Have you ever wondered how art can help you pray? In this episode, photographer and author Therese Kay reveals how photography becomes a form of listening prayer. Together we discover that hope and grace can break through even the hardest places—like light through a frame.

Romans 5:2-5

In this episode of Art and Prayer, Pastor Rob McPherson welcomes author and photographer Therese Kay, whose work explores the deep connection between contemplative prayer and creative vision. Through her book Meeting God through Art: Visio Divina and her photography, Therese invites us to see how prayer can happen not only in stillness and words, but through the attentive act of seeing. Her photograph “Prison or Frame?” becomes the focal point for a time of meditation on hope and presence.

Therese shares how her journey began almost by surprise—when a friend invited her to provide photographs for a devotional. What started as a project became a spiritual practice as she discovered that the camera could become an instrument of listening prayer. “Sometimes I pray before I go out and ask God to help me see what God wants me to see,” she says. “Even when I walk the same loop near my home, I always see something new.” Her reflections remind us that the sacred can be found in the most familiar places if only we remain attentive.

The episode also explores how art helps us stay centered in prayer. As Therese explains, each photograph begins with intention—deciding what to include in the frame, what to leave out, and what to notice. These moments of awareness mirror the choices we make in faith: how we focus our attention, where we find beauty, and how we discern what God is revealing. Her insight into “joint attention”—the shared gaze between God and the photographer—offers a profound image of divine companionship.

In the contemplative portion of the episode, Pastor Rob guides viewers through Romans 5:1–5, reflecting on how affliction produces perseverance, character, and hope. Through the photograph “Prison or Frame?”, viewers are invited to ponder how hope takes root even in the cracks of hardship. A dandelion growing from a concrete wall becomes a symbol of grace that cannot be contained—of a love that finds its way through every barrier.

By the end, Therese’s words and images leave us with a renewed invitation: to look again at the world around us, to notice where God may be saying, “Look.” Perhaps every ordinary moment, every small beauty glimpsed through the lens, is an opening into prayer.