How to Pray with Religious Art

In the last weeks, we have talked about the various steps of prayerful meditation that we will tweak when we meditate with religious art. This post briefly address a few aspects of  guided meditation that we have not yet touched upon.

What we are not doing. I want to emphasize that we pray with holy cards and not to them. They are not some kind of god, idol, or superstition. They are visual CliffsNotes for biblical learning and prayer.

Photo from amazon.com(dp/B077S9MHRX)

Who is involved in our prayer. An art teacher once said that praying with religious art is similar to a Catholic marriage: they both require three people.

A Catholic marriage involves the bride, the groom and God. (The priest is not part of the marriage vows, by the way. He is present at the wedding ceremony to witness the exchange of vows between the bride and groom.)

Praying with holy cards involves you, God, and the artist. The artist is sending you a message. Is it just the facts? Or does he or she have an opinion or insight to share as well? Might he or she be asking you to look at the same story in a different way? I think it’s exciting to consider that an artist from centuries ago may have learned something  spiritually helpful that people today can “hear” too because the artist included it in the painting. You’ll see an example of this when we come to the 8th Station with Simon of Cyrene. 

The Steps to Follow Last week we walked through  our meditation “process” using words that begin with “S”. Set up. Start. Speak. Silence. Save.What we’ll actually be doing is using the four steps of the Middle Ages’ lectio divina (see earlier posts) with a few tweaks for clarity. In short, God will speak to you through the art. You will ponder the message and respond. You will recite a short prayer (and/or make up your own) and then listen in restful contemplation.

Sometimes the steps will spill over on each other. For example, when you are “reading” the art (God speaking to you), you might start “talking” with God about it (the next step). You’ll see this happen in the 1st Station of our meditation and it’s perfectly okay. It’s suppose to be informal, like two friends visiting with each other. We just want to be sure we address all the steps because they each have a gift to give. 

The image itself. Today’s blog image is a modern holy card. It is laminated and has a prayer printed on the back asking the Lady of Fatima to pray for us. The image appears to be vintage, but it could be a modern artist’s take on a classic.

The point is, there are many talented artists producing beautiful reproductions and original works of religious art today as well.

So whether you’re praying with old or new art,  choose images that follow, as much as you can know, the tenents of our faith. Definitely stay clear of images that are purposely blasphemous. There are enough artists in the world who can  express an opposing opinion with both intelligence and talent and without debasing our faith and culture –or that of any other faith community. Don’t let cheap-shot “art”  pass as anything worthwhile to give your time or attention to.

Lost Focus: Everyone in our world has challenged concentration. There is so much visual and auditory stimulation that our minds are constantly bouncing from one picture, sound or thought to another. Multiple-televisions in our homes and communities. Hundreds of radio stations in our cars as easy to change as punching in a button; no tuning in a frequency like our grandparents did. Traffic. Machines. Health monitors. Real life drama right in front of us that we often miss because we ourselves are multi-tasking physically and mentally.

Peace and quiet sounds good. But in reality, peaceful body language in the midst of quiet doesn’t come easily for many of us who are used to constantly moving, fiddling, doing and preparing for what’s next.

First rule: if your mind wanders during meditation, don’t be surprised–or disappointed. It’s okay. It happens.

Second rule: acknowledge that you’re distracted, then refocus. Say to yourself, “Oops. I’m off-focus” or “There I go again.” But don’t indulge it. Get right back to praying. “God, I was just saying that I wonder why ….” or “I was thinking this character’s expression seems ….” 

Acknowledge it and continue to pray.

Time. How long you spend in meditation and contemplation is your decision. If you don’t have to rush anywhere, it doesn’t matter how long it takes. If you are on a schedule, then you’ll need to pace yourself so you get through the steps in the alotted time.  The pondering (meditation) and listening (contemplation) will take the longest since the other steps are provided for the most part.  I will say, though, that the 1st Station is packed with symbolism so be prepared to spend a little more time on it than you might on the stations that follow. I’d suggest a minimum of five minutes for contemplation and adjust from there.

“Hearing” God or Hearing Voices?

We will not hear God like we hear the person next to us talking or even like we hear someone on the phone or radio.  We hear Him by the messages He sends through our senses and imagination.

“Hearing voices” in our heads is totally different from hearing God and is a symptom of a mental illness. No one should ever act upon voices they hear  and should consult a priest and/or doctor right away. This is especially true if the voices tell them to confront or hurt others or themselves. Simply put, God wants our happiness. He would not suggest such things.

God speaks when He wants to speak. It would be wonderful if we could go to God in prayer like we go to the family physician. “Hey, Doc, this is bugging me and I’m wondering about this, that, and the other.” He would give us advice, maybe even fix things, and we’d go home.

God very well might do that during your prayer session. Or He might wait until later in the day when you’re more relaxed and He can get your attention. (Both have happened to me.) The point is: we can’t put God in a box and say, “Hey, if this meditation stuff worked it would work this way, the logical way, the way that makes sense to me.”

No. Speaking with God falls outside the realm of ordinary “sense”, way outside our understanding of how the universe works. It’s extra-ordinary, beyond ordinary, in every fantastic, awe-causing, miraculous sense of the word. Speaking with God! How great is that?

Sometimes it seems like God doesn’t communicate anything at all. For many reasons that I can talk about in this post, I doubt this will be the case in your guided meditation.  God is waiting, has been waiting, for your undivided attention on Him. He’ll take advantage of it. Just remember, He’s talking to you as a friend. He’s not there as a gift machine to give you everything you pray for–or anything you pray for. He may have something better in mind.

I’m so excited and grateful to have you to pray with this Lent! Sometimes it’s difficult to find people who find the value in it. So thank you! I will meet you tomorrow at the 1st Station of the Cross. And I’ll be praying for you.