Added Apr 15, 2003
If Christian meditation is thought, emotion, and imagination that leads to prayer, to conversation with God, then one way to approach it is not a book, but a work of art. Fine art will engage a different senses, and it will communicate. It was used for centuries as a teaching tool, even a catechism. The artist can help us to see something in a new way, or to feel the emotion of an event centuries before. We can use the image as a visual template to enter a scene in our imagination and thus experience the great events of our salvation. Although Christian religious art would be the safest to start with, all art could be useful if it is a method used to talk to God. Remember that God is the original source and author of all beauty. See, Wisdom 13:3. The Catechism of the Catholic Church., sec. 2129 last sentence. See Catholic Tradition and Teaching on Religious Art.