HOME | DD

Description

Prayer is not an admission of weakness, but of humility. It is a way to admit you can't always make it on your own. Pride is weakness, humility is strength. Understanding our shortcomings and asking help in overcoming them does not lessen us, not in the least.

I really miss going to Mass. I'm a practicing Catholic (Old Catholic, really) and I always attend. Because of the Covid-19 outbreak the priests have asked people to stay home, especially since there are a lot of elderly people among us and they are the most at risk. The Lord knows where we are anyway, we've been told, and protecting the weak, our loved ones and ourselves is a holy task that we should accept and undertake happily. I agree.

The rest of my family is pretty much locked up as well. My mother has been suffering from heart problems since long and she's one of those at risk, but she has decided to stay home very early on. Same with my brother and sister. They are kilometers away, however, but modern technology allows us to at least see each other whenever we like.

But going to church is a ritual I really miss. The sense of community, the feeling of smallness before what is greater than us and yet knowing we're a part of it, the relief of confession, the brief elation of Communion... I have long accepted that the Divine is greater and more mysterious than we're allowed to understand, but I take come measure of comfort from those rites. I feel renewed each time. I can't wait to be there again.

---

I started designing this picture in my mind towards Sunday in the afternoon. It has been a bit of a challenge because apart from lacking a lot of objects, I did not know how to convey the mood. In the end I used part of the Alchemy Chasm for the church's interior (the church I attend is way less gloomy) and the statue of an angel for the setting, and I used a simple reshaped cube to make the bench. The rosary is a reshaped and re-shaded bracelet, and the cross comes from a vampire hunter package, reshaped and re-shaded as well.

And yes, I cover my hair in church. It has not been mandatory since way before my time but I like modesty (especially in holy places) and... I have rebellious hair and while vanity is a sin, I'm a woman and I have a right to some vanity! A walking shrubbery in church just won't do!

In the end, I used light to create what I feel is the right mood. I though about adding more people in the scene, but prayer of the meditative kind is often a very personal thing.

Description

Prayer is not an admission of weakness, but of humility. It is a way to admit you can't always make it on your own. Pride is weakness, humility is strength. Understanding our shortcomings and asking help in overcoming them does not lessen us, not in the least.

I really miss going to Mass. I'm a practicing Catholic (Old Catholic, really) and I always attend. Because of the Covid-19 outbreak the priests have asked people to stay home, especially since there are a lot of elderly people among us and they are the most at risk. The Lord knows where we are anyway, we've been told, and protecting the weak, our loved ones and ourselves is a holy task that we should accept and undertake happily. I agree.

The rest of my family is pretty much locked up as well. My mother has been suffering from heart problems since long and she's one of those at risk, but she has decided to stay home very early on. Same with my brother and sister. They are kilometers away, however, but modern technology allows us to at least see each other whenever we like.

But going to church is a ritual I really miss. The sense of community, the feeling of smallness before what is greater than us and yet knowing we're a part of it, the relief of confession, the brief elation of Communion... I have long accepted that the Divine is greater and more mysterious than we're allowed to understand, but I take come measure of comfort from those rites. I feel renewed each time. I can't wait to be there again.

---

I started designing this picture in my mind towards Sunday in the afternoon. It has been a bit of a challenge because apart from lacking a lot of objects, I did not know how to convey the mood. In the end I used part of the Alchemy Chasm for the church's interior (the church I attend is way less gloomy) and the statue of an angel for the setting, and I used a simple reshaped cube to make the bench. The rosary is a reshaped and re-shaded bracelet, and the cross comes from a vampire hunter package, reshaped and re-shaded as well.

And yes, I cover my hair in church. It has not been mandatory since way before my time but I like modesty (especially in holy places) and... I have rebellious hair and while vanity is a sin, I'm a woman and I have a right to some vanity! A walking shrubbery in church just won't do!

In the end, I used light to create what I feel is the right mood. I though about adding more people in the scene, but prayer of the meditative kind is often a very personal thing.