Visio Divina
/“The thinking mind is good, but it has a professional hazard. If it is not engaged in its primary task of reason, given half a chance it fizzes and boils with obsessive thoughts and feelings.”
Visio Divina (Divine Seeing), is a contemplative way of paying attention to how our soul is stirring and how the Divine is moving within us as we prayerfully engage our sense of sight.
This practice is modeled after the more popular Lectio Divina (Divine Reading) which, in the Christian tradition, we see this approach in the third and fourth centuries with the Desert Mothers and Fathers. They spent a great deal of time developing a contemplative approach to life – a way of seeing, of putting on the mind of Christ. We can assume that Visio Divina would have been a part of their practice. Lectio Divina was made much more popular in the fifth century with Saint Benedict.
By employing our sense of sight, we are focusing ourselves to gaze at God in everything. We pay attention to what is capturing our attention and we sit with it. In some ways, the “picture is taking us”, rather than us taking a picture. Whether it be a blade of grass, or a painting, a strawberry on a plate, or the veins in our hands, absolutely everything can be a portal to seeing God.
There are four simple steps. Provided below is the Latin root and the English meaning.
VISIO (Seeing) | Take time to identify what you are going to gaze at. Notice what is stirring within you as you go for a walk, or look at a picture. What elements are “jumping out”, or “shimmering” to you. Is it the colour, the way it moves, its shape? What images, feelings, memories, ideas are coming up for you as you spend time gazing at the specific thing? Spend as much time as you’d like gazing at the item. A minimum of five minutes is a good place to start, and this will feel like a long time at first!
MEDITATIO (Meditate) | Take note of what was coming up for you as you gaze. Here, we move into a time to meditate on these images and feelings and see how they connect to your specific life. Is it reminding you of a relationship? A struggle? Something you’re thankful for or anxious about? Simply asking yourself the question: why is this particular thing jumping out at me and how does it connect to my life today?
ORATIO (Speak) | This is where we bring our conscious thoughts we’ve been meditating on into our relationship with the Divine. You can speak your prayer out loud or to yourself, but it is your conscious time of prayer, bringing your thoughts into your relationship with God.
CONTEMPLATIO (Contemplate) | Here we rest. We let our thoughts and conversation with God fall to silence, trusting we have been heard. We enjoy just being present with Presence, instead of doing anything. You are not expecting to hear anything back from God. You’ve experienced this in your human relationships… there is something sweet in being in the quiet company of someone you trust - words fall away and just being with one another is where your heart is content.
