Photo: "The Cloisters - New York, NY" by Jeff Turner via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) - focus

Prayers in Public: Sketching at the Cloisters

Photo: “The Cloisters…” by Jeff Turner via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Reflection by Kyle Oliver for prayr.cc (CC BY 2.0)

Photo: "The Cloisters - New York, NY" by Jeff Turner via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

This image caught my attention, firstly, because it captures a place I’ve been. It’s right across the Harlem River from where I live in the Bronx.

The Cloisters is a museum, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in fact. The Met is, in my opinion, a fabulous place to pray. In some ways, I think I started this site because I realized that an art museum had become my most sacred site of spiritual practice.

I don’t worship art, Christian or otherwise. But I do believe that art, Christian and otherwise, is a window to the divine—chiefly because it is a focusing point for raw, expressive human experience. Not unlike the psalms, for instance.

Art invites us to pay attention, which is a primary purpose of prayer. Sometimes I think we should rename prayer “sacred focus.” I think my wife, Kristin, would agree (see Monday’s post).

Anyway, when I saw this photo of Ines Hegedus-Garcia sketching at The Cloisters, I was sure I recognized some sort of kindred spirit. And some kind of prayer.

Speaking of sketching, there are lots of great resources out there for helping us think about artistic practices as prayer and as gateways to spiritual community. We’ll talk more about this on the site, since it’s central to our philosophy.

In the meantime, here are some books I recommend on the subject. Full disclosure: the links below are Amazon Associates links. That means if you follow them and make a purchase, you’re also supporting the site.

Prayers in Public posts are media that capture intentions offered and/or the process of offering them. While Creative Commons Prayer is primarily a Christian site, Prayers in Public posts give us the chance to be inspired by the devotion of people of all faiths.

 

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