The Hero’s Journey of the Spirit, part VI – Our Guides
The Herald In our hero stories there is usually a character that calls the hero out of his ordinary world with the promise of dreams fulfilled and enemies subdued. The Herald is not necessarily a person, it can be an event or an object that sets in motion a seriesContinue Reading
Saints Perpetua and Felicity
“Stand Fast in the Faith, and love one another.” The historical account of the death of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, is rock solid. It was written by Perpetua herself. Perpetua was a young, well educated, noblewoman who made the decision to follow the example of her mother by becoming aContinue Reading
Art, Artists, and a Theology of Beauty
Goodness and Beauty Pope Saint John Paul II said, “The artist has a special relationship to beauty. In a very true sense it can be said that beauty is the vocation bestowed on him by the Creator in the gift of “artistic talent.” (Letter to Artists, paragraph 3) So theContinue Reading
Creator and Sub-Creator, part II
“Man is a creative being, as “sub-creator,” he shares in the creative power of God.” Man as Sub-Creator J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light through whom is splintered from a single White to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes that move from mind to mind. ThoughContinue Reading
Creator and Sub-Creator, part I
“We are made in the image and likeness of the Creator of all things and as such, we share in His creative power. Man is, in effect, as J.R.R. Tolkien put it, a sub-creator.” The Parable of the Painter There was once an artist, a painter of consummate skill whoContinue Reading
The Grief of Jesus
The loss of a loved one can cause us seemingly endless grief. But Jesus is always with us, He never abandons us. John Gibson Paton was a Christian missionary in the 19th century. In 1858 Paton and his wife arrived on the island of Tanna in the South Pacific. HeContinue Reading
The Hero’s Journey of the Spirit, part V – The Ordinary World
“in this ordinary, everyday existence, there is a sense that something is not right, the world is incomplete.” The Fields We Know We first meet Luke Skywalker, from Star Wars part IV, in his ordinary world. He is the extraterrestrial equivalent of a farm-boy, working for his Aunt and UncleContinue Reading
The Christian Artist – A vocation of service
“The Christian Artist uses their gifts to lift the hearts and minds of people to God,” What is the true vocation of a Christian Artist? Living as we do in a post-Christian age, the answer to this question has become confused and muddled. The word vocation comes from the Latin “vocare,”Continue Reading