by Deacon Mark Danis | May 14, 2024 12:05 am
This week, let us approach our prayer each day like true artists. Let us work to remove the pieces of our lives, those thoughts, emotions, fears, worries that cover over the image of Christ. Let us also bring the image of Christ to the foreground in our hearts, and not allow our individual circumstances to distort the clarity of His image revealing itself as the very center of our lives.
Many creative artists agonize over whether they are achieving something in their artistic endeavors. They look for clues to convince themselves that their time and their sacrifices have not been wasted.
In a wonderful book entitled, Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, authors David Bayles and Ted Orland describe the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up on the way to creating something meaningful in their lives.
The image of the tortured artist has been well chronicled for centuries, both in literature and real life. Every form of artistic expression, from painters, to writers, to musicians, to sculptors etc., all desire to find validation in their work. They want to know that their efforts were not in vain, and that they have used their talent and their time to create something beautiful.
In a similar way, as we thoughtfully take time to pray each day, we want to know if we have prayed well. We want confirmation that our time in prayer has produced something worthwhile, something lasting and meaningful for our lives.
As with artistic expression, there are many approaches to prayer. Professed Religious and Theologians alike have written thousands of volumes on methods used in prayer, obstacles to be avoided, benefits to be experienced, and the ultimate end of prayer, which most agree is to be drawn into an encounter with God.
Most of these writers would also agree that such an encounter leads, over time, but inevitably, to a transformation of the human person, into a being of love.
Pope Saint John Paul II, writing in the year 2001, offered this explanation for the objective of prayer.
“The great mystical tradition of the Church of both East and West has much to say in this regard. It shows how prayer can progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved, vibrating at the Spirit’s touch, resting filially within the Father’s heart.”
– Pope Saint John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, Novo Millenno Ineunte #33b, 6 January 2001
Those who seek this encounter might do well to approach prayer in much the same way artist approaches the blank page, the empty canvass the keyboard or the slab of ivory. Engage with a desire to bring forth something of beauty.
At the beginning, it might also be helpful to consider the artistic work of what is known as subtractive sculpture.
We are all familiar with the approach of the artist who works with a block of wood, or stone, or ivory or any number of other sculpting materials. The artist’s work is to remove pieces of the original object to reveal the image hidden within. The work of prayer is very much like this.
Each of us was originally created in an image of Christ, Let us make man in our own image. (Genesis 1:26) But over time, that image has become marred, calloused, and covered over with the cares and the burdens of this earthly life. Our artistic objective in prayer is to remove the pieces that only serve to hide the beauty of the image hidden within.
Our prayer is intended to reveal Christ to us, and Christ in us. If we focus our attention on Christ long enough, and with enough attention and love, eventually His image will begin to reveal itself to us.
Successful prayer is much like the artistic technique known as Relief ( a bit ironic).
Relief is a sculptural[1] method in which the carefully sculpted images remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term relief[2] is from the Latin verb relevare, to raise (literally, to lift back). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane[3].
When a relief is carved into a flat surface of stone (relief sculpture) or wood (relief carving[4]), the field is actually lowered, leaving the sculpted areas seeming higher. The approach requires a lot of chiseling away of the background, which takes a long time. But over time, with a good deal of reflection and effort, the image the artist desires begins to emerge from the surface.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
– John 3:30
Another artistic technique that demonstrates our desire in prayer is what in cinematography is called Shallow Focus.
Shallow focus is a photographic[5] and cinematographic[6] technique incorporating a small depth of field[7]. In shallow focus, one plane of the scene is in focus[8] (Jesus Christ as the center of our lives) while the rest is out of focus[9]. Shallow focus is typically used to emphasize one part of the image over another, (Christ living in us). In prayer, everything else in the scene of our lives must fade into the background, allowing the image of Christ, both before us and in us, to take center stage.
This week, let us approach our prayer each day like true artists. Let us work to remove the pieces of our lives, those thoughts, emotions, fears, worries that cover over the image of Christ. Let us also bring the image of Christ to the foreground in our hearts, and not allow our individual circumstances to distort the clarity of His image revealing itself as the very center of our lives.
He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
– Colossians 1:15-17
God Bless
Copyright © by Deacon Mark Danis
Photo by Ben White[10] on Unsplash[11]
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