Quote from Eyes of the Heart

Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice

by Christine Valters Paintner

Sorin Books, Notre Dame, Indiana     ©2013     143 pp.


"My journey with photography began when I was a very young girl. My maternal grandparents owned a chain of photography stores called Fitts Photo & Hobby Shop in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire, and so I owned a camera for as long as I can remember.

Photography has always been a way for me to see more deeply, but my awareness of how this was an experience of prayer and often an encounter with the sacred presence emerged over time. It wasn't until I embraced monastic spirituality in my late twenties that I began to experience photography consciously as a contemplative practice. I began to see photography as a way to slow down and gaze deeply, noticing things I missed in my rushed life. For me, the camera provided an encounter with the eternal moment--that place in which I was able to suddenly become so present to what I was gazing upon that I lost track of time, allowing eternity to break in. It became a tool for deeper vision, supporting and enlivening contemplative seeing."  (pp. 1-2).

--quote submitted by Jennifer Knight

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