Portraits in Faith communicates in the spirit of Fratelli Tutti
By Sr Bernadette M. Reis, fsp
Daniel Epstein worked as marketing director for Procter & Gamble for 21 years. At the age of 36, as he was grappling with a lot of painful situations in his life, he was drawn to “pray to a God I did not know…to ask for help.”
Portraits in Faith is born
Daniel’s desperate plea turned into a “spiritual exercise,” he says. As he travelled around the world on business, Daniel would spend extra personal days exploring this spiritual quest. Armed with his camera, he began to interview people “about the role of faith in and the spiritual experiences of their lives.” Through all these people Daniel interviewed, his own “sense of hopelessness and lack of faith faded.”
“I was lifted and transformed by others’ stories of faith in a Higher Power and a Great Intelligence and an Unconditional Love of the Universe, and I became more whole.”
Eventually, Daniel collected these video interviews and created . The faith journeys of 500 people who live in 30 countries are accessible on this site.
Faith unifies ‘others’
Daniel’s spiritual quest seems to confirm Pope Francis’ intuition expressed in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, “The guarantee of an authentic openness to God…is a way of practising the faith that helps open our hearts to our brothers and sisters.”
A crisis in his life led Daniel’s to seek understanding through the faith-filled journeys of people who would become brother and sister to him. It was Daniel’s own faith that spurred him on to meet ‘others’ he never would have otherwise met. His faith and their faith is what united them.
The message Daniel communicates through Portraits in Faith “is that despite all the negative press on faith in the world today, it is a powerful healer, transformer, and changer of lives.”
Seeing the Other
Daniel is now taking Portraits in Faith on the road. His is currently on display at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, KY, U.S.A. From beginning to end, this exhibit, using Portraits in Faith interviews, seeks to “dismantle ‘othering’ in the world.”
“Insecurity and fear of the other leads to rejection and the desire to erect walls for self-defence…. A healthy culture, on the other hand, is open and welcoming by its very nature.” – Fratelli Tutti, 146.
Visitors to the ‘Seeing the Other’ exhibit are invited to ask themselves the questions: Who do you see as ‘the other’? ‘When have you felt like ‘the other’? How well do you listen to others’ stories? What can you do to dismantle your misperceptions of others?
And as the visitor gazes at the portraits of 75 of the people Daniel interviewed, they are invited to reflect on the exhibit’s central question: What will it take to create more UNITY amongst humanity?
‘Beyond anything I could have imagined’
Looking back on his ‘sacred errand,’ Daniel says, he’s very grateful for it.
“I once had a spiritual teacher say to me, ‘Daniel, you want to heal.’ And I said, ‘Oh, do you mean heal myself, or heal others?’ And she said, ‘You want to reclaim every part of yourself. And in so doing, you won’t be able to help but heal others.’
“I think that’s what this project has done for me. I needed to be reminded about a sacred Presence in the universe, and that all was well, and that there were reasons to be hopeful and optimistic. And I drafted off of other peoples’ stories of faith and spirituality, and I guess in so doing, now I’m sharing these stories that are helpful with other people, and, I hope, healing as well.”
“I came to see that the guy working on this project was the best version of me, the me I most wanted to be. It’s beyond anything I could have imagined.”
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