Visio Divina | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 26

This week, we will look at photography expressing joy in the midst of challenge. Get ready for a lot of kid cuteness. I invite you to the spiritual practice called Visio Divina - praying with our eyes. We are wired in different ways. Some of us connect with God through words, reading Scripture. For others, music or sound helps us relate to the encounter of the divine. Visio Divina (Divine Seeing) invites you to encounter the divine through image rather than word or sound. Using sight to engage with God can lead to a more robust prayer life and can be another way to connect to God through all our senses.

Here's how you do it.

1. Prepare your heart. Ask God to be with you in this practice.
2. Find an image for prayer. The image you choose can be religious or not.
3. Take a moment to look at the image and see where your gaze first rests. Pause. What stands out in this first gaze? Try to keep your eyes from wandering to other parts of the picture. Breathe.
4. Now let your eyes gaze at the entire image. Take your time and look at every part - see it all. What does this image stir up in you?
5. Pray through the image. After reflecting, respond to God by praying through the words, emotions, questions, and thoughts that have surfaced while upon the image. You can't do this wrong.
6. Rest in God. Take a moment of divine rest, intimacy to still your mind. Breathe deeply.

Vie de Jesus Mafa (Life of Jesus Mafa) was an initiative undertaken in the 1970s to help teach the gospel in Northern Cameroon. French Catholic missionary François Vidil worked with Mafa Christian communities in Cameroon to create an enormous catalogue of paintings depicting the life of Jesus as an African man. The plan was to build a resource that would help Mafa people to teach from the bible in a way that connects with their community.

Matthew 21:1-11Entry into Jerusalem

21 When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus gave two disciples a task. 2 He said to them, “Go into the village over there. As soon as you enter, you will find a donkey tied up and a colt with it. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that their master needs them.” He sent them off right away. 4 Now this happened to fulfill what the prophet said, 5 Say to Daughter Zion, “Look, your king is coming to you, humble and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the donkey’s offspring.”[a] 6 The disciples went and did just as Jesus had ordered them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them. Then he sat on them.

8 Now a large crowd spread their clothes on the road. Others cut palm branches off the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds in front of him and behind him shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord![b]Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up. “Who is this?” they asked. 11 The crowds answered, “It’s the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”