Praying through art @ Tate 20th June 2020 ...& in Wivenhoe

Two very different images...   which do you prefer ?

the photo just ‘jumped out at me’ from ‘ pathwaystogod.org ‘

I don’t know who took this photo, but it was advertising a workshop on praying through art at Tate Britain: 20th June 2020... copied from pathwaystogod.org

“Our day at Tate Britain will provide such opportunities to ‘stand and stare’, to allow a painting or sculpture to speak to our deepest selves and, in opening ourselves to the infinite, allow God to speak to us through that process of pondering. Simply by bringing our contemplative awareness of God in all things, and of God speaking to us through our deepest desires and appreciation of beauty, we hope to open ourselves to the touch of the Divine Artist and to realise our own potential as ‘God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it’ (Ephesians 2:10)

No particular knowledge of art is required – just an openness to God’s gifts.” 
Interested ? for details & booking : 
https://www.pathwaystogod.org/courses-events-retreats/praying-art-tate-britain-2

The other image is not attention-grabbing...  more fragile...Its one of a series of acid-etched glass panels which I made a few years ago, based on one of my sketches together with vivid memories of working in East Africa many more years ago...where grasses shimmer in the heat, leaves act as clever camouflage...
trying to give hints of ...well, What is it ?

...and now?... as I spend time looking at the light shining through these fragile painted, stained and etched glass panels... now...?  they speak to me more of climate change...  of the fragile beauty of our planet...
of what is already being destroyed through climate change... and yet of the hope we may be able to do something to save it...if only we act quickly... 

 “ Ngorongoro Mirage”: a series of 3 glass panels : c. janet driver.

Waiting...

I have been waiting for weeks... watching as these seeds germinated and grew taller and taller into a feathery miniature jungle, full of tight buds that seemed they would never open...

...but today...finally...there is one beautiful “love in the mist”.

in our day of silent prayer last Saturday there was a sense of waiting

...awaiting...

in which many of us felt a deep sense of peace

 why not join us on Nov 2nd for our next Silent Day

or drop into the church anytime during the day on 20th June

details : stmaryswivenhoe.org  

Emmaus...from another angle

The Servant Girl at Emmaus

... C17th Painting by Velázquez

C20th Poem based on this painting...

She listens, listens, holding

her breath. Surely that voice

is his—the one

who had looked at her, once, across the crowd,

as no one ever had looked?

Had seen her? Had spoken as if to her?

Surely those hands were his,

taking the platter of bread from hers just now?

Hands he'd laid on the dying and made them well?

Surely that face—?

The man they'd crucified for sedition and blasphemy.

The man whose body disappeared from its tomb.

The man it was rumored now some women had seen this morning, alive?

Those who had brought this stranger home to their table

don't recognize yet with whom they sit.

But she in the kitchen, absently touching

           the winejug she's to take in,

a young Black servant intently listening,

swings round and sees

the light around him

and is sure.

Denise Levertov

from : www.journey with jesus.net

Emmaus: Diego Velazquez

Easter

Mary Magdalene weeping c Janet,Driver

The shock of Jesus death must have been intense.Hopes dashed so soon...

Mary Magdalene is finally able to weep outside the tomb [St John ch 20 ]

Even then it takes time before she is able to recognise the Risen Christ...thinking at first he must be the gardener...but then “Rabbouni” joy breaks through

“Rabbouni” c Janet Driver

Shocking news of the Sri Lankan bombings in several churches, was just filtering through as we set off for our own church service. Seemingly senseless loss of life...throwing us back over 25 years ago to vivid memories of living & working in Colombo... ‘I remember the bomb shockwave which puffed out net curtains at a closed window, the curfews and roadblocks, armed military on the streets of Colombo...that was our norm. It shall not be in 2019’ [from Steph Driver’s tweet]

A friend, guessing how shocked I would feel, wrote saying that words fail...there is only silent prayer

c. Jyoti Sahi

Good Friday

Christ on the Cold Stone c 1500, Utrecht

Christ on the Cold Stone

“ The seated Christ summarises the entire Passion; he has exhausted the violence, the ignominy, the bestiality of man...Here is the abyss of suffering...” [ Emile Male, art historian ]

When I saw this statue some years ago it seemed to express the vulnerability of Jesus as he waits for his cross to be erected by the soldiers...awaiting the pain of his crucifixion.

 It comes back into my mind today, having watched the way climate change protesters also deliberately chose the way of non-violence & vulnerability this week... to enable us to see...

Into the Wilderness...

What does this painting say to you ?

If you find it useful to begin your time of prayer with a painting, then you might like to try the daily Lenten Retreat emails from pathwaystogod.org  The painting above was from Ash Wednesday, and today’s painting was a Carravaggio...

Its amazing how spending time with a painting can show you something you have never noticed before... I had always assumed that Matthew was the young man in this detail below...

But this time I thought ‘wait a mininute, he could almost have been anyone in this painting... mabe he is the most unlikely one !’  And I wonder, what does that tell me, now, at this moment in my life?
And you?