June 16 – Visio Divina: Seeing the Sacred

Gregg’s Reflection

Each morning, I take my seat before this altar—a table of light, color, and memory beneath a wide window to the mountains. The rising sun pours through the glass, striking crystal crosses, orbs, and prisms, scattering fragments of  rainbow across the room. Stones, icons, and handmade art—each with a story—rest quietly until the day’s first light animates them. Beyond the glass, the horizon stretches in soft blue layers, inviting my gaze to rest in stillness. In this space, beauty becomes prayer, and the interplay of light and form draws me into the Presence that holds all things.

Visio Divina — “divine seeing” — works much like Lectio Divina, but the “text” is an image rather than words. It might be a painting, an icon, a photograph, or even something in nature. The practice is about slowing down and allowing the Spirit to speak through what we see. Sometimes the image comforts; other times it challenges or surprises. But always, if we are patient, it draws us toward the One who is beyond the image.

Northern Lights at our cabin, a moment of awe and wonder 

For me, Visio Divina has often revealed things I couldn’t see in myself — a tenderness I needed to embrace, a shadow I needed to face. It’s a way of letting God’s light refract through beauty into our hearts.

Scripture

The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all peoples see his glory.

Psalm 97:6

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush.

Exodus 3:4

Ancient Quotes

Beauty is the splendor of truth.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q.39, Art.8

Modern Quotes

I believe good art has the power to evoke an epiphany… the wisdom of the unconscious is being ferried across to the conscious mind.

Richard Rohr, CAC Morning Meditation, 4/15/24

When our intention is to seek God’s presence, one effective mode of prayer is gazing at an object as a window to the unseen God.

Teresa A. Blythe, 50 Ways to Pray, p. 122

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

Pablo Picasso, quoted in Arts & Minds by Helen Charman, p. 73

Art is a way of seeing. It’s not about the object we look at, but about how we see it — the attention, the presence, the openness we bring.

Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, p. 47

The goal is not to create something, but to be in a state of awareness where we can notice what is already there.

Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, p. 18

Journaling Prompts

• What image — in art, photography, or nature — has recently captured your attention?
  
  
• What emotions or memories does that image stir in you?
  
  
• How might God be speaking to you through what you see?
  
  
• What would it look like to set aside time this week for Visio Divina?

👉 Go deeper into this week’s theme:
Read the full Week 24 Reflection: Lectio/Audio/Visio/Eco Divina