PREPARING:
Allow yourself to be drawn into this experience with an open heart.
Find an image that attracts your attention – one you like or don’t like.
Find a space where you can be alone and find a place for the image within your space.
Allow yourself to be invited into the mystery it might hold for you – at this time. Spend time with each question and choose to stay with what assists you in being led into the meaning it might have for you.
Notice your breath flowing through you.
Intentionally surrender any distracting thoughts …. relax ….
……. Take a few moments to become present – to be fully present.
“READING” the image:
Focus on the image or painting in front of you. Let it engage you – affect you.
What do you see? Do you like the painting? The colours? The subject matter? Why? Why not?
Let your eyes travel over the whole of the canvas – and then rest where your attention draws you most. Where do you feel invited to stop? Where do you feel least invited to dwell? Where do you feel comfortable? Where do you feel uncomfortable?
Do any words of scripture, or of a poem come to you? What music do you hear?
As you continue to look at the painting, a narrative might come to mind. What might have happened? What is happening? What is going to happen?
Allow the image to speak.
REFLECTING
Stay with what most ‘affects’ you or invites you. Let it deeply enter your awareness. Does the artwork reflect your life in any way?
Where might you position yourself in the painting? How do things look from that perspective?
Let what draws you most in the image be ‘laid bare’ for God to enter. Let God visit you.
RESPONDING
What happens to you as you contemplate the painting? Are you consoled, troubled, left cold?
Give the painting a name which is a feeling word (anger, joy, peace, hurt ..)
What is stirring in you as you respond?
Consider Jesus himself standing or sitting alongside, and share your feelings with him.
You may wish to express something – with simple art materials spontaneously, using colour, line, form, texture – or in words, journaling, or writing a haiku.
RESTING
Now let go of the immediate engagement with the painting. Consciously notice your breath flow through you – and relax.
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AFTERWARDS
Where – perhaps – in this image has God visited me? How – perhaps – has the image helped me to hold before God some aspect of the self that is me? What has begun to be known? What has become visible? What do I need to revisit?
Share your insights with someone you trust.