Everything Could Be a Prayer

Book excerpt: Pray and meditate along with mystics and saints through this luminous collection of more than one hundred block prints by artist Kreg Yingst, curator of the beloved Instagram account @psalmprayers. Teresa of Ávila, Howard Thurman, Black Elk, Fannie Lou Hamer, Simon of Cyrene, and Jarena Lee: through radiant woodblock prints of these and other icons of the faith, artist Kreg Yingst ushers us into God's presence. In Everything Could Be a Prayer, mystics who have communed with God and who worked for justice, mercy, and liberation come alive. Yingst carves images onto blocks of wood or linoleum and then inks and prints them on paper. The resplendent portraits of mystics and justice-seekers that result lead us into visio divina, or "sacred seeing." This form of ancient Christian prayer, in which one meditates on a work of art, moves us into sacred reflection and action. Each mystic embodies a virtue or practice such as mercy, vulnerability, forgiveness, worship, and courage. From Brigid of Kildare we learn hospitality; from Ida B. Wells, truth. From Josephine Bakhita we learn freedom; from Takashi Nagai, trust. All point us toward Christ Pantocrator: ruler of all. Each print is paired with a scripture, a meditation on a life well lived, and a prayer. Everything Could Be a Prayer, complete with Lent and Advent reading guides, is a rich resource for private prayer and communal reflection. Together with the saints we pray our way toward the resurrection. We pray along with Sandhu Sundar Singh: "You alone do I desire, and where you are, there is heaven." And with Mary of Egypt: "Blessed is God who cares for the salvation of all souls." With this great cloud of witnesses, we find kinship with Christ. We see anew, and we ask: What if everything could be a prayer?