Andrea then gave a brief story of Visio DivinaAnd has traveled everyone through a short exercise to practice it on a work of art. I then jumped and helped to provide a context on how we could approach data and art inspired by science in a similar way. Then we invited everyone to practice alone.
Our event presented real scientific data subjected by scientists, including a beautiful image of a neuron of fruit flies with chemical receptors on it labeled in fluorescence in Christmas colors (red and green) and an image Brought closer to the flight muscles of a bumblebee taken from a high electron microscope powered. We have also presented arts inspired by science, including a mixed media canvas which presented entries and diagrams of anatomy manuals and textile carpets whose design was inspired by vegetable cells.
The space has been installed to look like an art exhibition. Workshop style tables have been configured with data images of the size of a postcard and digital art sitting on mini enels. Participants were invited to sit at a table and choose an image.
Mixed art and textile carpets were also hung on the walls, and we encouraged people to walk in the room to get involved with them too.
Participants received a prayer practice on their image. The prayer prompt was tight in prayer – a prayer for consciousness to start activity and a after -effect prayer. The participants were guided through questions like “What do you see that you are not expecting yourself to see?” What techniques do you think were used? If necessary, what scale do you think that the image was captured? »»
The prayer prompt then guided them to read a brief description of their image which would disclose exactly what they looked at, at what scale it was taken and the technique used to capture it, or what the data meant. After that, they were invited to consider how this knowledge had an impact on their understanding and if they noticed something new.
To close the event, we have debriefed on everyone’s experience. For many, it was their first practice Visio Divina. Most of the participants were students, and although some of the participants had science training, everything did not do so.
A participant shared that when he saw his image for the first time, he thought it was a branch of a tree covered with Christmas lights, but after reading the description of the image and learned that He looked at a neuron of a fruit fly, his mind was blown away.
Another participant shared that at the start, she thought that the image at her table looked disgusting. But she said that once she read her description, she was moved to wonder and even to worship to God. His image was of a flat worm called a planner.
The planaries are simple but remarkable creatures which can repel and regenerate lost or damaged parts, thanks to a special group of stem cells. Scientists hope to better understand how their stem cells do this to help regenerative medicine for people.
Another participant, a student, asked to bring one of the images home to show his parents because he thought it was cool!
It was encouraging to hear answers like these. Perhaps our event has helped stimulate a certain level of curiosity and wonder on science, all in the context of prayer. It was the goal, to facilitate a prayerful encounter with God in a way that was wonderful and impressive. We were also encouraged by the number of participants who attended our event, about more than 50 students – we ended up running out of chairs and having to get more to welcome everyone!
I intend to direct more Viscio Divina Prayer events and to create resources so that others can also direct events in their churches or on their university campuses. My hope is to help others meet God through the beauty and gift of science.
The other plans I have are to explore how we could tackle God prayer with the hardest truths reveals that scientific data reveal and communicate. Scientific data are not always rainbow and butterflies. This does not always make us want to move from wonder or worship. Consider it Beautiful images of fatal viruses, or the simple beauty of climatic scratches This reveals the progressive heating of our planet due to climate change.
I want to make sure that Viscio Divina does not understand what science is, and the use of scientific data and art captures the whole range of what prayer is, from lamentation to gratitude and to Adoration.
If you are interested in knowing more about Viscio Divina or if you want me to run one for your church or event. Register for my adore the collective Newsletter to stay up to date on our development of resources.