and a short reflection. Our goal is to help people grow closer to God through the magnificent pairing of art and the Christian faith.” Check out the ABOUT tab on his website to learn more about his fascinating life! Please use your own discernment and discretion when reading the reflections /comments.