Notes
on Images
To use an image as a focus of prayer, simply gaze receptively, letting
the image teach you about the readings for the day. Artists speak in a
medium that is different from words, so the knowledge may not come in
words. Simply trust what comes, allowing your seeing to be a form of prayer.
First
Week
Light #2, Places of Light. Krystyna Sanderson, gelatin silver print
The readings for the weeks before Advent have focused on the end times. The season approaches the darkest time of the year. In this piece, darkness and emptiness receive the light.
Second
Week
The Prophet Elijah, Betsy Porter, egg tempera and gold leaf on
gessoed board
Here Elijah, exiled to the desert, receives food from a raven. The words in the border are from Psalm 62: ‘For God alone my soul in silence waits.’ We, too, are to wait, to listen, and to heed.
Third
Week
Stir Up!, Claudia McGehee, scratchboard.
The Collect calls upon God to come with great might and to save us. This piece, which brings to mind the Breton prayer, ‘O God, Your sea is so big, and my boat is so small,’ conveys a sense of God’s power as both the roiling sea and the three ships that come sailing in.
Fourth
Week
Moon Angel, Zara Altair, egg tempera and gold leaf on gessoed board
Just as the angel tells Mary that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High will overshadow her, this angel carries light toward an unseen supplicant, Receving this light in prayer, we prepare ourselves as a mansion for God.
Magnificat
Mary, Christine Parson, watercolor on wood with collage
Mary strides forward, surrounded by cosmic symbols – the sun and moon, the serpent under her feet, rivers, lilies, and birds. In her strength, she personifies her powerful hymn.
– S.D.
