It is not uncommon for professors at Christian colleges and universities to begin class with prayer. I attended public schools through high school and public colleges until I transferred to a private secular art school in New York, where I finished my bachelor’s degree and received two master’s degrees. When I started teaching at a Christian university, the idea of starting class with a prayer seemed foreign. Integrating a spiritual practice into the classroom was well outside my experience.
A few years later, when I went back to work on my Ph.D., this time at a theological union, some professors began class with prayer, but not all of them.
My current university takes the integration of spiritual formation into the classroom seriously. Virtually every professor integrates spiritual formation, and they all do it in different ways. I think this is a good thing. Student evaluations even ask if professors include prayer or devotion in their classes. Student evaluations are extremely important, so it was time for me to get serious about how to do this meaningfully.
What to do about prayer?
On one level, it seems simple enough to just start each class with a short prayer. However, I was concerned about developing the academic version of the hackneyed prayer before eating. I didn’t want something that checks a box but has little meaning.
Those who follow the Faith on View Facebook page may have deduced that I like quotes. Every weekday, we share a quote meme with one of my favorite quotes on overlaying works of art produced by either my wife or me. We do the same on other social media. I thought about doing a devotion based on one of these quotes each class. My concern there was that if a good discussion kicked up, it could potentially take a lot of time away from the subject matter of the class. In fact, a few years later, I introduced the quotes as a devotional practice in my senior classes, which are discussion-based and allow time for meaningful discussion. But these discussions can take some time.
I also aimed to make whatever devotional group practice I chose meaningful spiritually and supportive of the subject matter being taught, which always involves the visual arts: studio art, art history, and classes that engage art and faith.
Then, I remembered one of my personal experiences at the Grunewald Guild in Leavenworth, Washington. A friend of mine, who served as the Guild’s Artistic Director for several years, brought me there to teach several times. It was there that I first encountered the contemplative prayer practice of Visio Divina.
Visio Divina
Visio Divina—’sacred seeing’—is an ancient form of Christian prayer in which the participant allows the Holy Spirit to lead their heart and imagination into a piece of sacred art in silence to see what God might have to say. All that is required is the participant’s receptive, silent reflection, a work of art, and God’s presence.
My own experiences with Visio Divina at the Grunewald Guild were a wonderful way to engage with the fine arts, both explicitly religious art and work that was not explicit. The experience of the image in this intentional way was profound. However, this sort of prayer experience takes time; it is slow. Classes are limited in time. So, I did some research and contacted my friend, who introduced me to the practice to see if she thought it could work within my constraints. She was excited about the idea. After a little more research, I decided to give it a try.
Starting class with Visio Divina
Visio Divina is an extended silent practice of centering prayer. Since class time is limited, especially for an activity that begins every class, I devised an abbreviated Visio Divina exercise. I broke it down into three concise steps of Visio Divina.
- Look Deeply—During this phase, I ask each student to look at the piece of art presented at a deeper level, to take the time to allow the artwork to make second impressions, and notice what they did not notice at first glance, to transition from the hectic time between classes to a more contemplative pace, and to spend time visually exploring the piece of art.
- Look Prayerfully—The students are then prompted to look in a new way and to seek from God what they should learn from this piece. Let it speak to them. Let God speak to them.
- Be Still—It is often easiest to hear from God when we are still. Students are encouraged to be still in the presence of God and the artwork and allow Him to speak to them.
Since this prayer initiates class time, I allocate only one minute for each step. That isn’t much time, but in our culture, we are not used to sitting in silent contemplation for even three minutes.
Visio Divina in Practice
I have now been beginning my classes with a Visio Divina for five years. Ideally, when students enter the class, the lights are down, and the opening slide displays the text, “Visio Divina: Divine Seeing. A visual prayer/ devotion.” I let the student’s chatter die down. I try not to shush them but subtly remind them that this is a meditative time. When the room quiets, I advance to the next slide, which is set on a timer. We sit quietly as the projection automatically progresses through the three stages, with words prompting them for each stage.
Personally, I have found this short time with Visio Divina very gratifying. Some students really appreciate it—even lamenting when they heard the false rumor that I had replaced the Visio Divina with a discussion about quotes in all my classes—and some tolerate it, as is always the case with college students. Blending this ancient form of prayer with contemporary electronic visual media to deliver the image has proven to be a good way to reorient the students for class time, focusing them on both art and God rather than the distractions that occupied their minds moments earlier.
Cultivating Contemplative Faith
When I introduce the concept to students, I tell them that people often feel uncomfortable sitting quietly and looking, but I hope they will come to appreciate it by the end of the semester. These largely evangelical students also can feel uneasy about prayer programs with a Catholic association. Further, they have never heard of the more common practice of Lectio Divina, divine reading, or even the notion of a sacred image. As an artist and art historian, I cherish the opportunity to introduce students to the visual ways in which the Western church and even the church universally have pursued Jesus Christ.
I cannot promise students profound mystical experiences. Still, in my own life, I have found benefit from allowing my initial ideas about artworks and other things to wash away and spending time, with no particular agenda, exploring ideas, in this case, visual ideas. The students benefit from quieting their minds while they meditate on art and God at the beginning of class. I pray that each semester, some students learn to appreciate this as much as I do.
Below is the first Visio Divina we ever did in a class.
This essay is from our Anastasis Series, where we resurrect articles from the past that are still relevant today. It was first published on September 9, 2019, and has been lightly edited and updated.
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