Embracing God’s Creative Gifts: UIW Hosts Inaugural Artful Worship Celebration

In 2024, the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) received a $1.25 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc, which has contributed to supporting the Artful Worship: Inspiring Children's Faith Through the Catholic Imagination program. This innovative creative arts program aims to create contemplative programming that engages children in prayer and worship through the arts.

On Wednesday, April 15, UIW hosted the inaugural Artful Worship Celebration on the Broadway campus to showcase the program's developments over just one year. Additionally, members of the community were invited to ignite their inner creativity by hearing from guest speakers on the Catholic imagination, viewing artistic and musical performances, engage in a book signing and more.

"In this first-of-its-kind event, we celebrate the creative spirit in the context of faith that go hand-in-hand," greeted UIW President, Thomas M. Evans, PhD. "Pope John Paul II wrote of the 'divine spark' gifted to artists and creatives and said that those talents should be used in service of their neighbors and humanity. Tonight, we have many members of our Incarnate Word community, students and faculty, performing, participating and sharing their artistic spirits with us. Through storytelling, music and visual arts, they're igniting the Catholic imagination and new generations of learners."

Associate Professor of English, LuElla D'Amico, PhD, took the stage, noting how she has done extensive research and even published a book exploring how children's literature can be a space where one encounters God's spirit. To D'Amico, Artful Worship is more than just a professional project, but also one that is deeply personal to her passion of exploring how children engage with the world and find divinity within it. One key question guided her production of this program:

How do children - and the adults who love them - come to know God?

Surrounded by members of her family, friends, colleagues, mentees, Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word and members of the University and parish communities, D'Amico beamed with excitement to share more about the program.

"The first year of this grant was initially our study year," noted D'Amico. "Here at UIW, we've been studying together - faculty, students and collaborators - about what it means to form children through the Catholic imagination. We've already begun building some relational bridges beyond our campus at schools and within the community. This evening, you'll get a glimpse into what this project looks like in practice."

A number of insightful speakers showcased the progress of the Artful Worship program and shed light on the Catholic imagination.

D'Amico's students Ariana Hernandez and Kaissling Marmolejo shared how they and their classmates were invited in February 2025 to develop a creative project for two kindergarten classes at St. Anthony Catholic School. The students were able to teach about biblical icons through story readings, demonstrated how to create tissue paper flowers meant to represent saints and led children in coloring paper stained glass windows.

"As UIW students, our purpose is to carry out UIW's values and embody them, both academically and professionally," shared Hernandez. "Taking what we've learned inside the classroom, we are able to integrate those lessons into the local community that surrounds us, implementing an impact that goes beyond academic need and towards a lifelong commitment in spirit and faith."

Bishop Gary Janak, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, also joined guests to express his immense appreciation for the arts and how they play a crucial role in the Catholic imagination by finding God through human expression. If people neglect to nurture these gifts and try to replicate them by artificial means, it takes away our connection to the Lord. To him, placing proper value and embracing the significance of the arts can bring us closer to God.

"Precious works of art are a reminder that through art and beauty, we seek to glorify God," shared Bishop Janak. "There is no substitution for the creative beauty that God entrusted to us. We know that the study of the celebration of the arts greatly contributes to the Catholic imagination. There's no substitution for composing, analyzing and challenging ourselves to delve deeper into our very souls for answers to the questions that God places within us. The arts, I believe, are like a map to our soul, where we are led to go beyond ourselves."

Attendees also got to hear a presentation from Catholic author and editor of the Word on Fire Votive, Haley Stewart, and were invited to contribute their own artistic touch through collaborating in creative activities and projects.

As people gathered, unified in their shared humanity and desire to create, the McCombs Center Rosenberg Sky Room buzzed with ambition for the continuation of Artful Worship and hope for all it can achieve for both children and adults.