Welcome - 

 - Visio Divina - 

Godly Gazing 

Spiritual Seeing

Visio Divina is an artistic partner to Lectio Divina; both meant to help us Listen to God's communication with us through silence, solitude, stillness, and meditation.

Neither Visio or Lectio Divina are meant to supplant using Holy Scripture to learn about God, know his will for our lives, or understand His character, they are all partners.

Lectio Divina was developed in the 4th Century to aid in meditation upon the Scriptures.

Visio Divina is patterned after Lectio Divina, but the source of what to meditate with, or on, is an object or an image, while keeping any possible scripture reference in mind.

I thought that I had coined the phrase "Visio Divina", and developed the concept.  I had many other people thinking the same with me.  But it seems that a few other people were doing so simultaneously.  Funny how that works.

The Arts have richly endured and enlightened the Chrisian faith for millenia. Even while John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli tried to militantly eradicate all art from the Protestant Church, it was Martin Luther who said he wished he could paint the entire Sanctuary with images to aid the people in their understanding.   I call it the 500 Year War of Iconoclastic Terrorism against the Arts.

     When I was making Crosses during Easter Week, in about 1994, my Presbyterian Missionary and Pastor's Wife Grandmother came to see me and was rather horrified to see me making these Images.  With more than a bit of gritted teeth indignation, she spurted out:  "Well You Know, Dr. Strong Never Allowed ANY Cross in HIS Church!".  Dr. Strong was a well loved Presbyterian Pastor here in Los Angeles.  And so here was my own Grandmother throwing in my face the same 500 years war of Iconoclastic Terrorism against my Art. She Loved me Yes, but she surely didn't like me making Art that was even remotely Christian/symbolical in theme.

It's long been time to move out of this artistically destructive path into an age of using images for profit and spiritual growth in the lives of Christians all around the world.  

Karen Kuchan has a book with Visio Divina as the Title, and the subtitle is about Healing.  Yes of course, Healing and Recovery are integral with being a healthy person, but I feel that using Visio Divina as a tool of Spiritual Growth is broader.

The way of Visio Divina in my mind goes to the core of trying to get to know God and His Character, to understand how we are so immensely loved by God, to help us to understand and internalize that we are so very special and valued by God, and it also helps us to understand passages of scripture that have been ruminated upon by centuries of Artists, who have really "gotten" the story, and they have used their Art to help us "see" the story with new eyes.

Visio Divina isn't about getting sidetracked into any new age or eastern philosophy.  I staunchly avoid these influences from outside of Christianity.
I don't feel that I need to leave Christianity and study ANY other religion or philosophy to find God speaking to me through a piece of Art or even a leaf I hold in my hand.

That's what it's all about, learning to hear God's voice, through all means we can find: Scripture, Prayer, Our Pastor's Messages, Songs we sing, from those saints around us in our lives, from the Holy Spirit, and through Artworks, Images, objects, and even nature itself.  Those are the seven In-Carnations, if you will, a bouquet of flowers of learning to hear God's voice in our lives.


Paul Kiler is a Spiritual Director, and has developed a Visio Divina curriculum useful to teach how to meditate upon an image in a safe Christian, Biblically oriented context. No hocus-pocus, no wierd practices, no smoke and mirrors.

It's part of my life's mission to help the Protestant Church return to a positive relationship with Images.

This Visio Divina curriculum teaches how to mediatate with an accessible or literal image showing a scene, people, activities, etc, that are immediately recognizable.  There is also a customization for abstracted types of images, those more open for interpretation, using the works of major Christian abstract artists as the teaching images. And a third style is for meditating upon images of the face of Christ.











I'm available to teach or lead these meditational sessions to any Christian group.   You can reach me through website messaging on one of my other websites, either http://www.kilerphoto.com/, or http://pkperfumes.com/.

And you can see my artworks at http://art-as-servant.blogspot.com/


Please feel free to contact me to learn more about the curriculum, and if there is a fit between me and your group, and your goals with Visio Divina.