Some people are helped to pray by lighting a candle, or by having a crucifix before them, or a picture of Christ, to help them to enter into God’s space and time. During this retreat you might like to select a different one of Georges Rouault’s pictures from the web for each period. Many of his pictures make a connection between God and peoples’ situations. Rouault, who lived in Paris through the horrors of World War I, learned to see the suffering Christ in the horrors of that war.
After the war he brought the same spiritual vision to his paintings of clowns and circus performers. These began to resemble Jesus Christ, the suffering servant. There is a spiritual vision in these painting which goes beyond what can be said in words, and which can echo the love and compassion and forgiveness and strength of the Common Psalms of Lent.
- For Psalm 51 you could like to look at one of the Clown paintings, especially ‘The wounded Clown’
- For Psalm 91 you might use ‘It would be so sweet to love’
- For Psalm 130 you might behold ‘Tortured, mocked’
We do not reproduce the art here for copyright reasons. We invite you to consider other images that may come to mind and which may help you.
