“Humility is the virtue that allows us to put our personal wants and desires to the side,” King Canute was once ruler of England. The members of his court were continually full of flattery. “You are the greatest man that ever lived…You are the most powerful king of all…Your highness,Continue Reading
“the purpose of the Gothic form is to draw the viewer into the Christian story.” Art fulfills a function. That function changes with the needs of society and culture in any given time period. In reviving the Gothic form for today we need to make sure that whatever we doContinue Reading
“Every difficulty we encounter in our lives, is either sent by God or permitted by Him for our benefit.” David and Goliath David cried out, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” David was just a boy. He was not yet oldContinue Reading
“If we are to make the Gothic artform relevant to today’s faithful we have to start with what is needed.” Copy or Adapt? Reviving the Gothic artform to meet the needs of the Church today is somewhat more complicated than it initially appears. We do not want to simply copyContinue Reading
“the truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.” Sometime around the year 1578, a man presented himself to the rector of the English College in Rome. The man gave his credentials and lineage, citing as his father a notedContinue Reading
“To enter a Gothic church was to enter into salvation history.” The Iconographic In the first half of the 20th century a Russian artist was having a conversation with a friend about traditional sacred art, what we would today call iconography. The two great centers of this type of artContinue Reading
“Knowing who we are in God’s eyes can give us a tremendous sense of inner peace and strength.” Father Vincent Capodanno Father Vincent Capodanno, a Maryknoll Missionary, served as a marine chaplain during the Vietnam War. Lt. Joseph E. Pilon, MD, gives us an eyewitness account of “the grunt padre’s”Continue Reading
“Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2) In our post-enlightenment, post-Christian world, artists and artisans are perhaps most susceptible to vanity. The message for more than a hundred years now has been that society values the artist who stays true to their personal vision. To support this weContinue Reading
“In the sight of God it is not the quantity of our assets that is important but the quality of our being.” One of the most difficult things for us to do is to maintain a certain detachment from the world we live in. Popular culture is increasingly secular andContinue Reading
“a work of art may speak deeply to the heart of an individual” The Abbey in the Oakwood As artists, how do we convey timeless religious themes to an audience that has largely forsaken religion for the vague notion of spirituality? How do we render Christian images of faith andContinue Reading