Introduction - Seeing
This is a book about prayer. But it is not a book about prayer like any you will have read. Most books about prayer are about the words we should speak or, if they are books of prayers, give us the words we are to speak. This is a book using words to bring us to silence.
Why? Because when we fall silent is when we begin to see. All we do and all we stop doing begins and ends in silence. Silence wraps itself around our lives through birth and death but also all our activity and speech within life.
This is perhaps most evident when music is played. Music fills the spaces in which it is performed for the duration of the performance but there is silence before and after. It may even be that the purpose of the sounds is that when they end we notice the silence more acutely than before. That is the movement – lyrically and musically – of Van Morrison’s ‘Summertime in England’ – one of the most meditative pieces created within the canon of noise that is rock music. It may also be why – in his most famous work – John Cage gave us 4 minutes 33 seconds of silence structured as a musical composition. Morrison takes us on a lyrical journey from the Lake District through Bristol to Glastonbury picking up on the literary and spiritual references as we travel to reveal that what we find in nature, literature and religion is the opportunity to rest, to experience, to be, to see, in silence.
We are led into silence in order to see because seeing is foundational to understanding. Seeing precedes speech. That is the sequence of human development, one that we ignore at our peril. It is also the sequence of the foundational story in the book of Genesis where Adam names the animals. Naming is a key human speech-act. Describing and defining is a tool for navigating existence and is the basis of scientific discovery, but it begins with seeing.
In order to accurately describe or define or map, you have first to see what is there. That is the sequence within this story. God brings animals to Adam. He looks at each one and then describes or defines each by naming it. Names in ancient times described the essence of the creature or object so named. That is what Adam does in this story. He looks for the essence of each creature and then names that essence.
With God the sequence is the same but on a cosmic scale, as God is creator. The account of creation in Genesis 1 begins with the Spirit hovering over the waters. We do not know how long this state lasted - it was a time out of time, as time did not yet exist – but it is clearly a preparatory time without speech. God then speaks and the world comes into existence. But then God looks. God looks, and sees that it is good. Then he rests; in silence. The end of speech is silence. The end of creation is rest. That is where our co-creation with God begins, in contemplation.
The Bible is full of words and speech and action but we are told that God continues to look. He sees us in the womb; Psalm 139.15-16 tells us that our frames were not hidden from God when we were being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. God’s eyes beheld our unformed substance there. God saw into the hearts of Jesse’s sons - as also with each one of us - selecting David as the one after his own heart. He saw Jonah as he tried to evade God’s call on his life, he sees every hair upon our head to the extent that they can each be numbered, and he sees and numbers every sparrow that falls. The stories that Jesus told are often stories in which the central characters look for what is lost or hidden. The point of these stories is that we find by seeing what is lost, hidden or over-looked. The point is that we see, as God sees.
As seeing is fundamental to creativity, this book suggests that art and artists can teach us how to see. The inspiration for this book is an insight expressed by the art historian, critic and curator Daniel Siedell. He suggested that attending to details, ‘looking closely is a useful discipline for us as Christians, who are supposed to see Christ everywhere, especially in the faces of all people.’ He then argued that, if ‘we dismiss artwork that is strange, unfamiliar, unconventional, if we are inattentive to visual details, how can we be attentive to those around us?’[i]
Similarly, the philosopher Simone Weil said that attention - the kind of close contemplative looking that is fundamental to our experience of art – when ‘taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer’. That is because it ‘presupposes faith and love’. Therefore, ‘absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.’[ii]
To explore this connection between contemplative looking and contemplative prayer I’m going to take us on two journeys. The first is an exploration of 7 S’s which aid our ability to genuinely pay attention in the way Weil suggests. We are aided in contemplative seeing by slowing down, sustained looking, surrendering ourselves to art through our immersion within it, staying with the silence inherent in much art, study of sources, the sharing of experiences, and openness to inspiration, the sparking of the Spirit. Many of these aids to seeing are practices shared by those who pray contemplatively. In particular, there are significant parallels to the rule of life practised by the Nazareth Community at St Martin-in-the-Fields, the members of which each shape a personal rule of life, containing individual and communal activities, using the practices of Silence, Scripture, Sacrament, Service, Sharing, Sabbath, and Staying With.
Be Still was a visual arts trail that was a wonderful example of the 7 S’s being surfaced and used. In 2016, Be Still celebrated Lent through the mindful reflection of art in six of Manchester’s most iconic venues. Contemporary installations, paintings, sculpture and live performances by internationally renowned and local artists uncovered moments where the sacred inhabits the ordinary. Each art work in the trail was accompanied by a reflection to help viewers engage spiritually and practically with stillness, prayer and mindfulness.
In the accompanying booklet Lesley Sutton, the Director of PassionArt, summarised the gift that artists offer to use in regard to attentive looking and contemplative prayer:
‘The gift the artist offers is to share with us is the mindful and prayerful act of seeing, for, in order to make material from their thoughts and ideas, they have to spend time noticing, looking intently and making careful observation of the minutiae of things; the negative spaces between objects, the expression and emotion of faces, the effect of light and shadow, shades of colour, the variety of texture, shape and form. This act of seeing slows us down and invites us to pay attention to the moment, to be still, not to rush and only take a quick glance but instead to come into a relationship with that which you are seeing, to understand it and make sense of its relationship with the world around it. This is a form of prayer where we become detached from our own limited perspective and make way for a wider more compassionate understanding of ourselves, others and the world we inhabit.’[iii]
The second journey is one to view some of the art commissioned by churches in the period since modern art began. For a significant part of its history the Church in the West was the major patron for visual arts. In that period, content ruled for the Church as art illustrated Biblical narratives and the lives of the Saints for teaching the faith, inspiring praxis, and facilitating prayer. But by the time Impressionism initiated modern art, art had already freed itself in many ways from the patronage of the Church and, as form not content became its primary focus, the developments of modern art led to an increasingly strained relationship between the Church and the visual arts.
The story of modern art has often been told with little or no reference to Christianity and yet, as Daniel Siedell has noted, an alternative history and theory of the development of modern art exists ‘revealing that Christianity has always been present with modern art, nourishing as well as haunting it, and that modern art cannot be understood without understanding its religious and spiritual components and aspirations.’[iv]
Seeing art commissioned for churches as part of the twentieth century renewal of religious art in Europe, as I did as a Sacred Art Pilgrimage in 2014, enables reflection on the ways in which artworks in churches facilitate contemplation and prayer. On my pilgrimage I visited churches in Belgium, England, France and Switzerland and I’ll take you back to some of those churches in the pages that follow. The majority were connected in some way with the encouragement to commission contemporary for churches given by George Bell, Marie-Alain Couturier, Maurice Denis, Albert Gleizes, Walter Hussey and Jacques Maritain.
Near the beginning of the pilgrimage I sat in St Giles Cripplegate on a balmy summer’s evening in July. I was there to listen to The Revd. Dr. Samuel Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, speak about ‘Art and the renewal of St Martins’. I didn’t know it then, but within a year I would join the team at St Martin’s and become a colleague of The Revd. Dr.
I was nearing the end of one journey whilst being at the beginning of several others. At that point I was a Vicar in East London with a significant interest in the Arts and their connections to faith; more than that, an interest in faith connecting with the whole of life. Engaging with the Arts, with workplaces, with community life and social action; these had all been key motivations on my journey into ordained ministry and of my ministry in East London since ordination in 2003.
Sam’s talk, part of an International Conference organised by Art & Christianity Enquiry, was scene-setting for a journey that was part pilgrimage, part art trail; while wholly concerned with seeing and contemplating the connections between art and faith. After initial remarks on the theme of art as a plurality of possibility showing what could be by using form, media and idea for creation, appreciation and interpretation, he took John Calvin’s threefold office of Christ as a frame for speaking about art, St Martins and art at St Martins.
In speaking about the Prophet, he said that art holds up a mirror to society and asks, ‘Are you proud of what you see?’ Art can create a dream of society fulfilled and thereby the painful gap between the ideal and reality. Prophets often shock and some prophetic acts are shocking. The priestly dimension of it that it enables us to see beyond the stars; we can “heaven espie” through art and it can, therefore, be a sacrament. Through the arts the ordinary stuff of life speaks or sings of the divine. Artists are the high priests of creation. Finally, using the kingly dimension, art can show what humanity can be when we reach our full potential. Kingly art stretches us and is about glory, as with a road sweeper he had encountered who spoke of his love of opera as being “his glory.” Artists construct acts of worship. God is the great artist and each human life is an interpretation and improvisation on the creativity of God.
These were the exciting aspirations on which I reflected as I set out on my journey of discovery through an art pilgrimage. I hope they also excite you as we set out on our shared journey through the 7 S’s of contemplative looking in order to discover the place of silence where we see with prayerful attention.
Every journey needs to include points at which we rest, recuperate and reflect before moving on further. As such, each chapter on our journey ends with options to Explore, Wonder, Pray, and undertake a Spiritual Exercise or an Art Action. Explore is information enabling further exploration of the theme, usually through related artworks. Wonderings are open-ended while relevant to the theme of the chapter and the reader's experience. They are intended to move in the direction of entering the content of the chapter and your own lived experience more deeply. There are no right or wrong responses to wonderings. The prayers included seek to channel the main themes of the chapter into personal prayers. Alternatively, you may wish to write or pray your own. The spiritual exercises seek to suggest an activity to enable prayerful reflection on the themes in ways that could enhance your own spirituality. Finally, the Art Actions provide links to some of the artworks or art activities mentioned in the chapter.
Our journey together begins and ends with poetry:
Attend, attend, pay attention, contemplate.
Open eyes of faith to days, minutes,
moments of miracle and marvel; there is wildness
and wonder wherever you go, present
in moments that never repeat, running free,
never coming again. Savour, savour the present –
small things, dull moments, dry prayers –
sacraments of presence, sense of wonder,
daily divine depth in the here and now.
There is only here, there is only now,
these are the days, this is the fiery vision,
awe and wildness, miracle and flame. Take off
your shoes, stand in the holy fire; sacrament
of the burning, always consumed, never repeating
present moment, knowing the time is now.
[i] D. Siedell - https://imagejournal.org/artist/daniel-siedell/
[ii] S. Weil, Gravity and Grace, Routledge, 2004, p. 117
[iii] L. Sutton in Be Still: PassionArt Trail 2016, PassionArt, 2016, p. 38
[iv] D. A. Siedell, God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art, BakerAcademic, 2008
[ii] S. Weil, Gravity and Grace, Routledge, 2004, p. 117
[iii] L. Sutton in Be Still: PassionArt Trail 2016, PassionArt, 2016, p. 38
[iv] D. A. Siedell, God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art, BakerAcademic, 2008
See also 'And a little child shall lead them' which explores similar themes.
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Van Morrison - Summertime In England.
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