By Jay Sorgi • Posted November 19, 2025

The human senses enable us to discover the presence of God, connect to God in prayer, and open a door to deep contemplation.

Visio Divina, a Benedictine method of prayer that augments the long-used method of Lectio Divina with sensory discovery, offers people a way to discover God’s loving action in their lives, starting from what someone sees.

Sister of Mercy Mary Ann Clarahan, the coordinator of parish services at St. Margaret of Antioch Parish in Narberth, regularly leads people in Visio Divina.

She will be doing so at her parish through a powerful Advent series that begins Nov. 19.

“It’s not new, but it’s being brought more into the mainstream and integrated into this ancient practice of Lectio Divina,” she said. “We have five senses. Why wouldn’t God reveal Himself to us within our visual scope?

“If we go into a church and we just spend time looking at one of the stained glass windows or that image of the crucifixion, that’s an opportunity for us to encounter God and for God to speak to our hearts and move our hearts.”

Sister Mary Ann will use a combination of faith-centered images in her four-week Advent presentation. Each will have a connection to the Scriptures for the upcoming Sunday Mass.

“I’m looking at Advent as a school of waiting in hope for Emmanuel, God with us — yesterday, today, and forever,” said Sister Mary Ann, who also teaches Visio Divina to lay people in the Institute of Christian Formation, part of the School of Theological Studies at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Ambler.

“We’ll begin with images. For one of the Sundays, the readings talk about a shoot sprouting from the stump of Jesse. It talks about how the blind will be healed and the lame will walk. One of my photos that I use is just a spring coming out of clay earth.”

The “image” involves the first of five steps in the prayer process, “visio.” It allows for what Sister Mary Ann says is an important component, our imagination.

“Sit down and gaze upon that photo or that picture image that you’re talking about,” she said. “What feelings emerge in you? What insights might you (have)? Where do you find yourself in that photo image or that scenario there? Meditate upon that.”

That leads to step two, “meditatio.” Sister Mary Ann then injects Scripture into the conversation. A Biblical passage is read, allowing time for deeper reflection and multiple chances to slowly take in the Word.

The practice moves the person meditating into part three, “oratio.”

“It moves you into this honest conversation that’s pretty vulnerable,” she said. “It’s not just a mind game. It involves the heart as well. The mind, the heart, and all the senses and the imagination.

“It’s not all you or me speaking. It’s time to listen now. What’s God saying to you?”

Sister Mary Ann says the fourth part, “contemplatio,” becomes a time to deeply reflect on the message God is sending, to  peacefully take it in and,  as she puts it, for “resting in God. God looks at me and I gaze upon God.”

The fifth and final step, “actio,” Sister Mary Ann credits to Pope Benedict XVI.

“What further action or resolve do I feel God moving me to? When that time comes, how do I keep coming back to that prayer?” she asks.

“The resolve isn’t ‘one and done.’ I keep coming back to it and praying for that grace.”

Sister Mary Ann believes people will find a powerful opportunity for God to move within their lives with this method of prayer, but it will mean taking an unexpected personal journey.

“One of the times I taught it, one of the men said to me in the beginning, ‘This is just too much, too subjective. I don’t really have a lot of trust in this process,’” she said.

“I said, ‘That’s OK.’ We went through it, and at the end, he raised his hand and said, ‘I changed my mind. If it’s an experience of prayer and God’s self-revelation based in Scripture, images, and the liturgy, I need to pay more attention to this.’”

Sister Mary Ann says people participating in Visio Divina should be prepared to go where God might want to bring them: beyond their comfort zone.

“It brings me beyond where we think God should be, to where God is in all things. That might include places that I don’t expect God to be or expect (myself) to be,” she said.

“We believe that every manifestation of creation, of human experience, of human beings has the capacity to reveal God and God’s saving action.”

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The schedule for the Visio Divina Advent series at St. Margaret of Antioch Parish, 208 North Narberth Avenue in Narberth, is as follows:
– Wednesday, Nov. 19, 3 and 7 p.m. in the Antioch Annex;
– Wednesday, Dec. 3, 3 p.m. in the Antioch Annex and 7 p.m. in the parish rectory;
– Tuesday, Dec. 9, 3 p.m. in the Antioch Annex and 7 p.m. in the parish rectory;
– Tuesday, Dec. 9, 3 and 7 p.m. in the Antioch Annex.