Dear Little hearts,
There are many ways in which we can come into communion with our God, there are many ways of praying and focusing on God and his Kingdom.... being human we need that focus, that word, that picture, sound, fragrance that will touch us from another world.... and it is through our senses that we so often perceive him.
The world of Christian art is one that we would do well to explore, we are bombarded with so many images of violence, decadence and horror, we can see it daily in our papers and on cyberspace, we need to make our contribution in redeeming this as it were by our own turning to the good, the beautiful, the divine.
If we look around at the world of art there are literally thousands of religious images, paintings etc.... of varying degrees of beauty, much may not be to our personal taste, but if we look for good we will find it, if we seek we will find and even the poorest presentation can speak to us simply because the Holy Spirit can use anything in this world for good.
I have thinking that if one were involved in an earth tremor and everything fell around one, the world closing in on us like a box, or if we were caste into a prison camp or other evil experience, the very poorest of presentations of God, Jesus, Mary, the angels would in fact speak to us... this would not be a time for the great and beautiful pictures of say the renaissance or a work of a great master.... but we could have to hand the cheapest, poorest of images... and it would speak!!!
All religious paintings can speak if we allow them too.
The point I am trying to make is let there be room for all in our appreciation, for God can speak through all and in fact He often does.
There are for instance if we explore the matter thousands of images of Mary the Mother of God, no one picture can fully capture her beauty, indeed the sum of them all can only ever captivate a slight reflection of all she is, and this is certainly true of images of Our Lord, but they can sew good seeds in our minds and they can be a very good point of mediation.
Especially when we are tired and not terribly able for one reason or the other to attend to the written word, or even the silence because we are restless and unfocused. At such times take a picture, and just rest in its presence. Note the content, the form, the colours, and see how it relates to you now.
I am going to share some pictures with you over the next few days, they may well not be pictures I am personally initially attracted to but that is besides the point.... lets see what we will find.
God bless you all.
The picture below is a depiction of the Sacred heart of Jesus, the very first thing one notices is the beautiful red garment of love, the Robe of Christ, not only is the garment a luminous red, but the whole image seems to be drenched in light. The light emulating not only from the symbol of Gods heart but from above as the forehead of Christ is crowned with light. Not only is Christ holding his heart out to you, irrespective of who you are or where you are on your journey, but he is drawing attention to the fact it is a crucified heart and if we too are going to be his followers and lovers we too will know suffering. The Blue green of the background is a symbol of Hope and Life and through his love he came to give us life in abundance. May God grant you some blessing through this image and if anything in it speaks to you, do feel free to share it.
This was sent to us by the Poor Clare Colettine Nuns from Wales, be sure to look them up on the internet, they are very faithful prayer warriors for anyone in need. Thank you dear sisters for all of your support!
Saint Luke
