“Art is a spiritual practice when we create we are fully alive, we are made in the image of a creative God” – Madeleine L’Engle

Our Life in Christ is a continuous unveiling of our sacred imagination. We’re caught in a vortex shaped by the gravity of God’s Love. God cannot keep still – even His rest generates streams of Self-Emanating Love bouncing between His relational Self (the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit).

Whether you see yourself or not as an artist, you’re engaged as a vital participant in co-creating a “one-of-a-kind” work of art. The Master Potter delights in taking the clay of our souls into His Hands. He never tires in His Works of Love. He never lacks for inspiration sculpting us with the Breath of His Spirit. 

This post is framed with the Anastasis / Resurrection. 14th century, Byzantine fresco. Saint-Saviour-in-Chora, Istanbul.

“The dramatic scene of the Anastasis, or resurrection, is in a side chapel designed as a mortuary chapel. The Anastasis, based on the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, was the standard Byzantine representation of Christ’s resurrection: Christ striding boldly, clad in radiant white, pulling Adam and Eve from their sarcophagi. Beneath his feet, Satan lies bound and gagged, and the gates of hell are scattered about.” Source: Anastasis / Resurrection (bibleodyssey.org)

I stumbled (thanks to the Holy Spirit) on this fresco while pulling together this post. It’s perfect. Look at the sacred tension between life and death – between hell and paradise that is captured in this image. Look at how the descended rising Christ is grabbing the hands of Adam and Eve. Our Lord is pulling His first Fruits of Creation back to Him to initiate them into a new Life of eternal Unconditional Love, Peace, and Joy.

Christ is the triumph of the human spirit made in the image of God and reunited in His Mystical Body to the Source of All. Life understood through a spiritual lens of art as a ceaseless, embodied prayerful act becomes our doorway to the Sacred Now.

A couple of weeks ago, Monterey’s celebrated local sculptor Will Pettee gave a talk at a San Carlos Cathedral’s Knights of Columbus dinner. Below are a series of sound bites and quotes from his beautiful talk.

Will opened his talk with a story of how he got started as a sculptor (at the tender age of 3!):

Will is clear that his work as an artist is a gift. In this next sound bite Will describes his calling in simple but profound terms:

As young boy Will moved from amusing himself by making his own toys, to making toys for other children. In high school, Will was finding surprising way to bring joy to others …

He shared a quote that resonated with me, “To be a good writer you have to affirm the human spirit.” Will explains that the human spirit has been designed by God to glorify His Goodness. And in experiencing art with others through dialogue and shared experiences we enter into mutual storytelling to help others glorify God and enter into our human experience more deeply.

Art deepens our appreciation of the various and varying ways in which each of us experience God.

Victor Klimoski, Ph.D. Benedictine Center of St. Paul’s Monastery

Will explained that “when an artist comes to the realization that their art is a gift from God, then there is no ego involved – only a burning desire to bring into the world what the Spirit has inspired to be shared with humanity.”

In this next story, Will talks about his sculpture of Christ, titled “It is Finished”:

Will’s statue of St. Michael is very striking. You’ve got to see it in person. It seems that even people without seeing the sculpture or knowing of it, have been drawn to it on the second-floor gallery of their Cannery Row gallery in Monterey, California:

Will ended his talk asking for prayers for a new sculpture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus he’s currently working on. Please hold this work in your hearts. Ask that the Holy Spirit continue to guide Will’s hands, and that all of our Lord’s plans and desires for this work be achieved.

Will led the group in this closing prayer…

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord of day and night,
Of beginnings and endings,
As we prepare to conclude this talk,
We lift up our hearts to you,
The Divine Source of All Life.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that we are all able to be here tonight,
gathered together to worship you.

We thank you for your gift of the Holy Spirit.
Please fill us with your Spirit and may we be full of grace, joy and peace,
because of your presence within us.

May your Spirit’s power produce fruit within our lives.
As you have blessed our coming together,
Now bless our departure and journeys home.
May your blessing be upon us,
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen