Art of Prayer

Pope Francis today began his Thursday morning Mass by offering a prayer for artists, saying that “through artists we understand beauty, and without beauty we cannot understand the Gospel.”

He went on to say that “it is artists who often interpret this silent groan which weighs on every creature and is expressed above all in the heart of men and women.”

There is a psalm — Psalm 49, to be exact — which comes up about one Tuesday evening a month in the Liturgy of the Hours.

Hear this, all you peoples,
give heed, all who dwell in the world,
men both low and high, 
rich and poor alike!

My lips will speak words of wisdom.
My heart is full of insight.
I will turn my mind to a parable,
with the harp I will solve my problem.

Author Madeleine L’Engle, in her wonderful little meditation on faith and art, Walking on Water, speaks of our most fundamental humanity, as beings made in the likeness of our Creator, so that creation is basic to our nature.

But unless we are creators we are not fully alive. What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint of clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts, or having some kind of important career.

Creativity and intellect is vital to our being, to how we understand the world and our place in it, to how we find connection to God. The Pope’s prayer reminds us of this, as does that recurring psalm.

The remainder of Psalm 49 is a lament of the indignities and injustices suffered at the hands of the rich and powerful. So there is some satisfaction, too, in realizing that being a Starving Artist has Biblical validation.

In his riches, man lacks wisdom:
he is like the beasts that are destroyed.