“Fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith,” It has been said that your talent is God’s gift to you, what you do with it is your gift to God. Although it is a wonderful, insightful, comment on God-given gifts, it lacks urgency. In roughly 30 years ofContinue Reading
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
“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
What is the purpose of artistic talent? I am sure most, if not all of us, are familiar with the opening of a movie produced by MGM Studios. It depicts a roaring lion surrounded by the words “Ars Gratia Artis.” This is the Latin translation of the phrase “art forContinue Reading
In his “Letter to Artists,” Pope John Paul II put liturgical art as perhaps the highest expression of the creative gift. But he noted that all art has value as it pursues the artist’s vocation of bringing beauty to the world. He even noted that “bad art” has a place,Continue Reading
The world has a disordered view of art. This should not come as a surprise as we live in a fallen world, a world that is less than what it could be, less than what God intended it to be. Somewhere back along our history our first parents turned awayContinue Reading
Did you ever consider your life as a quest, a grand adventure? Life as a journey is an apt metaphor. It is the idea that at the end of your life your honors and achievements are less important than the path you took to get there. But a journey withContinue Reading
By now every parish has had their paschal candle burning brightly at Mass, and will continue to do so throughout the Easter season. It is very likely that the majority of these candles have been ordered from a liturgical supply company that offers a variety of mass produced candle designs,Continue Reading
A recent conversation I had with an abstract artist who also considers themselves a “Christian artist,” has given me the opportunity to give some thought to the role of abstract art in the Christian context. Can abstract art be Christian? Of course it can; if it is created by aContinue Reading
Over at Catholic World Report, author Sandra Miesel has given us a wonderful overview of how artists have depicted the resurrection in art through the ages. Do take time to read the whole article. It is not only a history of how depictions of the Resurrection have changed through timeContinue Reading