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The personal formation of students is an important objective in Religious Education (RE) at secondary schools in the Netherlands. In RE, narrativity plays a crucial role in student formation. This formative education requires attention, openness, and space to facilitate a deeper learning process. This article examines how a contemplative approach to reading biblical parables, rooted in the monastic lectio divina, facilitates the personal formation of students within the pluralistic and secularised classroom in the Netherlands. Examples of students’ work will illustrate how they relate their own life questions to the parable of the Prodigal Son. For the personal formation of students, cultivating a space for freedom, vacare, is essential.