‘Prayer’ an illustrated look at uniting act

Gandhi swore by it, saying he could do without food for days – but not a single moment without prayer.

Prayer can lead us to confuse God with Santa Claus, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote. Or it can make one feel foolish and artificial, 19th-century philosopher William James once said.

But prayer – and the human need to pray – essentially unites us all.

That’s the philosophy behind a new, richly illustrated book, “Talking to God: Portrait of a World at Prayer,” by John Gattuso (Stone Creek Publications, 176 pages, $39.95).

Through scores of photographs of people from around the world in prayer, interspersed with essays from some of the greatest spiritual thinkers and writers of the modern era, “Talking to God” looks into the mystery of why – regardless of our religious beliefs – humans pray.

“Here’s common ground that people of faith share – a way to explore the topic of religion in a way that is relevant to everybody,” said Gattuso, a Roman Catholic and publisher of illustrated books and creative nonfiction.

Inside “Talking to God,” a Navajo cowboy in Arizona kneels in the dirt, head bowed reverently, fingers clutching his black hat, before entering the rodeo ring to ride a bronco.

An Indian woman slips into the Ganges, outstretched arms lit golden by the sun, and pours water symbolic of her prayers into the river’s depths.

These are among more than 100 pictures by more than 50 photographers that strikingly capture people in moments of meditation.

The exultancy of prayer jumps out of a photograph of Christians in Dallas with arms outstretched and mouths wide open in shouts of praise. Joy shines from the eyes of Hindu worshippers at a colorful temple in England in celebration of Krishna’s birth. The sheer emotion in the weeping eyes of a Guatemalan woman at Mass attests to the raw honesty that prayer exposes.

“It captures the devotional spirit of the person who is praying in ways that are so moving and carries you so much into the heart of prayers that some of them brought tears to my eyes,” says Huston Smith, retired professor of religion at Syracuse University, who wrote the foreword for the book.