A Prayer for Artists and Musicians

O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (Book of Common Prayer, p. 819).

Christians are made in the image of God the creator, destined to create music, poetry, fiction, dance and other works of art. It is often through the arts that we most deeply internalize the truths of our faith...Because we are made in the image of God the creator, we are destined to be creators of images and stories. It’s in our flesh and bones. God is the great artist who conceived and constructed the intricate cosmos, the sculptor who shaped the human form out of the mud of the earth. God is the poet who imagined Israel’s improbable epic drama -- election, fall into slavery, exodus and return to the land of promise -- and then inspired psalmists and prophets to sing the story, and to re-imagine it for later generations living new chapters in the drama of exile and return. (Richard B. Hays, Professor Emeritus of New Testament, Duke Divinity School)