Praying with images across all ages

By Sandy Brodine

Have you heard of the prayer practice Visio Divina (divine seeing)?

This practice uses the same pattern as the ancient Benedictine practice: Lectio Divina, developed by St Benedict of Nursia in the 4th century.

Instead of contemplating just the biblical text and reflecting prayerfully on the words that rise up in the text for the reader, Visio Divina invites the prayer practitioner to view a piece of art, or visual image, and to see which elements of the painting seem to be calling the viewer into deeper ‘contemplation’ or connection with God.

Often Visio Divina is connected with a biblical reading that links to the image or images chosen.

If you’d like a step by step set of instructions, please download the Praying with Images prayer resource here, which also contains an example of an image to try this exercise with.

This sounds like a great activity to do with adults, but it wouldn’t work with children and teenagers, surely?

It is certainly true that Visio Divina is a wonderful individual or communal prayer activity to do with adults.

I know several bible study groups who regularly include an image with their study of the biblical text (one group exclusively uses indigenous Australian art from the book ‘Our Mob, Our Story’).

They find that it helps members of the group who are more visual learners to participate more fully in group discussions.

It also shifts the conversation from being one that focusses only on correct interpretation of scripture, and encourages the participant to respond with the ‘eye of the heart’.

But what about younger generations?

I have been using this practice intergenerationally for a number of years, as well as in settings with either children or teenagers.

I have always been impressed by the thoughtful and intelligent responses that they make to the image, and the biblical story beyond.

Recently I was co-leading Pause and Paint, an icon painting event for teenagers with Peter Blackwood and Kelly Woods.

At the start of the first day, I began with a Visio Divina on an image of a story that is very familiar.

Known in Latin as ‘Noli me tangere’, this is the picture of the moment when Mary Magdalene meets Jesus in the Garden and he says to her “don’t touch me”. (John 20:17-18).

The participants, aged 13-17, responded with incredible depth and faithfulness to both the image and the story.

I was particularly moved by the evidence of deep personal faith and connection to the story in the stories that they shared.

I encourage you to think about how you could include one or several images of a particular story in worship sometime soon.

Try to include images from a range of periods of history, and cultural traditions.

Allow people to respond deeply from their hearts, and engender a culture of acceptance of people’s answers, whatever they may be, without fear of correction or judgment.

I hope that this prayer practice may become as treasured in your worship-leading repertoire with people across the ages, as it is a part of mine.