Praying with Art and Images
Land Art
For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies,
for the love which from our birth over and around us lies:
Lord of all, to thee we raise this our sacrifice of praise.
There is so much beauty in our world and so much that can inspire the imagination that sometimes it can be useful to take a small part of that beauty and use it as the focus for our prayers.
By looking at the world of nature around us, finding examples of God’s creation and arranging them in such a way that focuses our attention we can create a unique image that talks to us of God’s love and care.
Find some natural materials and make your own design, as your focal point for prayer.
The nature of Land Art is that it is temporary, it will disappear perhaps with the incoming tide, blown away by the wind or simply walked over. This does not make it any less real, for the time that it is visable it alters the local environment it causes us to look at everyday objects in a different way.
God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform: he plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.
See if you can find a picture or photograph of a piece of natural beauty and use this as a basis for prayer.
There are many ways in which you could
God brought order out of chaos, he created all things and he saw that it was very good.
Try making an ordered pattern so that you can appreciate the symmetry and interconnectedness of the constituent parts. Thank God for the beauty and consistency of his creation.
Use Land Art as a prayer; look for natural beauty and pattern; focus and keep your eyes peeled and your senses alert as you are out and about in the local environment and you will be surprised what catches your imagination.
Perhaps you could use some of the ideas suggested here to create your own Easter garden.
Pictures included on these pages are by Jon Foreman
sculpttheworld.smugmug.com More of his Land Art can be seen on the website.