Recently in Art & Christianity Category

I am always looking for the way heaven touches earth. Perhaps you are, too. The image that comes to mind is the finger of God touching that of Adam in a painting done by Michelangelo. I also recall that the Incarnation is a manifestation of the beauty of heaven touching the ordinariness of earth and making our existence forever beautiful. These are some thoughts on an experience of "Windows into Heaven: Russian Icons and Treasures" at the Knights of Columbus Museum (New Haven, CT). Though the icons aren't in their original liturgical context, they nonetheless open the heart and mind onto something and someone beautiful. The icons, for me, are more than nice pieces of Christian art; they truly are positions of grace that allow my desires to be opened anew by an experience with the Divine Majesty. There is an emphasis here on the personal relationship we have with the Trinity. To say otherwise is to neglect a piece of your humanity because the beauty of the icon does invite us to a different way of living the faith.

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I was just reading an address of Cardinal Ratzinger on beauty. An amazing act of the Spirit to allow me to see the icons and then reflect with Ratzinger on the experience. He had addressed the annual meeting organized by members of Communion and Liberation in August 2002. A paragraph sticks out:


To admire the icons and the great masterpieces of Christian art in general, leads us on an inner way, a way of overcoming ourselves; thus in this purification of vision that is a purification of the heart, it reveals the beautiful to us, or at least a ray of it. In this way we are brought into contact with the power of the truth. I have often affirmed my conviction that the true apology of Christian faith, the most convincing demonstration of its truth against every denial, are the saints, and the beauty that the faith has generated. Today, for faith to grow, we must lead ourselves and the persons we meet to encounter the saints and to enter into contact with the Beautiful.


Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

"The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty"

Rimini Meeting 2002


Take the time this summer to visit the KofC Museum and be inspired! Allow yourself to be wounded by beauty, as Ratzinger said.

Pope Francis' coat of arms

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Pope Francis has decided to stick --more or less, with the heraldic art, that is, his coat of arms that he had when he was called to the Order of Bishop and then as a cardinal. The most identifiable change made is the replacing of the red cardinal's galero and tassels with the papal keys and miter that Pope Benedict XVI chose for his arms in 2005 when he accepted the pontifical dignity but gone is the pallium. The other change is turning the star representing Mary, the Mother of God and the flower of nard representing Saint Joseph, to gold as opposed to silver. Add to the artscape is the image most associated to the Society of Jesus with the IHS sunburst. The Holy Family, hence, is illustrated here.

The keys of Saint Peter refer to the gospel passage of Saint Matthew 16:16 where Jesus says to Peter, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom." The keys represent the pastoral authority of Jesus given to Peter and thus to Peter's successor to forgive sins, and lead us to salvation. The silver key concerns things of earth, and the gold key things of heaven joined together by the red cord symbolizing the common witness of the blood of the Savior shed for humanity. You may want to read the Catechism on the Petrine ministry at paragraphs 880-882, the whole section "I believe in the holy Catholic Church is worth" some study and prayer.

"By having mercy and making decisions" by following Christ
~the way Pope Francis intends to exercise the Petrine ministry he's been called to~

The Holy See's statement in Italian.
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The movie, "For Greater Glory," is now available on DVD on Amazon, but it is also available from Ignatius Press.

What price would you pay for freedom? In the exhilarating action epic "For Greater Glory" an impassioned group of men and women each make the decision to risk it all for family, faith and the very future of their country, as the film's adventure unfolds against the long-hidden, true story of the 1920s Cristero War the daring people's revolt that rocked 20th Century North America.

This movie is an excellent addition for your Catholic library of film and appropriate for a high school Catholic curricula, the RCIA and adult faith formation work of your parish. This forgotten part of our North American history needs to be better known.

For Greater Glory

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We invite you to see For Greater Glory in theaters June 1st.

For theater listings please visit www.forgreaterglory.com today!

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"Building a New World" is new initiative Interdisciplinary Centre  for Social Communications of the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome, Italy) beginning today, Friday, 2 March.


This project is focused on film and the power film has in our lives. The premise is: a good film liberates, forms and calls us to a new way of seeing and engaging in reality. Therefore, the good people at the Gregorian are exploring how a good movie or documentary can invite people to greatness through the imagination and research how a poorly written movie with mediocre images can severely handicap one's openness to the true, the beautiful and the good. Just think of the good Father Robert Barron's "Catholicism" project is doing for those learning the Catholic faith for the first time or those renewing their faith; or how damaging "The Deputy" was to to the person of Pope Pius XII and the rest of the Church.

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The Catholic Artists Society is hosting a lecture on October 31st at 6:30pm titled "Art, Beauty and the Sacred" given by Oratorian Father Uwe Michael Lang. The evening will include the celebration of First Vespers of All Saints in the Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer (NYC). The flyer can be viewed here: Catholic Artists Society All Saints and lecture.pdf

Vespers

We will celebrate the ancient and beautiful liturgy of Solemn First Vespers for All Saints, officiated by our special guest, Father Uwe Michael Lang, C.O. Father Bruno Shah, O.P. from Saint Vincent Ferrer, and Father Michael Barone from the archdiocese of Newark, will assist in the liturgical celebration. Gregorian chant and polyphonic settings will be provided by a professional choir led by David J. Hughes, Organist & Choirmaster at Saint Mary's Church, Norwalk, CT.
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Pope Benedict gave the following teaching on beauty --a subject near to his heart-- on August 31. Some of the paragraphs are here (the entire address is here). Isn't what the Pope says true???? The beautiful expressed in food, music, art, architecture, the human body, the poerty and friendship is the extroversion of the Holy Spirit.

 

Today, I would like to consider briefly one of these channels that can lead us to God and also be helpful in our encounter with Him: It is the way of artistic expression, part of that "via pulchritudinis" -- "way of beauty" -- which I have spoken about on many occasions, and which modern man should recover in its most profound meaning. 

 

Perhaps it has happened to you at one time or another -- before a sculpture, a painting, a few verses of poetry or a piece of music -- to have experienced deep emotion, a sense of joy, to have perceived clearly, that is, that before you there stood not only matter -- a piece of marble or bronze, a painted canvas, an ensemble of letters or a combination of sounds -- but something far greater, something that "speaks," something capable of touching the heart, of communicating a message, of elevating the soul

 

Wells cathedral.jpgA work of art is the fruit of the creative capacity of the human person who stands in wonder before the visible reality, who seeks to discover the depths of its meaning and to communicate it through the language of forms, colors and sounds. Art is capable of expressing, and of making visible, man's need to go beyond what he sees; it reveals his thirst and his search for the infinite. Indeed, it is like a door opened to the infinite, [opened] to a beauty and a truth beyond the every day. And a work of art can open the eyes of the mind and heart, urging us upward.

 

ladies quilting at Benet Lake.jpgBenedictine abbeys are places where the culture of prayer, study, charitable work and arts and crafts can breathe with ease. That's the genius of Saint Benedict and the leadership of monasticism through 1500 years. Few religious orders have such an expansive sense of culture as the Benedictines (or share in across the world). Art aids one in his or seeking God and a better sense of self.

The monks of Saint Benedict's Abbey, a monastery of monks in the Swiss-American tradition just outside Milwaukee and an hour's drive from O'Hare Airport, have a retreat house where individuals and groups come to pray, study and rest in the Lord.

The arts have had a significant, yet humble place in Benedictine life. Making art is one way to bring together a deeper level of fraternity, balance and healing in the distracted world. Some Benedictines are musicians, others are scholars, weavers, quilters, calligraphers gardeners, beer makers, vestment makers, organists and horn players, others are apiarists and the so on. In his Rule for Monasteries, Saint Benedict's 57th chapter "On the Artisans of the Monastery" fosters a spirit of human expression that has limits based on virtue as yet another but crucial way to glorify God. Benedict says,
Michael Komechak.jpegBenedictine culture is very interesting. I find this to be true for 2 reasons: after 1500 years of Benedictine monasticism a refined style of humanity and relationship with God is constitutive and monasteries have interesting people as monks and nuns. The famous Rule of Saint Benedict encourages the monk to praise and worship God through a proper ordering of life and interest. Few Benedictines I know are not proficient in works of culture (in the true meaning of the word) like music, vestment making, bee keeping, keeping the library, preparing good lessons for the classroom, cooking, music writing, preaching, study and the like.
new fresco of St paul.jpgThe religious and art worlds are abuzz with the latest find: an early 6th century image of the Apostle Paul in Naples. The discovery happened in the Catacombs of San Gennaro.

Gianfranco Cardinal Ravasi said "The image of Saint Paul has an intense expression, philosophical and its discovery enriches our image of one of the principal apostles."

The story of the new image is found in the culture section of L'Osservatore Romano.

Watch the video story from Rome Reports.
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Paul Haring, a photojournalist who works for Catholic News Service in Rome talks about his vocation in following Pope Benedict to record for us "the moment" with the Vicar of Christ. As Paul notes, it is a singular act of Providence to be see life through an new lens, especially when pointing that lens at the Supreme Pontiff.

If you love photojournalism as I do, you will want to watch this brief video story on working near Benedict XVI narrated by Paul Haring. Both the story and photography are helpful in giving structure to what is an unusual experienced.
Our Lord ascended to Heaven so that the Holy Spirit might come at Pentecost and fill the Church with His truth. The greatest art expresses that truth and is far superior to vain "self-expression." John Keats said "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," but T.S. Eliot rightly thought that the expression was meaningless sentimentality. The craftsman ignorant of the Creator becomes a vain aesthete expressing nothing more than the ego. While truth is beautiful, beauty is not truth itself but expresses that truth. In the classical tradition, beauty consists in proportion, integrity and clarity: it is harmonious, suited to its purpose, and intelligible. This is sublimely seen in Christ Himself, Who incarnated this beauty as the Way (guiding to a harmony of virtue) and the Truth (revealing God) and the Life (enlightening with creative love). St. Macarius, an Egyptian monk of the fourth century said, "The soul which has been fully illumined by the unspeakable beauty of the glory shining on the countenance of Christ overflows with the Holy Spirit . . . it is all eye, all light, all countenance."

Art is not merely an option for the Christian. Thus, the wisdom of Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice: "The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils . . ." The most sublime art is the Eucharist, in which we "take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims . . ." (Vatican II, SC 8).

Father George Rutler
Pastor, Church of Our Saviour, NYC
homily excerpt from a recent Mass with Artists
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There's a film worth watching and spending time thinking about. I believe that we need to reflect upon the great themes of humanity: peace, forgiveness, love, selfishness, self-giving, regret, power, sin, and grace. Either we confront and reject nihilism and thrive, or we capitulate to it and die. We have this opportunity in Roland Joffe's newest film, "There Be Dragons."

Comparison's are not always helpful. The old saying is that comparisons are odious. For many reviewers the only to make sense of "There Be Dragons" is to contrast it with "The Da Vinci Code," and I happen to see no point in doing so. The two films are apples and oranges, if you will. Be that as it may, "There Be Dragons" is a movie on the early life of a Spanish saint, Josemaria Escrivá de Balaguer (1902-75) which mixes fact with some fiction. The historical context of the film is the Spanish Civil War with all its bloody violence, incredible strident anti-clericalism and whole scale diminishment of the human person.
OR.jpgThe art world is abuzz due to an article in L'Osservatore Romano on Sunday stating that a "lost Caravaggio" may now be found.

The as yet unauthenticated painting, "The Martyrdom of St Lawrence," owned by the Society of Jesus, is thought to be a Caravaggio because it has the hallmarks of a Caravaggio, including dramatic lighting effects, the L'Osservatore Romano said. "Certainly it's a stylistically impeccable, beautiful painting," the article stated in its Sunday edition. "One can't but be reminded of works like the Conversion of St Paul, the Martyrdom of St Matthew and Judith and Holofernes."

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is the acknowledged pioneer of the Baroque painting technique of contrasting light and dark known in Italian as "chiaroscuro." It is estimated that about 80 of the painter's works are extant. He was born in Milan and trained there under Titian. Many are also aware of the artist's wild lifestyle and the alleged murder he committed of a man in a brawl and then fled Rome. Moreover, Caravaggio's mysterious death in 1610 has long intrigued scholars. Among the theories of his disappearance are that he was killed on a deserted Tuscan beach or collapsed there due to an illness. Italian anthropologists announced last month they had found the famous artist's mortal remains. The artist's club is observing the 400th anniversary of the artist's death.

Leave it to the Jesuits to have at least two Caravaggio's!

Garima gospel page.jpgHave you asked yourself: What is the oldest piece of Christian art in the world today? I have. AND reading UK's Telegraph online I found out the answer to my question. A page in the famous Garima gospel collection was identified and re-dated.

Read the story here.

About the author

Paul A. Zalonski is from New Haven, CT. He is a member of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, a Catholic ecclesial movement and an Oblate of Saint Benedict. Contact Paul at paulzalonski[at]yahoo.com.

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