Practices for Contemplative Living: Lectio Divina/Visio Divina...Praying with art & other images and text...

Thomas Tittmann
Nov 21, 2025
7 min read

Updated: Dec 13, 2025

My expectation is that what follows will help us appreciate other ways to experience the reality that "G-d as we understand G-d" (AA's Step 3) is all around us. This broader awareness can be helped as we receive and learn new ways to see...new ways for Lover and Beloved to be in relationship with one another.

I begin by introducing some of the people and organizations that have and are still helping me discover and practice expanding way of experiencing the spiritual realms.

Fr. Adam Bucko and the Center for Spiritual Imagination

First:

Lectio Divina: Online Mondays Dec. 1, 8, 15

I'm signed up for this online offering from the Center for Spiritual Imagination...

Join me...Learn how to practice seeing with our inner eyes...

Each week, our New Monastic Community will lead a teaching on Lectio Divina, followed by an interactive practice.

Week 1: The history of Lectio Divina

Week 2: Variations on Lectio: Visio Divina, Musica Divina, Somnium Divina

Week 3: How to start a personal practice

Click here for information and to register.

[from the "About" page on his site - refer to the page for additional links]

Father Adam Bucko has been a committed voice in the movement for the renewal of Christian Contemplative Spirituality and the growing New Monastic movement. He has taught engaged contemplative spirituality in Europe and the United States, and has authored Let Your Heartbreak be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation and co-authored Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation, and The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living.

Committed to an integration of contemplation and just practice, he co-founded an award-winning non-profit, the Reciprocity Foundation, where he spent 15 years working with homeless youth living on the streets of New York City, providing spiritual care, developing programs to end youth homelessness, and articulating a vision for spiritual mentoring in a post-religious world. He currently serves as a director of The Center for Spiritual Imagination at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, New York, and is a member of “The Community of the Incarnation,” a ‘new monastic’ community dedicated to democratizing the gifts of monastic spirituality and teaching contemplative spirituality, in the context of hearing and responding to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth.

Adam lives in New York with his wife, Kaira Jewel Lingo, a Buddhist teacher and former nun in the community of Thich Nhat Hanh. Together they lead The Buddhist-Christian Community for Meditation and Action.

Fr. Richard Rohr and the Center for Action and Contemplation

[from the CAC faculty page - refer to the page for links]

Franciscan friar and ecumenical teacher, Father Richard Rohr bears witness to the deep wisdom of Christian mysticism and traditions of action and contemplation. Founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation, Father Richard teaches how God’s grace guides us to our birthright as beings made of Divine Love. He is the author of numerous books, including The Universal Christ, The Wisdom Pattern, Just This, and Falling Upward.

A Personal Note: Since the early 1970's Eileen and I have benefited from Richard's approach to the spiritual journey. Our son John's journey has also been aided.

Also, on the second Saturday of each month, I meet with other men whose lives have been helped by Fr. Richard and the Center. Call me if you're interested or check out this 2024 post.

Mirabai Starr endorses and is endorsed by both of the above organizations. She serves as a guest faculty member for The Living School of the Center for Action and Contemplation and teaches at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur.

[from her website] Award-winning author, contemporary translator of sacred literature, international speaker, and world-renowned teacher of contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. Her book, WILD MERCY: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, continues to sell widely and has been translated into multiple languages.

Fr. Thomas Keating and Contemplative Outreach

[Following are highlights from his bio on the Contemplative Outreach website]

Fr. Thomas Keating was a founding member and the spiritual guide of Contemplative Outreach. Fr. Keating was one of the principal architects and teachers of the Christian contemplative prayer movement and, in many ways, Contemplative Outreach is a manifestation of his longtime desire to contribute to the recovery of the contemplative dimension of Christianity.

Fr. Keating’s interest in contemplative prayer began during his freshman year at Yale University in 1940 when he became aware of the Church’s history and of the writings of Christian mystics. Prompted by these studies and time spent in prayer and meditation, he experienced a profound realization that, on a spiritual level, the Scriptures call people to a personal relationship with God.

During Fr. Keating’s term as abbot at St. Joseph’s and in response to the reforms of Vatican II, he invited teachers from the East to the monastery. As a result of this exposure to Eastern spiritual traditions, Fr. Keating and several of the monks at St. Joseph’s were led to develop the modern form of Christian contemplative prayer called Centering Prayer.

Fr. Keating was an internationally renowned theologian and an accomplished author. He traveled the world to speak with laypeople and communities about contemplative Christian practices and the psychology of the spiritual journey, which is the subject of his Spiritual Journey video and DVD series. Since the reforms of Vatican II, Fr. Keating was a core participant in and supporter of interreligious dialogue. He helped found the Snowmass Interreligious Conference, which had its first meeting in the fall of 1983 and continued meeting annually. Fr. Keating also was a past president of the Temple of Understanding and of the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue.

Perhaps the biggest testament to Fr. Keating’s dedication to reviving Christian contemplative practices was his choice to live a busy, public life instead of the quiet, monastic life for which he entered the monastery. Fr. Keating’s life was lived in the service of sharing the gifts God gave him with others.

---->>>Eileen and I were very fortunate to have been in the company of both Fr. Richard and Fr. Thomas when they were in Connecticut or locally at the Tilles Center.

Father-Son Pilgrimage

Seeing the hot air balloons in the "On Top of the World" Imagine Dragons video (see next link) recalled our father-son pilgrimage in the Summer of 2016 that included a visit to Richard Rohr's Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque for their annual Conspire Conference. Richard shown signing a book for John:

More here in a 2024 post celebrating his birthday:

John Tittmann: On the Road of Healing: China & Tibet

Endorsements for the Center for Spiritual Imagination

More endorsements here

“Adam blows open the gates of my heart, as he has done since I first met him when he was a young contemplative serving homeless youth on the streets of New York City. The deeper he walks into the holy and broken landscape of the human condition, the more graciously service melds with prayer.”—Mirabai Starr, author, God of Love and Wild Mercy

“I am deeply inspired by these words from Adam Bucko, a contemplative priest, mentor, and friend to the poor. He is a trustworthy guide to discovering a spiritual life for our century and living in service of compassion and justice.”—Richard Rohr, author, Universal Christ

Visio Divina

Do you want to go deeper in prayer?

Do you appreciate art but aren’t sure how it can benefit your spiritual life? If so, you should consider trying visio divina! Similar to lectio divina, the practice of praying with Scripture, visio divina uses sacred art and images to facilitate a meditative and powerful prayer experience. [Source: next link]

What Is Visio Divina?

Translated from Latin, visio divina means “divine seeing.” It’s the practice of praying with a sacred image or work of art. By incorporating art into prayer, visio divina invites us to bring our sense of sight as well as our imagination into our relationship with God. Visio divina thus takes on an incarnational nature, affirming the goodness of how we visually encounter the world and inviting us to a similar encounter in the spiritual life. [Source: next link]

Here's one from this article that "bears" out the messages on my "Grateful Dad" tee shirts. FYI - Bears are a sacred animal in the Grateful Dead's iconography.

During our times of divine seeing, as we contemplate each image, we allow our hearts to open to the inspiration of our inner guides...Allow questions to form...and more questions and insights to flow from the initial questions...

What Is Visio Divina and How Do I Pray with It? (2024) - Catholic TV

On the most recent Center for Spiritual Imagination's weekly Monday meditation gathering (6:30-7:00 on Zoom), our facilitator offered the following non-traditional icon of the Holy Family for us to gaze on...

-->>Let me know if you're interested and I'll send you the Zoom link.

Finding G-d in the Mirror

This was posted on Facebook over a video of Snatum Kaur singing "Ong Namo." When I was learning Kundalini yoga, Elena, our teacher, frequently used this mantra...

Note: Just like in secular music, the lyrics can be modified...depending on the available energy and needs of the performer and audience...