Prayer Mission
The Catholic Maker guild invites all faithful Catholics to join in its prayer mission. The challenges that Catholic artists face are fierce, and you can help in the battle. A commitment to the preservation, promotion, and production of Catholic art begins with prayer.
A MISSION OF PRAYER
Catholic artists face great challenges in our society — temptations to yield to compromise and mediocrity; risks of professional rejection and persecution; loneliness born of a lack of like-minded artistic community. The challenges that greet the Catholic artist are fierce because the beauty they offer the world is formidable. As Dostoevsky once wrote, “Beauty will save the world.”
One of the primary activities of the guild is to pray for Catholic artists throughout the world, together with our patron saints, and through the intercession of Mother Mary. We pray not only for the protection of Catholic artists, but for an ever-deepening union of faith and praxis among our artists, so that all Catholic artists, no matter their level of mastery, may produce works of art that are themselves a form of prayer.
THE HIGHEST ART IS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM PRAYER
“Prayer is the one thing that can conquer God. But Christ willed that it should work no evil, and has given it all power over good. Its only art is to call back the souls of the dead from the very journey into death, to give strength to the weak, to heal the sick, to exorcise the possessed, to open prison cells, to free the innocent from their chains. Prayer cleanses from sins, drives away temptations, stamps out persecutions, comforts the fainthearted, gives new strength to the courageous, brings travelers safely home, calms the waves, confounds robbers, feeds the poor, overrules the rich, lifts up the fallen, supports those who are falling, sustains those who stand firm.” —Tertullian
Fr. O’Reilly’s Prayer for Artists
God our Father, we see the beauty in the world you created. Please guide the actions of Catholic artists that they may cultivate art that glorifies you and promotes virtuous living among others. Help them foster works of art containing due proportion, clarity, and integrity so that others may be inspired to be with the source of beauty itself. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.