The art of praying
During August we are looking at our spiritual growth in a written format and this week it’s good to welcome back Hilary Perona-Wright as she shares her insights into how we might pray and grow our relationship with God through art the art of praying, whether that be in personal prayer or as Hilary goes onto to write, interceding on behalf of others. As we read now, might our hearts be open to all that we will receive.
Sharon Seal
The Art of Praying
We all know that Art itself comes in many guises...and it is what it is, to the eye of the beholder. Some people will think that the Fine Art of the Old Masters is truly inspirational, while others relate more easily to the approach of the later Impressionists and Surrealists....
....something Abstract perhaps, preferring a more Modern art form. There is no definitive peak to the varied endeavours of human self-expression. Each medium, each discipline is valid.
The same could be said of prayer. The learned scholars of the past have researched and translated, the prayers and thoughts of Saints and spiritual leaders of old, providing us with a rich liturgy from which to draw, and into which, we can weave our present-day prayers. But for others, their own personal prayer-life requires no research, no touching on the previous expressions of another. They are able to articulate with ease, interpreting an emotional response to their own or someone else's situation, into words of prayer at a moment's notice.
There is no right or wrong way to express ourselves in prayer. In our prayers, as the psalmists before us have shown, we can bring all that we are to the Lord....our anger and grievances, our sadness and laments, our thankfulness and praise, and above all, our penitence.
Praying may be solitary or in community - silent or sung - a speaking or listening experience. For corporate worship, prayers can be prepared in advance for sharing with a congregation, or they can be extemporary, impromptu, as the Spirit moves. Prayer may be an action, the touch of a healing hand, an empathetic presence, quiet companionship in a time of need.
We need not say, "I can't do it. I'm no good at praying. I don't know how to begin."
Give a child, paper and a pencil, a brush and some paints, and a piece of artwork will emerge which might look worthy of a Picasso signature. No training is needed. The child wants to create marks on a blank sheet of paper and is motivated to explore colour and texture with dabs of paint.
How does that relate to prayer?
In prayer, all that is needed is motivation to be enrolled on to the foundation course of the Art of Praying. Having the desire to begin, is an acknowledgement that there is a greater ‘Being’ than ourselves with whom we sense we should connect. Our Christian faith presents us with a God of Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and this is to whom we pray, to whom we bring all praise and thanksgiving, upon whom we rail in our distress. We need not concern ourselves with language and wordiness. All that is required is the unconditional offering of what lies in our hearts before our Creator God. He does not need the well-scripted sentences. The fact that we desire to pray, is the gift we have to give, that is what he longs to receive. We do not need the talent of a famous artist. We just need to make any marks or coloured splodges on the blank sheet in our minds from the inspiration in our hearts.
When we are on our own and wish to pray, there are no restrictions, no rules and regulations about the way we invite God into our hearts. I do not put God aside when earthly things consume my thinking and my daily tasks. He is within me at every moment. I am part of his Creation. I acknowledge him as my Creator, giving thanks for every breath I draw, for the beauty that greets me each day, from the stature of a magnificent tree to the colour of its single autumn leaf....for the extraordinary diversity of mammals, aquatic life and birds which I know exist, to the fascinating world of ghastly, but incredibly important, insects.
My life, my very existence is, on the surface, of human-making, from human interaction.
Underneath, my life is God-given, from our Creator's interaction with the world.
On the surface I am physically of flesh and bones, but underneath I am intangibly of soul, spirit and emotion.
When I pray, when I am given the responsibility to intercess on behalf of others in a service, I think about the human facts with which I am presented. These are the immovable things on the surface of life for which we are instructed to pray.... human society, in all its vocations and circumstances, and its interaction with Creation. This criteria does not alter week to week. Every century, every country around the world, has its share of wars, plagues, loss of life, disasters and distress.
How can I reach beneath the surface of these facts so that my blank sheet of paper can be filled with more than facts? Let us imagine the human facts as the visible markings of letter formations, giving us a storyline. However, in the art of calligraphy and typesetting, the background spaces in between the letters, words and lines, not often noticed, are of equal importance. I a-liken praying and spirituality to the in-between spaces in life, without which, the letters would become an illegible mess. We need constant prayer in this world, so that we can re-establish the intelligible balance between God and his Creation, and thus be able to read with delight what the Author has written for us.
Perhaps your preferred art form is more complex than dealing with a blank sheet of paper, and indeed, what is clay without a potter, a piece of stone without a sculptor?
I would encourage anyone to look beneath the surface of facts, to the in-between spaces, to hear silence as loud as noise, to see beyond the widest-angled lens of a camera, to find a pot in that lump of clay, to mould a soft human form from a hard piece of marble, and to believe that the Art of praying is a natural skill present within all of us to discover and develop.