Aside from our usual devotions, we can also fall back on—and perhaps increase—practices such as the rosary, novenas, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and more. There are times when various arts and crafts can prove to be fruitful ways of praying as well.
For example, the brother-in-law of one of the sisters in my Sts. Cyril and Methodius community carved crucifixes, images of saints, and religious symbols. These were gifted to individuals and even to at least one basilica. He explained that carving was his form of prayer as he retired from business and cared for his blind wife.
A religious education director I worked with in Michigan turned to visual art when her regular prayer routines felt lackluster. She began drawing and painting landscapes in praise of God the Creator, later creating charcoal and pastel images of biblical figures and saints. Among her works are depictions of Abraham and Anna the prophetess, which she has gifted to a Catholic assisted living facility.
Then there are the quilters and knitters. Some quilters have shared that they pray with and over every square in their quilts. Prayer shawls are created by groups who share them with those confined to nursing and rehabilitation facilities. Other crafts such as cross-stitch, beadwork, calligraphy, sculpting, and even LEGO constructions can produce meaningful memorabilia that lift minds and hearts to God.
Instrumental music, singing, and interpretative dance have also been recognized as art forms that become acts of praise and thanksgiving, contrition, and supplication.
Not surprisingly, praying on paper has long been a favorite form of mine. Over the years, I have spent considerable time on academic writing and, for the past decade, writing regular newspaper and magazine columns. While these can be prayerful, I find that I am most attuned and able to baring my soul to the Lord when I journal or write poetry. I don’t make journal entries or compose poems on my laptop; I handwrite or sometimes print them, mainly because my legibility—to myself included—has diminished as I have become more vintage than youthful.
Delving into the works of women mystics of the Middle Ages has been especially gratifying. Saints such as Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hildegard of Bingen (artist, musician, writer, and doctor of the Church), and Julian of Norwich left essays, prose meditations, and poems that powerfully express their prayerfulness.
Many saints from both the Eastern and Western Church have left us liturgical and devotional prayers. The super-prolific St. Thomas Aquinas, noted for his theological writings, also comes through strongly as a man of poetry. As Holy Thursday approaches, we will be praying his great hymn, *Pange lingua*.
As we are often reminded—including by our own bishop—genuine faith is a matter of the heart. The work of our hands, our movement, and our breath can also be, this Lent and at any other time, acts of faith.
https://themiscellany.org/praying-any-way-we-can
