A Testament of Beauty
Today it is not only service that must witness to the Spirit, but art, the art that unifies us in the ‘heart-spirit’, in the ‘eye of the heart’ which sees the third beauty latent in everyone, and perceives everything to be holy. The art of being astonished that the Inaccessible God draws near to us in all the faces and all the beauty of the world.
Then we find the courage, the confidence, to reinvent our life in the Holy Spirit. ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ They already are inheritors, for they sense in all creatures the secret presence of Christ who comes again in light. Today only a certain beauty, the third, can make known the living God, the Depth who is now a Face so that faces no longer die but shine like the sun. The beauty of the saints, the beauty of inspired works, ecclesiastical or secular, truly liturgical like the icon, or even prophetic, but always in movement. Rublev, to depict God, painted youth and beauty in the sacrificial unity of the Trinity. Dostoevsky and Bernanos showed that hell cannot satisfy the human heart. Solzhenitsyn discovered, beyond hell, the tenderness and the unshakable strength of the conscience. In the Church or on its margins, we wait, learning an ‘inspired holiness’, capable of conveying the beauty of God. Between the close-up which reveals nothing and the art which no longer dares to portray the human face there opens the place of the Icon.
~Olivier Clement, On Human Being: A Spiritual Anthropology
Praying through Art
Paul’s prayer in his letter to the Ephesians is perhaps my favorite succinct statement of his wisdom, and it is my prayer for you, as well:
I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that [God] would grant you, according to the riches of [God’s] glory, to be strengthened in power through [the] Spirit . . . , so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Now to [God] who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to [God] be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
–Ephesians 3:14-21, NASB
I invite you to set aside some quiet time to meditate with this passage through art. Collect whatever materials you wish to use–colored pencils, paint, pictures for a collage, or simply pen and paper.
Reread the prayer slowly and aloud a few times. As in the practice of lectio divina, don’t try to analyze the text, but listen deeply to what it has to say to you in this moment. Notice if there’s a particular word or phrase that stands out. What images, colors, or shapes do you see?
Begin to fill the blank page with body, heart, and mind fully engaged. Don’t judge or critique your creation, but allow it to emerge and evolve without an agenda. The process may lead you in a different direction than you first anticipated. Let it take shape organically. If you become distracted, perhaps return to the passage or focus on the physical sensation of the materials in your hands.
When you are finished–when you feel a sense of completion or when your time has ended, not when you think it is perfect–offer up your artwork with gratitude. Remember that you are a co-creator of Love in this world with God.
~Richard Rohr, A New Way of Seeing, A New Way of Being: Jesus and Paul (CD, MP3 download); Richard Rohr, Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation (CD); Richard Rohr, St. Paul: The Misunderstood Mystic (CD, MP3 download)
