A Meditation for Going to a Museum

Yet my conviction is that art goes beyond luxury. Art and beauty address the human need for hope. For me, hope is functionally inseparable from beauty, for beauty is a reminder that there is, in the words of Abraham Heschel, “meaning beyond absurdity.” —Megan Mitchell, “Seeking God’s Splendor: Thoughts on Art and Faith”

Prayers at a Museum

Christians can recognize even the most seemingly profane of con- temporary art as a kind of prayer, a venture on the possibility that someone, and Someone, will visit, observe, and respond with grace. But to hear this prayer, Christians need to recognize their own vulnerability and fragility rather than expecting art to affirm our piety and power.

Even Paul seemed to have taken time to visit the artistic works of Athens, observing there a monument dedicated to an unknown god. Far from denigrating the Greeks for their blindness, he com- mended them for their search, offering to name the God they sought. The landscape of modern and contemporary art is littered with altars to unknown gods. These paintings, sculptures, and installations create an opportunity for Christians to creatively and lovingly name the one in whom all things are made—for “he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:27).
—Daniel A. Siedell, “Prayers at the Museum of Modern Art,” Christianity Today

Some Words on Seeing Art

Go to a museum and look at no more than two or three works . . . Walk backwards and forwards between them. Go and have a cup of coffee. Come back again. Wander around the museum. Come back again . . . Eventually you will find they open up like one of those Japanese paper flowers in water.

—Sister Wendy Beckett, in an interview by David Willock for PBS in late 2000

Some Words on Seeing Possibilities

So, after seeing my work, my desire is that you open the eyes of your heart, and see the world and the people around you a little differently. Instead of being filled with anxiety about the world, we can truly see the prismatic possibilities of the world around us. —Makoto Fujimura, “How to ‘See’ My Painting”

A Prayer for Going to a Museum

Lord, open my eyes to notice the colors, lines, shapes, textures, skill. Open my soul to your wonder, beauty, vastness, glory, and mystery. May I see the works of art with clarity, and may they see me.

*A version of this meditation was originally published in The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other by Charlotte Donlon.


Charlotte Donlon helps her readers and clients notice how they belong to themselves, others, God, and the world. Charlotte is a writer, a spiritual director for writers, and the founder of Spiritual Direction for Writers™ and Parenting with Art™. She is also the founder and host of the Our Faith in Writing podcast and website. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Curator, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University where she studied creative nonfiction with Paula Huston and Lauren F. Winner. She holds a certificate in spiritual direction from Selah Center for Spiritual Formation. Her first book is The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. To receive Charlotte’s latest updates, news, announcements, and other good things, subscribe to her email newsletter.

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