Making as Prayer: Mexican Nicho Shrines and the Healing Work of Attention

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately with Mexican nicho cabinet shrines. The more I look at them, the more I’m convinced that their beauty has less to do with decoration than it does with intention.

Pieces like these were traditionally created as private devotional objects, often assembled in the home rather than a workshop. In Mexican folk Catholic practice, the careful embellishment of an image — adding sequins, glass, fabric, tin, or metal — was sometimes undertaken as an act of reflection, gratitude, or petition, particularly during times of illness, hardship, or uncertainty. These works were not meant for public display or export. They were meant to live in the corner of a room, close to the body and close to daily life.

What fascinates me is that the making itself is part of the purpose. Each added element represents time spent thinking, hoping, sitting with fear, or trying to make sense of what can’t be controlled. Attention becomes the offering.

I’m not a believer in any formal sense. I don’t experience these objects as religious artifacts so much as containers for care, physical evidence of someone trying to hold hope, comfort, and faith inside something beautiful and lasting.