Suffering With Joy

A Privileged and Fascinating Path

March 4, 2010

Last fall Pope Benedict XVI spoke in a general audience on the subject of the theological background of Church architecture from the Romanesque to the Gothic. You might think the topic would be dull and dry, but the Holy Father is a teacher who makes subjects come alive.  Here is a portion of his talk quoting his favorite theologian, St. Augustine:

…the way of beauty, is a privileged and fascinating path on which to approach the Mystery of God. What is the beauty that writers, poets, musicians, and artists contemplate and express in their language other than the reflection of the splendor of the eternal Word made flesh?

Then St Augustine says: “Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air, amply spread around everywhere, question the beauty of the sky, question the serried ranks of the stars, question the sun making the day glorious with its bright beams, question the moon tempering the darkness of the following night with its shining rays, question the animals that move in the waters, that amble about on dry land, that fly in the air; their souls hidden, their bodies evident; the visible bodies needing to be controlled, the invisible souls controlling them. Question all these things. They all answer you, “Here we are, look; we’re beautiful!’ Their beauty is their confession. Who made these beautiful changeable things, if not one who is beautiful and unchangeable?” (Sermo CCXLI, 2: PL 38, 1134).

St. Augustine, c. 1474, JOOS van Wassenhove (active 1460-1480), oil on wood, Musee du Louvre, Paris

Tags: art

1 Comment to A Privileged and Fascinating Path

1. 

   Hello Barb

   just wanted to thank you for your comment and advice about the vitamins. Strangely enough, I have just found a book called…I think, Potatoes not Prozac, and the author mentions much of what you say, I will certainly look into this, when able to concentrate a little better.I will get hold of some of those tablets you mention, at the weekend.
   See the delay, if it was a bottle of booze, I would force my sick frame out right now. Boy, do I reveal myself, to myself. Sorry to post this on your new post.
   I have read it, and always find something amazing when watching the birds of the air. Flying, resting in trees, pecking about on the grass. Now I shall think of their souls too.

   God bless

   Ros
shadowlands(Ros) on March 5th, 2010