Yesterday in the afternoon i wanted to see if the church was open. i wanted to have some prayer time with God alone. How excited i was when my own parish was open for private prayer even on Thanksgiving. As i entered the main church, all lights were out except those on the Main Altar and no one else was there. The visual beauty was immediately conducive to a deep and beautiful prayer experience. Let me explain...first there are 5 small stained glass windows depicting 5 scenes from the Bible: Jesus' birth, Melchizedek from the Old Testament, the Crucifixion, The Last Supper, and The Resurrection. Each one gave me a long length of time to pray meditating on these stories....these Truths from our faith. Then there is a main Icon above the Altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help...St. Mary holding the Savior (her Son). Each and every Icon has so many deep and meaningful parts to it that go way beyond the art itself. An Icon is prayed and then created and there are many little secrets hidden in each of them. One is suppose to pray an Icon and so look up Icons on your computer and research them. Check out:
http://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/family/catholic-teens/religious-art/icons-as-religious-art
Look up Our Lady of Perpetual Help and learn the meaning behind so many things depicted in this particular famous piece of art.
https://www.redemptorists.net/icon.cfm
https://www.catholiccompany.com/content/our-lady-perpetual-help-icon-meaning.cfm
And so i got to pray with the Icon's help, if you will, raising again my mind and heart to God in prayer reflecting on the Truths depicted there. Then there were 5-6 paintings of great Saints and i could meditate on their lives and how they chased God and made Jesus the Center of their lives.....St. John Paul II, St Clare of Assisi, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. John Neumann....just beautiful..These are our brothers and sisters who made it to the end of the race. They succeeded in life because of their faith and therefore were successes in death and their legacy still goes on today. Another beautiful thing to help me meditate on these heroes i love. The Main Altar had the last supper below the Altar, the Gold Tabernacle where the Consecrated Hosts we believe are Jesus Himself are stored for prayer and to bring to the sick, and the red candle similar to the one our Jewish Friends have by The Torah in Synagogue as a sign that God is here...sometimes called the Perpetual Light. On the Altar itself here were very small paintings of Seraphic Angels with 6 wings as spoken in Scripture and St. Peter and St. Paul. The gold adornment just reminded me of what the Bible says about God's Altar in Heaven....absolutely beautiful!
How beautiful to have at my disposal these visual aides to help me enter into a dialogue with my God. This is what i am referring to when i speak of surrounding yourself with beauty and how it can aid us in our prayer life. They can be springboards into deeper waters. Different images and things feed different people, so make your prayer space and home personal in what can assist you visually to lift your eyes to Him. Follow your heart and recognize that they change over the years. What speaks to you today, may be different in a yr, or more...so be flexible to what feeds you and helps you enter deeply into prayer and cooperate with that Godly inspiration.
next time....we will cover the other senses...for now i have opened this up to comments that i will view privately in case you want to share something or contact me...click comments below.......in the meantime, a Scripture for our meditation....Jeremiah 29:12-13 til next time...
12"When you call me, and come and pray to me, I will listen to you.13When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart."
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