How does one go about praying?

by breathing or speaking or being silent or thinking or not thinking, by loving or suffering or feeling pain or feeling joy or not feeling much at all, by touching someone or giving five dollars to a guy flying a sign or feeding someone or braking so you don't hit a squirrel with your car. prayer is just a way of being in relationship with the world, with the other.

Francesco del Cossa - Annunciation Virgin. 1472 - 1473

Was it good for you, too?

Francesco Vanni’s painting of Catherine of Siena, made around 1590, is a good example of Christian mystical encounters portrayed in extremely physical ways.

“Especially women, but men too, described ecstatic experiences in which they nursed from Christ’s side wound as if it was a breast, or felt themselves penetrated by Christ, or so lost themselves in mystical adoration and abandonment that they experienced physical shuddering that seem most akin to orgasm,” art historian Martha Easton writes.

“The question is, how are we to interpret such experiences? Some would suggest that these are the Freudian yearnings of those who have often suppressed more typical human sexual experiences because of religious beliefs and practices. Others would argue that it is incorrect to assume that modern and medieval understandings of sexuality necessarily coincide; that in fact we must allow for an alterity to medieval people that allows phenomena of a deeply physical nature to be seen as spiritual. And still others would argue that it is possible that these types of experiences can be both religious and sexual, even erotic.”

Was It Good For You, Too? Medieval Erotic Art and Its Audiences by Martha Easton, 2008, Different Visions: A Journal of New Perspectives on Medieval Art

“If Allah knows there is anything good in your hearts,

He will give you better than that which has been taken away from you,

And He will forgive you. And Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.”

Surah Al-Anfal [8:70]

Ladybugs quench their thirst on raindrops mirroring the reflection of a nearby flower.

Saw a girl dressed like this and I just had to draw a sketch of her 🌼

[Mysticism is]..."those elements of Christian belief and practice that concern the preparation for, the consciousness of, and the effects attendant upon a heightened awareness of God's immediate and transforming presence."

~ Bernard McGinn

yeah actually every trans person is blessed by god, protected under the virgin mary's mantle, prayed for by the saints and fought for by the heavenly host hope this helps

Love how Catholics will name their Churches “Our Lady of…” and my dumb Protestant self will be like “oh who is the Lady of this one?”

And it is Mary.

It is always Mary.

I love that about them.

God the Son 🤭🌹🌞

Mama Mary E-Shrine/Shrine idea!! 🌸🌸🌸

death|life with her children

@authentically-aria

Barry X Ball: Purity, Pink Iranian Onyx (2008)

KARINA 230513 SPICY

Stained glass paintings by Harry Clarke