Pottery, Faith and Prayer.

I tend to only pray in Church, at dinner (led by O) or in times of great stress. I agree with many who argue that a response of awe in nature is also prayer, but I'm talking about hands-clasped, eyes-closed prayer. I may sneak in an occasional moment of thanks and praise as I drift off to sleep but that has been rare - until recently.

Pottery has helped me use prayer more deeply in my life. I find myself saying a brief prayer or asking God a question as I begin to wedge clay. As I slam the clay down on the wheel head, (Gunshots Dickie! - movie reference anyone?) I spend a moment focusing on the Holy. I focus on finding the beauty of the object that already resides within the clay.

When I know that I am planning to make a chalice or a paten, I ask for help to turn the beauty of the clay into a functional object to serve God and man. When I hold a chalice I have made, I know that I have prayed over its creation and I know that throughout the creative process I have praised and thanked God so that we might use this chalice to better know God and our role in community.

Over time, as I have prayed over this mud, I have grown mindful of the impact of prayer in the rest of my life. I have, slowly, begun to use prayer more fully in other moments. While I had been praying primarily for strength in the past, I now find myself praying to give thanks and praise, for motivation and for peace (both individual and communal).

The crossroads between the artistic and holy has had broad reaching impacts for me. It has allowed me to decompartmentalize my life. I no longer look at my life as my work-life, my church-life, my family-life and my pottery-life. My experience with pottery has made me more mindful of God's presence in all of these facets of my life.

How can we collectively harness God's presence in those 'non-Church parts' of our lives and allow that presence to grow, spread and gain roots?