This is a different kind of "Letter to the Lord", but with the same purpose: to bring me and you both closer to God, one letter at a time. That's my tagline, my motto, my mission here in the LettersToTheLord studio, and I take it seriously. It might just sound like a catchy little thing to you, but I settled on it pretty early in my art career because that's what I was really trying to do.
One of the daily Mass readings recently was the passage about how to pray: "Do not babble like the pagans, hoping that by your many words the Father will hear you." This is often cited against Catholic rote prayer, such as the rosary. Of course, this is in no way a condemnation of memorized prayer or a lifting up of spontaneous prayer - Jesus would have prayed a ton of memorized passages every day, so that just wouldn't make sense.
That said, many Catholics (including myself) tend to just rattle off their prayers without much thought. The Hail Mary, the Our Father, a Glory Be, Grace before a meal, the Centurion's Prayer before Communion, the Agnus Dei...I could go on and on... I might even say 50 of them. Did those spoken words mean anything in my heart, or were they just words? Did I think about them, or speed through the prayer so fast as to make it meaningless?
I create art with a purpose. I try to make beautiful things - but I also try to make them practical. Whether chant or prose, my work is meant to be used. You can read it. You can sing it. And when you do, I hope that you really pray. Think about each line, each word, each letter. What do they mean? Where do they take you?
When I create, I have to concentrate and meditate on each letter. When you pray, I want you to do the same - to grow closer to God, one letter at a time.
God bless,
Cole