Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a ChristianContemplative Practice,
Christine Valters Paintner’s latest book, is moving, helpful, challenging and
inspiring. Which is not surprising,
given Christine’s record of turning out such books (two of my favorites are The
Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom and Awakening
the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction).
Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a ChristianContemplative Practice,
Christine Valters Paintner’s latest book, is moving, helpful, challenging and
inspiring. Which is not surprising,
given Christine’s record of turning out such books (two of my favorites are The
Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom and Awakening
the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction).
Christine, besides being an author, is a Benedictine Oblate,
writer, artist, spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and teacher. She’s
also the on-line abbess for Abbey of the Arts, an amazing
site that you should know about, if you don’t already. I’m a regular visitor to the site and
participant in her “Invitation to Photography” spirituality exercises. She’s going to guest blog here soon!
As a photographer, as soon as I heard about Eyes of the Heart, I knew I wanted to
read it. I was not disappointed. Christine is a wise writer and grand guide
into the idea of combining contemplation and photography. I appreciate this as I’ve been doing what I
call “praying with my camera” for years.
In some ways, Christine’s concept is similar to Sybil MacBeth’s concept
of “Praying in Color” -- an active, visual, and meditative form
of intercessory prayer.
We find that the title comes from Ephesians
1:18 when Christine writes, “Photography as a spiritual practice combines the
active art of image-receiving with the contemplative nature and
open-heartedness of prayer. It
cultivates what I call sacred seeing or seeing with ‘the eyes of the heart.’” Of course, this resonates with me – having written
myself about learning to see deeply as a spiritual practice (Mind the Light) and the integration of
body, mind, and soul to experience the Divine as we move through this world (Awaken Your Senses).
Eyes of the Heart is filled with thoughts helpful and inspiring. “For me, both art and spirituality are 
truly
about tending to the moments of life: listening deeply, holding space, encountering
the sacred, and touching eternity. For a
few seconds I touch time beyond time and in that spacious presence my heart
grows wider, my imagination frees, my breath catches, and I am held in awe and
wonder. These are the moments that help
to make life full of meaning.”
Indeed. Words such as that are an
invitation to experience God breaking through – via the means of a simple tool
that many of us have in phones even, a camera.
It’s a gadget that is often thought of just as that – a gadget – rather than
a entry into eternity and spiritual experience.
Christine’s book helps us broaden our spiritual horizons whether through
phone camera or professional DLSRs.
truly
about tending to the moments of life: listening deeply, holding space, encountering
the sacred, and touching eternity. For a
few seconds I touch time beyond time and in that spacious presence my heart
grows wider, my imagination frees, my breath catches, and I am held in awe and
wonder. These are the moments that help
to make life full of meaning.”
Indeed. Words such as that are an
invitation to experience God breaking through – via the means of a simple tool
that many of us have in phones even, a camera.
It’s a gadget that is often thought of just as that – a gadget – rather than
a entry into eternity and spiritual experience.
Christine’s book helps us broaden our spiritual horizons whether through
phone camera or professional DLSRs. 
1 comment:
TY for this lovely post and your responses to the book!
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