Art & prayer initiatives

On Thursday I visited Reunited: Gwen John, Mère Poussepin and the Catholic Church at the Barber Institute in Birmingham to review the exhibition for Art & Christianity. With loans from Amgueddfa Cymru — National Museum Wales, Tate and Southampton City Art Gallery, the exhibition explores the development of the artist’s portrayal of single female figures, the growing importance of her drawings from 1910 onwards, and the inextricable links between her work and her new faith.

The same evening back in London I caught the tail-end of the Summer Party at wallspace where I was pleased to catch up with Martin Wroe, who I trained with at NTMTC. Martin is a writer mainly working for newspapers and websites. He is one of the editors of Developments Magazine, often writes for this and sometimes turns out a book, most recently this. He can often be found here and here, is one of the movers behind Generous and a Greenbelt trustee.

On Saturday I ran a Quiet Day on Praying through the Everyday for St Andrew's Hertford. Alan Stewart, the priest-in-charge is also a friend from NTMTC days and someone else who shares many similar interests to do with the Arts and spirituality. The group from St Andrews was engaged and engaging, we met in a hidden gem of a house and grounds, we reflected on prayer as an ongoing conversation with God in which we pray through our emotions and our everyday encounters and made use of poetry and music in our reflections. Among the poems used was John Berryman's first Address to the Lord:

Master of beauty, craftsman of the snowflake,
inimitable contriver,
endower of Earth so gorgeous & different from the boring Moon,
thank you for such as it is my gift.

I have made up a morning prayer to you
containing with precision everything that most matters.
‘According to Thy will’ the thing begins.
It took me on & off two days. It does not aim at eloquence.

You have come to my rescue again & again
in my impassable, sometimes despairing years.
You have allowed my brilliant friends to destroy themselves
And I am still here, severely damaged, but functioning.

Unknowable, as I am unknown to my guinea pigs:
how can I ‘love’ you?
I only as far as gratitude & awe
confidently & absolutely go.

I have no idea whether we live again.
It doesn’t seem likely
from either the scientific or the philosophical point of view
but certainly all things are possible to you,

and I believe as fixedly in the Resurrection-appearances to Peter and to Paul
as I believe I sit in this blue chair.
Only that may have been a special case
to establish their initiatory faith.

Whatever your end may be, accept my astonishment.
May I stand until death forever at attention
for any your least instruction or enlightenment.
I even feel sure you will assist me again, Master of insight & beauty.

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U2 - Window In The Skies.