Prayer
Kelly Latimore started painting icons in 2011. Kelly’s contemporary art can be a stimulus for prayer, whilst focusing on current global issues. I recently purchased this piece for the College, it is titled: The Holy Family on the Street.
Contemplating this piece in conjunction with our 2022 theme Compassion - Walking with and having Empathy for all, offers us an opportunity to reflect on how we speak and act through a compassionate lens. Of this art, Kelly writes:
“Our collective work was about being more connected: to ourselves, each other, our surrounding community and the land. My friend, and fellow farmer, Paul often posed the question, “how do we become people who, in Jesus’s words, ‘consider the lilies of the field’?
In some icons I wish to embrace the traditional forms and image but for many icons the image needs re-shaping, re-imagining, and re-wondering. My hope is that these icons do what all art can potentially do, which is, to create more dialogue. By transcending our biases, listening and having inner silence about our convictions, our inherited traditions, or our favorite ideas we can become open to the patterns of work, knowledge and experience we may not have seen in the other or buried in ourselves. The other may have something to teach us about what we know, about who God is, the world we live in and who are our neighbors. This is the real work of being human and of art. Being more present.”
I invite you to take a moment to reflect on The Holy Family on the Street. What stands out to you? Who in our local and global community are represented here? How can you walk with and have empathy for all through a compassionate lens during this Lenten season?
A Prayer…..
"A pure heart create for me, O God,
put a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
nor deprive me of your holy spirit" (Psalm 51).
The Holy Spirit of God is given to us
so that we can become participants in God's compassion
and so reach out to all people
at all times with God's heart. Amen”
(from Here and Now by Henri Nouwen, Crossroad, 1994, pp. 109-110)
Source:
https://kellylatimoreicons.com
Here and Now by Henri Nouwen, Crossroad, 1994, pp. 109-110