Visio Divina
- maevus
- Nov 9
- 2 min read
November 9, 2025
The daily ups and downs in this chaotic time can be tough to manage. Even when I hold onto my daily centering prayer and other spiritual practices, there are times that my thoughts and feelings are all over the place. It's especially hard when there seems to be so many opposites happening at once. I’m sad that there are masked men disappearing people and at the same time I cherish reading to my niece’s beautiful baby.
I catch my breath as I listen to news about famine and war, and I also catch my breath while attending a wedding of two young lovers.
Life is about holding all of life's experiences in some way.
Last April I wrote about lectio divina, the practice of listening for God’s voice in sacred texts. Lectio divina is a heart-centered practices that has helped me to discern how to hold life's variations-- the good, bad, and everything in between. Here’s the link if you’d like to return to the Lectio Divina Blog: https://www.vancouverspiritualdirection.com/single-post/lectio-divina
Visio divina is an adaptation of lectio divina. Both are encounters with the Spirit, the One who is active and intimately involved with our lives. In visio divina we gaze upon an image—listening to and heart-fully attuning ourselves to what God might be saying as we contemplate the image.
Like lectio divina, the practice of visio divina has 4 steps:
Visio or deep looking at the image.
Meditation. Looking for connections between your own life and the image.
Oratio or prayer. Listening for an invitation or challenge that arises from gazing on the image.
Contemplation. Resting and being in God’s presence.
The following visio divina practice on the video is based on the practice outlined in Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice, [1].
Christine Valters Paintner, Eyes of the Heart: Photography As a Christian Contemplative Practice, Sorin Books, Notre Dame, Indiana, 2013, 36-37.
This blog is dedicated to the memory of Maureen Fowler, a beloved spiritual mentor.
Comments