November 16, 2024
9:30am - 3pm
Mercy by the Sea
167 Neck Road
Madison, CT
With artist & iconographer Angela Manno
Healing Biodiversity Through Imagination, Contemplation and Action is a new onsite day-program in which we will explore the sacred aspect of biodiversity and our role in preventing biodiversity collapse.
Though most of us are familiar with Lectio Divina (reading, meditating, praying and contemplating scripture) we are less familiar with Visio Divina, the use of imagery as the focus of contemplation. This is common practice in the Eastern Orthodox Church where icons are an integral part of the Liturgy and are used as a focus for prayer in private life.
Icons (Greek for image) are considered “Windows to the Divine.” We will use Angela’s icons of threatened and endangered species on exhibit in the Mary C. Daly RSM Art Gallery (November 3 – December 15) to reveal a more complete image of the Divine, one in which all of Creation is in the image of the Creator, not just humans. We will focus on the icons contemplatively, to stir our empathy and imaginations and explore and commit to actions to stop the collapse of biodiversity.
Through practices including Visio Divina, “worship sharing” (from the Quaker tradition) and guided meditation, we will also consider where we are in human history and ways to approach the Impasse and Dark Night we find ourselves in as a species.