WOW – Dialogue and Preface

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

This call and response has been a part of the liturgy since the very early centuries of the Church, and a remnant of an early Jewish call to worship.

Welcome to Day 25 of the Wonders of Worship (WOW) series. Today we ponder the Dialogue and Preface.

I did a search on “hummingbird” in my blog archives. One of the posts it pulled up was the story of an encounter with a hummingbird in May of 2020. I wrote, “Yesterday as I knelt for a photo of a little flower, there was a really loud buzzing at my side. I was intent to take the photo as the buzzing continued, then turned slowly toward the sound. Right next to me was an iridescent hummingbird, hovering at a flower as well.”

We shared a moment —
sipping the nectar of life —
simple communion.

Ways to Engage:

Practice Visio Divina (receive, reflect, respond, rest) with the painting.
You may notice that from time to time I include a haiku in 5-7-5 syllabic form. I invite you to give it a try when there’s an idea you want to express creatively.
Download the B&W image. Color it on your own or with a friend. Color in silence or while listening to music. Let it inspire further contemplation/conversation.
You do you. Trust your intuition and engage in the way your heart desires.

WOW Tree of Life painting update:

Here is the sketch in process, followed by the completed B&W version. Next up – Transfer the sketch to the canvas!

To download either of the black and white images for personal use: on a computer, click and drag the image to your desktop; on a phone, press on the picture until it gives you the option to save it to your photos. The image is formatted to fit on an 8.5″x11″ piece of paper, but feel free to print it whatever size you’d like.

Background: I created a series of forty 5″x7″ watercolor paintings inspired by the elements of worship. It was work commissioned by a project with Nourishing Vocation with Children at St. Olaf College, a program funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative.

As the paintings are shared, you may notice a pattern: