Introduction
Nestled in the desert mountains of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Canyon Road is a gathering place for creative people on spiritual journeys. As a landmark of international prestige and Southwestern charm, Canyon Road is not only one of the world’s premiere art destinations. Here, within a mile span, over one hundred adobe galleries offer sanctuaries for reflection, an artistic mecca, space to become. Tucked behind turquoise doors and secret gardens, artists, art collectors, gallery owners, tourists, and locals encounter art, and meditate on beauty, as they search for transcendence and interior resonance. With its narrow, winding alleyway and ancient aura, Canyon Road hosts a concentration of eclectic pilgrims whose paths intersect in the desert: people come to Canyon Road to draw deeply from the well of beauty; they come to quench an inner thirst; they come to find, and express, their authentic voice.
Like the intimate art district in Santa Fe, Canyon Road: A Book of Prayer offers a creative oasis for those seeking divine inspiration. No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, Canyon Road is a companion piece, designed to equip you to experience God’s presence. This book is not about prayer. It is a book to be used in prayer and contains written tools to tend your soul.
Canyon Road encourages you to attend to God’s presence, helping you exercise your voice in prayer and grow in your ability to hear God’s voice. Canyon Road offers experiential guidance for anyone exploring Christian spirituality: if you have never spoken to God, these are words you might try. If you have been speaking with God for decades, experiment with these prayers to stimulate your dialogue. If you are angry with God, this language may be a bridge back to him. If you are unable to pray in your pain, let these words speak for you as God’s Spirit translates them for your circumstances.
Interaction with Canyon Road may also help you pray for others who face trials outside your emotional lexicon. It is challenging to relate to a family member who has been betrayed if you have never experienced betrayal yourself. It is difficult to find words to pray for a friend battling addiction if you have never been in its grip. With these prayers as templates, you can cultivate a compassionate practice of prayer for others.
Prayer is a mysterious act of creativity. It is spirit-to-spirit communication that occurs within a relationship between people and God. People pray to exchange ideas, thoughts, and feelings with someone they can’t see. Through the supernatural work of God’s Spirit, this two-way dialogue involves people baring their hearts and God baring his. Prayer involves intimacy between creatures and the one who created them. Like art-making, it is interior, creative, and deeply personal...
With its spiritual roots, inherent creativity, and experiential nature, the discipline of prayer is a form of art. Like artists, people pray to explore transcendent realities and to find, and express, their unique voice. As we encounter the beauty of God’s presence, art and prayer both offer the opportunity to creatively communicate. With extraordinary grace, God invites us to express our hearts as we navigate the mysterious reality, and limitations, of loving someone we can’t see, of developing a relationship with someone we can’t hold, of describing things that reside in the depths of our spirits, beyond even our own understanding. In prayer and art, people seek to personally connect with universal, transcendent Beauty; such that, in the end, art and prayer may become one and the same avenue for experiential connection with God, where prayer becomes art, and art becomes prayer, and both are subsumed into the overwhelming nature of God, who is the beginning and end of all art, all prayer, all beauty, all goodness, all truth, all love, all life...
© 2012 Kari Kristina Reeves