Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart
Led by Steve Radley
This gentle four‑day retreat invites you to slow down, pay attention, and discover God in the beauty of the everyday. Using a smartphone or camera, you’ll explore mindful photography and visio divina as ways of seeing with the heart — noticing God’s presence in colour, texture, stillness, and the shadows, where God waits with a grace that gently invites growth and works in us at our own pace. Most of us already carry a camera on our phone, so bring whatever you enjoy using — whether that’s your phone or a dedicated camera — and learn how it can become a simple, accessible way of attending to God.
No photographic skill is needed. The focus is on presence rather than technique: pausing, looking closely, and allowing your images to speak. Each day offers a mindful prayer walk (with accessible alternatives around the house and gardens), unhurried time to create photographs, and guided visio divina to help you reflect on what you see and what stirs within. Themes include seeing in new ways, finding beauty in the ordinary, embracing light and shadow, exploring emotion through image, and shaping an Ignatian‑style examen. One of your photographs will be printed for you each day, and you’ll receive colour leaflets of the exercises for you to continue what you learn at home.
Photography is used here as a contemplative art — supported by just enough technical guidance without overshadowing the deeper work of attending, noticing, and letting God reveal what is hidden or emerging.
I do this work because photography helped me find my way back to life.
After serving as an RAF Chaplain in Iraq and Afghanistan, I returned carrying stories and wounds that didn’t have words. I didn’t know how to speak about what I’d seen or how it had shaped me. But when I picked up a camera, something in me softened. The world became gentler. Light fell differently. Small, ordinary things began to matter again.
Photography gave me a way to breathe, to pray, and to heal. As I trained in mindfulness and Christian contemplative practice, I began to understand why these simple acts held me so deeply: they slowed me down, anchored me in my body, and helped me meet my experience with compassion and curiosity. Over time, I realised that photography wasn’t just helping me recover — it was teaching me how to see with the heart.
That’s why I now share these practices with others.
Through Soulful Vision, I create spaces where people can slow down, pay attention, and discover that beauty is still present — even in the shadows. I believe that when we learn to see differently, we begin to live differently. We become more grounded, more compassionate, more open to God and to ourselves.
This work brings together my story, my faith, my mindfulness teaching, my contemplative practice, and my doctoral research into healing after trauma through the photographic practices of visio divina. It’s my way of offering something life‑giving from the places that once felt broken.
And it’s my hope that, through these practices, you might find your own way of seeing the world — and yourself — with tenderness again.
Daily Rhythm The retreat follows a gentle pattern of simple worship, reflective sessions, and spacious time outdoors or around the gardens. We will observe silence from the close of the evening session until the first session the following day, offering a quiet space for rest, integration, and prayer. Some opportunities for 1:1 time will be available.
This retreat is open to everyone and offers a grounded, spacious environment to rest, reflect, and encounter God through the lens of everyday life.
Steve Radley is an Anglican priest, professional photographer, mindfulness teacher and guide in Christian contemplative practice. A veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, where he served as an RAF Chaplain, he discovered contemplative and mindful photography as a healing practice after his experiences of war. He volunteers with the RNLI, serves as an Ambassador for the Guild of Photographers, and is part of an arts collective in Morecambe dedicated to helping people find restoration through creative practice. Steve leads retreats and workshops in Dublin and across the UK and is currently researching healing after trauma through the photographic practices of visio divina.
This event is open to everyone.
Arrival: 3 - 5pm
Mon 5th October
2026
Departure: 10am
Fri 9th October
2026
Residential - £550 (20% ministry discount)
