I am a visual person. I like pictures and paintings and statues and icons. In fact, I’d much rather have a nice picture to look at than a page of words. Oh don’t get me wrong, I love books with a passion but when it comes to Lent books I do like a picture to get my teeth in to. Last year I took a three month sabbatical from parish work to wander round art galleries near and far to choose forty paintings which spoke to me of Lent. Some of them are old friends, paintings I go back to time and time again, and some are new discoveries which took my breath away. After I had chosen the pictures I spent some time sleeping in a library in Wales writing short meditations to go with them. You may not need the words. You may simply want to gaze upon the painting and think your own thoughts. And that’s fine. But you may find the meditations lead you down a certain path which helps your Lenten devotions.
I am not an art expert by any means. These forty paintings are perhaps not the greatest works of art on the themes I have chosen, but they were the ones which spoke to me last year. Next year I might chose something completely different. Please do comment on the art or the text and we can travel through this Lent together. Each day in Lent I shall post a new image and meditation so add this Lenten blog to your favourites and come back every day to pray and wonder.
I shall be following your images of Lent. Images are so powerful and often say more than words can.