Welcoming God
Hey spiritual seeker! My name’s Sarah Haykel and I’m the host of Welcoming God, a podcast for spiritual seekers.
In this podcast, I’ll be sharing the goodness of Welcoming God back into my life after years of rebelling against the God of my Catholic upbringing and years of honest seeking on a personal spiritual path. I’ll share my consistently evolving understanding of God and what I’m learning on the path, to help create a God accessible to the every day person.
We’ll have honest and sometimes hilarious conversations about how to go from being a “spiritual” person to a God-loving person. Understanding God as a benevolent guide. What does it mean to have a relationship with God? What does it mean to surrender to God? Cultivating a spiritually mature understanding of God. Learning how to discern God’s truth and will for our lives. How to cultivate the most important relationship you’ll ever have, with God, on a daily, moment to moment basis.
Come along on this spiritually rEvolutionary journey where we get to know God.
This podcast is marked as explicit because there may be swearing or content appropriate for mature audiences in some of the episodes.
Welcoming God
Spiritual Meditation: Exploring Lectio, Visio, Audio and Nature Divina Meditation
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Have you ever noticed something that instantly captures your attention—a phrase in a book, a striking image, an unexpected sound, or a moment in nature that makes you pause? That "shimmering" sensation might be more than coincidence; it could be an invitation to a deeper spiritual experience.
Drawing inspiration from Christine Valters Painter's book "Lectio Divina: The Sacred Art," I share a transformative practice that expands the ancient tradition of sacred reading into our multisensory daily lives. Lectio Divina traditionally involves allowing a word or phrase from sacred text to stand out—to "shimmer"—and become a focal point for meditation. But this approach extends beautifully beyond reading to visual experiences (Visio Divina), sounds (Audio Divina), and encounters with nature.
What makes this practice revolutionary is its embrace of both the beautiful and the challenging. That loud motorcycle disrupting your peace? The traffic jam making you late? These frustrations can become unexpected gateways to spiritual insight when approached with curiosity rather than resistance. I share my own experience with neighborhood noise disturbances and how viewing them through this contemplative lens offers new possibilities for processing difficult or annoying experiences and emotions.
The beauty of this practice lies in its simplicity and accessibility. You don't need special training, equipment, or even much time—just one to five minutes daily of noticing what shimmers at you and asking, "What is here for me?" This can happen during your commute, while washing dishes, or walking through your neighborhood. Sacred texts can come from any tradition that speaks to you, or even from poetry that feels meaningful.
Try this simple practice for the next seven days: Notice what shimmers at you daily—whether it feels good or not—and spend a few moments in contemplation with it. I'd love to hear how it goes!
Contact me through WelcomingGod.com, where you can also sign up for our newsletter to receive a free companion ebook to the first season of this podcast.
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Tempo: 120.0
Speaker 1Hey everyone, sarah here, just to let you know. Sometimes I do use swear words in these episodes and we may at times discuss adult content. In case you happen to be listening around, little ones or people that won't appreciate that. Thanks so much for listening and let's get right into it. Hi, and thanks for joining me on Welcoming God. Hey everyone, sarah, here.
Speaker 1Today I'm going to share with you a practice that has inspired me from a book I've read this summer called Lectio Divina the Sacred Art from Christine Walters Painter. This book is about Lectio Divina, which is a sacred process of reading a sacred text and then meditating on that text and allowing a word or phrase from that text to stand out at you, and Christine calls it shimmer. Something that shimmers at you, it's saying me, me, me, over here. It could be one word from a short verse of sacred text, or it could be a sentence or two. So just opening up, being aware of what is shimmering in that sacred text for you and then sitting with that and allowing whatever images or thoughts or feelings come up from that text that's shimmering at you. What invitation may be coming through that text? That's shimmering at you. Letting go of the text and just allowing yourself to sit and be in the sacredness of this prayer, of Lectio Divina and what it has brought for you or done for you in that moment.
Speaker 1So further on in the book she brings in other ways to practice Lectio Divina. She calls it Visio Divina, where we are visually looking at, per se, a piece of art or something that shimmers at us visually. Is it a piece of art? Is it an animal? Is it a piece of furniture? I mean, maybe it's food? So something visually that shimmers at you, that stands out and is speaking to you. She also refers to audio divina, something that we hear that stands out to us and goes, oh, that right there. And you know out to us and goes, ooh, oh, that right there. And you know she does in the book at times encourage us to not shy away from things that don't feel good.
Speaker 1So sometimes we're reading a text or we may see something or hear something that really bothers us. What would it be like to be able to sit with that? For instance, I know in the neighborhood that I live in sometimes there are really loud cars or motorcycles that rev their engines as they go right down the street at any time of the day or night, and I feel pretty angry about that, to be quite honest, because I don't like it. Pretty angry about that, to be quite honest, because I don't like it. However, in this moment, I'm realizing huh, what would it be like to just meditate on the memory of that sound and just really see what's there for me, like, is there something there for me that I could understand more of, that I could offer up to God, that I could receive some invitation about? That would support me to process this anger that I feel when I hear this loud sound that I'm not expecting and I don't want to hear. So it's kind of cool. It's not always looking for, like, the things that are feeling good all the time, but it's looking at something that is standing out to us and allowing that to become a prayer, and I think that's really powerful and beautiful.
Speaker 1So there's Visio Divina, there's Audio Divina, and then she talks about nature-inspired Divina, which I love. So have you ever been in nature and you see something that just takes your breath away or makes you stop in the moment and go oh, look, those are such special moments. So what I am inviting us all to do this next week is practice some form of this Divina, whether it is finding a short sacred text. It could be from any of the sacred books of the religions of the world. It could be, you know, writers like Rumi, native American writers, spiritual writers. It could be I mean really anything poetry. It could be anything that feels sacred to you. You could pick a sacred text. You could also pick some kind of imagery and a piece of artwork a beautiful piece of furniture, a beautiful plate of food, something that strikes you visually.
Speaker 1You could do audio, davina and go with a sound. Is it the sound of a baby cooing? Is it the sound of birds chirping? Is it the sound of a loud-ass truck going by the street that you really don't like? What sound shimmers or stands out to you? Okay, it could be in nature. It could be a sight in nature water flowing, the sound of water, a beautiful bird or other type of animal in nature, a leaf on the ground that's turned colors, a rock with moss covering it, whatever shimmers at you in nature.
Speaker 1Whatever shimmers at you in nature, how will you take just even five minutes every day for the next seven days and practice some form of these divina prayers? And it can be that quick. It could even be one minute, if you just feel like I can't add anything else to my plate. Maybe it is while you're washing the dishes, or you're folding laundry, or you're making the bed, or you're on your way to work and you just allow yourself the grace in those moments not to you know, if you're heading to work and you're traveling or you're driving. We're not going into a meditative state, but you can still just be aware, open up to what's shimmering at you on your commute and just be present as you're driving.
Speaker 1You're, of course, driving and noticing everything you're doing, driving, but you can still notice like, oh, that car in front of me, I love that color. Oh, there's something about the flow of traffic right now that's feeling really good to me. Or oh, this traffic is really causing me to feel some anger or frustration, anxiety, just noticing those things in that moment as a sacred prayer. What is here for me? What can I receive from this? So, as Christine calls it shimmering that's her terminology for this practice we're looking for something that's shimmering at us, whether, honestly, it feels good or not, and then it's our willingness to say you know, I'm going to spend a little time with that I'm just going to see what's here for me. So I'm excited to hear about how this practice goes for you, and you can get in touch with me and let me know through the website. Just go to welcominggodcom, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Get In Touch section and send me an email. Let me know how this practice is going for you, what you like about it, what's challenging. Do you have any questions? Not that I'm an expert, but maybe I could support you in some way. And also you can get Christine's book Lectio Divina. I'll put the link in the show notes. Remember as well that you can get the free Welcoming God e-book by going to welcominggodcom and signing up for our email newsletter, and that e-book is a companion to the first season of the Welcoming God podcast, so you'll receive that after you sign up for the email newsletter. It'll come in through your emails. So head on over to welcominggodcom and sign up for the email newsletter. Get your free ebook today, right now. And thank you so much for listening. Have a beautiful day and notice what's shimmering for you today.
Speaker 1Hey everyone, sarah Haeckel here from Welcoming God, a podcast for spiritual seekers. This is a legal disclaimer to say that this podcast is not a substitute for therapy or professional help. I am not a trained therapist. I also have not studied theology in a formal setting. This podcast is purely for educational, inspirational purposes, to share the goodness of welcoming God back into my life and all of the things that I'm learning on this journey. So thank you for joining me here and of welcoming god. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen, and consider leaving us a review, as it helps more people find and benefit from this show. Music by Song Channel Music. You can listen and hear more at songchannelmusiccom. Until we meet again, aloha nui loa, take care and God bless, thank you.