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Writer's pictureProfiles in Catholicism
Jul 2, 202112 min read

Art and Faith

Updated: Dec 23, 2022

A Prayer for Artists


Lord, remember your artists. Have mercy upon them and remember with compassion all those that reflect the good, the ill, the strengths and the weaknesses of the human spirit.


Remember those who raise their voices in unending song, those who pour their souls into music loud and soft.


Remember those who put pigment to surface, carve wood and stone and marble, who work base metals into beauty, those building upwards from the earth toward heaven.


Remember those who put thought to paper by computer and by pen; the poets who delve, the playwrights who analyze and proclaim, the dreamers-up of narrative, all those who work with the light and shadows of film.


Remember the actors moved by Spirit and dancers moving through space.

Remember all these artists whom you have placed among us, for are they not, O Lord, the fellows of your inspiration? Do they not, Lord God, bring to your people great proof of your divinity and our part in it?


Remember your artists and show them mercy and compassion that they may do the same and so uplift all your people. That they may cry forth your praises, as we do here.

Amen! Amen! Amen!


by Bryan Brown, worship pastor at Christ Church in Austin and the worship leader of the Transforming Culture symposium in 2008, adapted from Herbert Whittaker's "Prayer for the Artists"

Prayer for the eternal rest of Father Juan Antonio Orozco Alvarado Eternal Father God, on this day we come in front of you, to pray for the eternal rest of Father Juan Antonio, he is your son, who served you in the vocation of the priesthood during his short life. You, who one day called them to serve you at the holy altar, allow them to enjoy your divinity. We ask you to receive him and his parishioners in your holy presence, who died as a result of the violence. Even when grief takes hold of our hearts, we know that you are a merciful father and that you are present at all times of our lives. We ask you to bring comfort to the family and friends of Father Juan Antonio and his parishioners, so that they can cope with this terrible loss. by Seminarian Francisco J. Pagán Portalatín Profiles in Catholicism (Office Vespers deceased) Hear, Lord, our prayers, so that, by confessing the resurrection of Jesus Christ, your Son, the hope that our brother Fr. Juan Antonio Orozco Alvarado will rise again may also be strengthened. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit and is God forever and ever. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Oración por el eterno Descanso del Padre Juan Antonio Orozco Alvarado Dios padre eterno, en este día llegamos frente a ti, para rogar por el eterno descanso del Padre Juan Antonio, él es tu hijo, el cual te sirvió en la vocación del sacerdocio durante su corta vida. Tu que un día los llamaste a servirte en el santo altar, concédele gozar de tu divinidad.

Te pedimos le recibas en tu santa presencia al el y sus parroquianos, que murieron a causa de la violencia.

Aun cuando la pena se apodera de nuestros corazones, sabemos que eres un padre misericordioso y que estas presenten en todo momento de nuestras vidas.

Te rogamos que traigas consuelo a la familia y amigos del Padre Juan Antonio y de sus parroquianos, para que puedan sobrellevar esta terrible perdida. by Francisco J. Pagán Portalatín Profiles in Catholicism Oración final (Oficio Vísperas difuntos) Escucha, Señor, nuestras súplicas, para que, al confesar la resurrección de Jesucristo, tu Hijo, se afiance también la esperanza de que nuestro hermano Padre Juan Antonio Orozco Alvarado resucitará. Por nuestro Señor Jesucristo, tu Hijo, que vive y reina contigo en la unidad del Espíritu Santo y es Dios por los siglos de los siglos. Dale Señor el descanso eterno. Brille para él la luz perpetua. Descanse en paz. Amén

A Prayer to Prevent Suicide


“Atoms and Molecules”


Dear Lord, we live in an age where the outward wear has got

Extravagantly technical, highly polished, bright, even painfully

Expensive, surpassing the pocket of many people but catching,

Like a hook, in the too costly shoes, fast car or fanciful gear!


Or what guilt edged experience we suffered which suffocated us,

Sapping the every day love of life and shielding, like a barred door,

The possibility of making friends beyond those who don’t know

Our emptiness, ailing, or the fears and remembering which spring,


Animal like, out of the shadowy loneliness, preying upon the Prayerless, like slugs born in the soil and devouring their way through

The leaves needed for growth to be sustained and to be fruit bearing,

So day by day our isolation grows and even glows as it implodes.


Dear Lord, some of us do not even make the outward show of success

And simply fail, flattening the land to the horizon, losing hope upon Hope in the deadening trail to the railway, the busy road or the bridge

To end it all, falling not to our knees but for the lie that nobody knows


The inwardly collapsing star that fell out of orbit and, instead of being

Amidst other beings began to disintegrate and collapse, more and More, collapsing little by little into that isolating, suffocating inside Space where crushing continues, containing even the light of the day.


What edge of nothingness we fell to, hovering, trembling like a note Between dying out and extinction, moments away from ending the Possibility of recovering and regaining contact with others and Building, atom upon atom, the molecular relationship we need to live.


Dear Lord, send a word to open the closed door, the darkened within Of the night of life, the love to be lived, the hopes to be hoped, the Helps to come before the final silence, the rushing scream as others Witness, not the sung life but the breath escaping the drowned dead.


Dear Mary, Mother of the Lord, enlighten others to see the dwindling

Down of friendships, the desperate lunges into the heart’s holes, drop

By drop drinking the despair that needs draining off, evaporating, Pouring out and away like the poisonous virus it is so that the truth,


St. Joseph, the truth that heals can come and dwell, along with His Forgiving touch, touching tenderness, healing help and hope, as a Newness begins, impossible to describe, blossomed out of where? A New family from Love’s loving to love the lame and help the helpless.

by Francis Etheredge, author of the forthcoming:

for my own account of attempted suicide go to The Prayerful Kiss:


A Doctor’s Prayer


I see the suffering children and say I must help, I see the pain and hurt and I know, I can’t ignore when I feel and hear the call To respond and do my best To reach the sick and end the pain and bring healing, and respite. So few of us are left to heal and mend the hurt and sickness. We have fallen ill when we took the risk to save and help the others, the stranger and we too have suffered and have died. I ask why has all the world so little care As corona ravages the humble and the poor, And the vaccines are reserved for the rich and not the weak? Wicked hunger, squalor, and disease spreads with corona in nations that have brought conflict, riots and war upon themselves by corruption and by greed and are cursed to suffer and despair.

We, and all humanity with the compassion and concern can call for justice for the rich to share the wealth and heal the world so all are safe to live in peace without the suffering and the fear. by Father Shay Cullen Profiles in Catholicism


A Prayer for Those Who Died and Who Were Injured in the Miami Condo Collapse.

Dear God,

Please embrace those who died in the Miami condo collapse into your eternal

loving care where they will be infinitely happy for eternity. Also heal those

who have been injured. We also ask you to comfort the families and friends of

all those who have died and were injured.

by Sarah Lyon Profiles in Catholicism


Art Interviews

Art Articles and Commentaries

Book Reviews and Commentaries

Television Reviews/Commentaries

  • Trese Reviewed by Yvette Tan BBC News

  • Kim's Convenience Reviewed by Clarissa Aljentera National Catholic Reporter

  • Penguin Town Commentary by Mark Kennedy The Associated Press

Film Reviews/Commentaries


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