Quote for the Day

That man is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and his desires, without a glow or an aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to him, "Thou art my refuge, because thou art my home."  ~George MacDonald, "The Child in the Mist," Unspoken Sermons

Photography and Prayer

Thinking today about how photography and prayer can engage. I certainly often have the thought that photography is very close to prayer. If I am making a landscape photograph then in a sense I am not far from eg Psalm 19. I rather like this blog of Bill Walsh I came across:

9 Reasons I'm a Photographer
I'm not here thinking of using photographs as part of prayer (though that can be invaluable), but photography itself as close to prayer.
Take Psalm 8:

3 ¶  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

4  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

Making a photograph (as against taking a snap) involves considering. It involves stopping, looking, reflecting, seeing.
C.S. Lewis speaks of "the divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic reality in which we all live" (Preface to George MacDonald: An Anthology.)

Maggie Ross in The Fire of Your Life, p 16, who there seeks to widen our understanding of visions, to embrace the secular understanding of vision as well as the mystical, says:

"The mystics find the universe, seen and unseen, in hazelnuts, grains of sand, and wild flowers. Their visions communicate to us a vision, a perspective, that widens the lens of our hearts, enabling us to glimpse through their a depth of field we had not dreamed existed."

Although she does not mention photography, I can only imagine that the references here (lens, depth of field) are intentional analogies. And in fact, the photographer in photographing such and other items and events, is doing exactly the same thing.

So this takes us beyond photography as prayer to photography as vision.
Perhaps for me it can be a way of helping live out these
10 Resolutions for Mental Health

Beetbox Nativity

He pitched his tent among us

Willesden and Stepney: John 1:14: Christmas poem 2011 John 1:14 In the contradiction of the gods of Mammon and the lords of Misrule In the pavement legalities of occupatio...

Quote for the Day

"Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good."
-Vaclav Havel 

Between: It's time to embrace uncertainty

A helpful and thoughtful blog by Jonathan Evens

Between: It's time to embrace uncertainty: It's time to embrace uncertainty Susanne Moore argues in today's Guardian : "The world is full of people proclaiming about stuff they don't...

Human Rights

I found myself getting angry at the reports that's Devon Council is being taken to court for beginning its proceedings with prayers. The argument is that the human rights of those who do not believe are being abused.

To which I want to say, What about the human rights of those who do believe in God?

I am not suggesting this is a Christian or good response. But as news items do not often get me angry, I have been pondering it.

From time to time I am at a 'secular' committee where proceedings do not begin with prayer. It always seems that something important is missing, even if only the opportunity to stop and say to oneself: this is an important meeting; I must stop, focus, prepare, that I may make good decisions.

Unfortunately silence is not an option for the Devon Council. Even that is alleged to abuse human rights.

My anger? I realise how important words are to me. They create the universe we and I inhabit. By this I mean that they create a climate in our minds, individual and corporate. So, if there is not prayer, I am being required to live out a lie. This abuses me, if I may for a moment be a fool.

As a fool, I do not object to a majority decision not to have prayer. But I do object to a minority veto.

However, this leaves me wondering what my response as a Christian should be. The example of Jesus is to respond with grace, mercy and truth. How might we do this as a Christian community?

The importance of words for our health and well-being presses itself upon me. This is therefore a gift that I might offer others in a 'secular' context. (I use quotes since I don't subscribe to the sacred/secular divide but it is useful shorthand. But perhaps I need to challenge this language as well.) After all, Jesus said, You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

The lie being propagated is that to banish God-language is to somehow be more impartial, to use language that surely any reasonable person should agree on - neutral language.

At this point 'David Bentley Hart's book Atheist Delusions may be of help. At p 21 he writes: "Modernity's highest ideal -it's special understanding of personal autonomy - requires us to place our trust in an original absence underlying all reality..." "[A]ll judgment, divine no less than human, is in some sense an infringement upon our freedom."

Hence, he points out choice, not what we choose, is for us the first good (p 22). And thus we deny both a God who is beyond us and also a stable human nature which would confine our decisions within certain inescapable channels.

So what actually makes me angry is the folly of the situation. On the basis of a leap of faith, that there is no ultimate reality not even human, we are banished from using faith language. It is a poverty of thought.

But how then to speak? How do we speak to those who for the most part are blinded because of the culture around? For we can only use the words and the forms of thought that are to hand.

Perhaps a rediscovery of prayer may help. A friend and colleague is also careful to listen to what it is that others are praying about. This is a healthy corrective to most praying when we are anxious to speak, or to be silent, or to listen to God, but place less emphasis on the listening to one another.

But surely this is hinted at in John 20 (If you forgive the sins of others they are forgiven) and is implicit in Romans 8 when Paul speaks of God's Spirit praying through is. Incarnation is true in prayer as much as anywhere. God 'articulate' his purposes through us. And so it is that if two or three agree on earth it shall be done for them in heaven.

So how doe we speak of prayer in a 'secular' world. Perhaps we can speak of prayer as the ultimate listening to one another. The Christian sees this as part of the Spirit's work. But it is also true at a lesser level, when we truly hear each other. This is not merely beginning with silence; it is using that space of time to articulate what is in our hearts at a deeper level. If we are not ready for that, well, silence is a good start.