Down­load a ZIP file with high-res­o­lu­tion art­work and slide graphics.

Resources from the webinar:

    Some reminders from Vivianne David:

    • We show up expec­tant, but with no agen­da. We antic­i­pate God show­ing up, and show­ing us what­ev­er it is he’d like to do in and through us in our time of prayer.

    • Stay with the image, regard­less of whether or not you ​“feel” some­thing hap­pen­ing right away. There is some­thing beau­ti­ful about faith­ful­ly wait­ing with that space, hav­ing ded­i­cat­ed it to God as a time of prayer.

    • Notice what draws your atten­tion, what invites you into the image— let that become a space for con­ver­sa­tion with Christ.

    • Notice what sort of emo­tions arise as you stay with the image. How does it awak­en desire? Let these emo­tions lead you back to con­tin­ued dia­logue with God.

    • Word­less prayer is a ten­der space that engages our sens­es in new ways. Be gen­er­ous with your­self if you find your­self in a new space that you can’t describe. 

    • You might con­sid­er debrief­ing your Visio Div­ina prayer time with a spir­i­tu­al direc­tor or close spir­i­tu­al companion.

    More resources to explore:

    “Intro­duc­tion to Pray­ing With Art” by Shaleen Camery-Hog­gatt, shared by our friends at Con­ver­sa­tio. This arti­cle describes how art can be a means of grace that helps us lis­ten, respond, and be trans­formed by God. At the end of the arti­cle there are some sim­ple and help­ful direc­tions for pray­ing with sacred art giv­en under the head­ing Visio Div­ina: A Brief Approach.

    Visu­al Com­men­tary on Scrip­ture: This mas­sive online col­lec­tion of art has been curat­ed as a visu­al tool for encoun­ter­ing the Bible. In the pat­tern of the ancient com­men­tary tra­di­tion (three voic­es ana­lyz­ing and inter­pret­ing a text), VCS brings togeth­er three works of art to help the view­er con­sid­er the mean­ing and appli­ca­tion of a Bible pas­sage. The dig­i­tal exhibits also include writ­ten com­men­tary from the­olo­gians and art his­to­ri­ans. While the VCS employs art more as a tool for inter­pre­ta­tion than devo­tion, many of the images would also work well for Visio Divina.

    Sacred Art Pil­grim­age: A web­site devel­oped by art lover and jour­nal­ist John Kohan shares visu­al art from around the world to help view­ers ​“see with the eyes of the heart.” Kohan delves into the icon art from Lviv, Ukraine (includ­ing the image we shared) in this arti­cle.