A transformative journey that combines traditional Catholic spirituality with holistic artistic formation and is offered to everyone. Become the creative you were meant to be. Designed by David Clayton, Artist-in-Residence at the Scala Foundation and Provost, Pontifex University
The Vision for You is a process by which we discovered our true calling in life—what we call our ‘personal vocation’; and through which we discovered the Great Fact—that we have a choice in life: WE CAN CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY OR TO BE MISERABLE.
A book review of A Devotional Journey into the Mass: How Mass Can Become A Time of Grace, Nourishment, and Devotion, by Christopher Carstens (pub Sophia Institute Press).
In this book, author Christopher Carstens takes us through each key element of the Mass—from how to enter the church through to how to respond to the dismissal. Grounding his discussion on the sacramental thought of Romano Guardini, he takes us on a journey into the heart of the liturgy.
We tend to think of a prophet as one who predicts the future, but that is not at all the ancient understanding of the word. The word "prophet" means speaker, or one who speaks. In Christian use, a prophet is one who has a special connection to God and speaks on God's behalf.
By virtue of our Baptism we are invested in the threefold office of Christ, priest, prophet, and king. The degree to which we fulfill each of these offices will depend on our individual gifts and calling. We are all called to be prophets, as well as priests and kings, to the degree our gifts allow us.
I am delighted to announce that Pontifex University and the Theology of the Body Institute, are formerly partnered to created a unique Masters degree. The Theology of the Body Institute, which is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, promotes the life-giving message of Theology of the Body through graduate-level courses, on-site speaker programs, and clergy enrichment training. Their week-long courses take place around the country and through the year, for a full schedule follow the link here. Their teachers are internationally known leaders in their fields such as Christopher West and Bill Donaghy.
I am often asked how my book, The Way of Beauty, which describes the principles of Catholic Education at higher levels, can be adapted for younger children. Now I know where to send them...here!
This wonderful book, written by a professor of education from Notre Dame University, Sydney, Australia, has the answers and much more besides. Balancing the natural and the supernatural, the theoretical and the practical, and combining the best of traditional methods with modern educational theory and psychology (with great prudence), Gerard O'Shea describes how a mystagogical catechesis, rooted in the study of scripture and the actual worship of God is at the heart of every Catholic education. Then he describes how teaching methods and curricula should reflect these principles for children of different ages.
Here is another Lenten reflection from a priest from the Institute of the Incarnate Word, IVE, which is for the week of the 4th Sunday of Lent. This is by Fr Marcelo Navarro who is based in Rome. This is a summary of St Thomas Aquinas's commentary on this Letter of the Apostle and focusses on important virtues for Lenten Season.
A beautiful spirit may shine even through a form that has been weakened. Drawing on both old and new testaments the early church fathers developed the doctrine of "kenosis" from a Greek word meaning emptiness. In the context of a theology of beauty kenosis refers to a humiliation of form, an emptying of one's self, so that the divine beauty shines more brightly. In the Old Testament this theme is taken up in the suffering servant.
The Master 0f Sacred Arts program at www.Pontifex.University offers a formation in beauty for artists, patrons of the arts and anyone who wants to contribute creatively to the transformation of the culture. It is a chance to travel on the Way of Beauty in a way never before available.
Our goal is to form the artists who will stand alongside any of the greats of the past, and who will transform the 21st century into a golden age that the will be viewed as important of any of the great cultural movements of past.
Following on from recent articles encouraging people to think about creating ceramic icon corners that can be beautiful and discreet, yet clearly visible signs of faith, here, and here, here is someone who can create such images and also carve beautiful shrines in wood or stone to house them in. It is Jerome Quigley of www.waysideshrines.org.
I met him at an Art and Faith event at St Pius X Catholic Church in Rock Island, Illinois this past week. He explained to me that he creates the carvings himself in wood or an artificial granite (used for heavy kitchen surfaces and which can be carved like wood). He can respond to commission and even more interestingly, he has a process whereby he can set images into porcelain. This is not a print, but rather one in which the pigment is set directly into the chemical structure of the substrate porcelain - similar to the way in which pigment is incorporated into the plaster in frescoes.
The tradition of reproducing paintings on porcelain goes back to the 19th century at least. I have recently seen several handpainted porcelain copies of the highest quality made in that time. The look of these hand-painted antique reproductions is the same those that Jerome makes. Here is a 19th-century example. Porcelain has a luminosity to it that you can see in this photograph.
I spoke to him about the possibility of creating icon corners consisting of three images and he was confident that he could produce something beautiful, either on a shrine or as a ceramic piece that could be set in a building by the purchaser, for example. It would need demand from customers for this to happen, but if the business logic is there for Jerome to do it, I am happy to work with him to help create outdoor icon corners.
Here are some more examples of his work. Once again his website is www.waysideshrines.org.
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In those days, God delivered the commandments: 1 Ex 20:1-17. Here is another Lenten reflection from a priest from the Institute of the Incarnate Word, IVE, which is for the week of the 3rd Sunday of Lent. This is by Fr Nicholas Grace who is in Cowdenbeath, Scotland.
“I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery…I am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for wickedness but mercy…on those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Considering this text, I would like, in this article, to focus on two things in a very brief manner.
First: The Natural Law, written by God on every human heart.
Second: What are the Ten Commandments & Why they are so important.
The Natural Law, written by God on every human heart: Every member of Nature, every plant, every animal has a law which makes them tend to their goal, which makes them work.
Every human being has a law and must remain faithful to it if they are going to reach their goal if they are going to function correctly. This is called man’s Natural law.
Why is it called natural? This Law is rooted in a set of natural inclinations to specific goods. Natural inclinations toward Self-preservation, toward having and raising children, toward knowing the truth about God and living in society. It is imprinted in our hearts. It doesn’t have to be taught or learned. Like our DNA or genetic code, we also have this moral code weaved into our very being. How does it function? -This law, through our intelligence, tells us what is right for us, what is wrong for us, what is good for us & what is bad for us. When our actions conform to this law they help us fulfill our purpose in life & are thereby right & morally good. Similarly, when our actions are at variance with this law, they deter us from that purpose and are therefore wrong & immoral. Some examples: The law of our Nature tells us that… ● Nourishing our bodies is right, but overindulging to the detriment of health is wrong.
● Self-preservation is right, but selfishness is wrong.
● To love another person is good, but to love someone already seriously committed to another is not.
Now while it is easy to recognize that this knowledge comes naturally to us, we must also admit, very often, that same knowledge is rejected. In fact, the modern Western World is in a moral crisis. Institutions and governments often deny the Existence of the Natural law inscribed in every human heart. This denial has assisted in the spread of a morality not based on human nature but based on an easily manipulated social consensus. Is there a consequence? This denial means that all moral opinions become valid.
Why is that a problem? Values become distorted. Take tolerance, it has been distorted to promote a society where no one's choices are criticised because criticism might make someone feel bad.
Why is that a problem? Isn’t it best to make people feel nice? People’s feelings are easily manipulated and once manipulated evil can be called good & good can be called evil, evil vices can be presented as virtues and virtues as vices to the point where feelings totally outrank reason.
Is there a solution? We already have it!. God in his Wisdom and as a convenience, explicitly revealed the Ten Commandments, which very clearly express all those Laws already written in the heart of man, but often conveniently ignored because of the stubbornness and selfishness of man.
What are the Ten Commandments & Why are they so important?
As an exercise say and name aloud each of the Ten Commandments.
Then consider: If everyone in the world kept even half of them would the quality of life on our planet improve? Would human beings be working so much better?
The answer is, of course, YES, because the Commandments aren’t just Religious guidelines, they are also God’s design for work, for families, for friendships and for society as a whole. A: We can compare the Ten Commandments to the handbook for a car. A car is a complicated piece of machinery, and the maker’s handbook tells you how to take care of our car properly so that you can get the most out of it. The Ten Commandments are God’s handbook for human beings.
Why else are they so important?
Many people no longer respect God’s authority. As a result, they no longer respect authority of any kind, whether politicians, parents, Priests, teachers or employers and the secular, as well as, the Religious community suffer greatly because of this lack of respect.
We live in an age of Moral Relativism: All Morality is relative. All truth is relative. Unfortunately, the more everyone makes up his or her own truths, the less truth there will be. The Ten Commandments preserve for us the ten most important truths.
There is tremendous ignorance about God. The Commandments remind the world of his existence, manifest his plan and express his personality.
Finally, The Commandments are extremely important, but they are not everything. For this reason, I would like to conclude this article with a story which might illustrate my point. It is a missionary story which concerns the Taliabo people of Indonesia. “Many years ago, two families from New Tribes Mission, moved in with the Taliabo to live with them and learn their language. They began teaching the Scriptures, working their way forward to Christ and the Gospel. However, soon after the missionaries taught the people the Ten Commandments, a group of men visited them at their hut.
We are in big trouble with God. God’s law tells us not to kill, but we have killed other men. God’s law tells us not to steal, but we have stolen. We have broken God’s commandments, but we did not know that God commanded these things. From now on, we will keep God’s Commandments.
A couple of weeks later they returned to the missionaries’ hut. We are in really big trouble with God. Now we know God’s Commandments, but we still break them”.
I wanted the story to underline to those reading this article that, although God has written his law in our hearts we cannot keep it. Even though God has revealed his law through his prophets, we cannot keep it. The Taliabo people, just like the people of Israel, broke almost every Commandment immediately after receiving them.
The point is that Knowledge of the law is not enough. Knowing what is right does not confer power to do what is right, as Socrates incorrectly supposed. That is why, we have doctors who smoke, financial advisors who are in debt, and marriage counselors who are divorced!
The Ten Commandments do not remedy our sins; rather they reveal them and underline our need for a Saviour who can forgive them. That Saviour is Jesus Christ.
This Lent let us make a great effort to, not only, live by following the Ten Commandments but also seek Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, when we will probably fail in our best efforts to keep the Commandments.
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'For with You is the fountain of life, and in Your Light, we shall see light.'
Many readers of this blog will be familiar, I'm sure, with the idea that there is a theology that is used to explain the stylistic elements of the iconographic liturgical art. However, I am not aware of a metaphysics or philosophical anthropology that has been or could be used to articulate a philosophy of icons.
That is, until recently.
A couple of years ago, on the recommendation of a Dominican friar here in Berkeley, I read two works of the late Jesuit philosopher, Fr Norris Clarke. These were Person and Being, and The One and the Many - A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics. You can see an interview with him shortly before his death in 2008, here, on YouTube in which he talks about his 'personalist' Thomism.
More recently, I sat in on a series of excellent lectures on the thought of Fr Clarke as part of a class on the philosophy of nature and philosophical anthropology, taught by Dr. Michel Accad for Pontifex University's Master of Sacred Arts program. Dr. Accad had invited me to attend so that I might participate by discussing with him why an understanding of philosophy is important for artists today.
There are, incidentally, a number of general reasons why such a class would be included in a sacred arts program - for example, the simple fact that an understanding of the human person and nature is always important for an artist who is seeking to reveal both invisible and visible truths about both through art. However, it occurred to me as I listened and reflected on the subject that Fr Clarke's Thomistic philosophy, in particular, might be the basis for a philosophy of icons. I offer my thoughts on this as some personal speculation for your interest.
We will start with a brief account of some of the ways in which theology has been used to explain the style of icons.
Take a look at this icon of the Transfiguration,
...we see Christ shining with light. This is understood to be a glimpse given to the Apostles of his heavenly glory. That glory, which is the radiance of his being, is the radiating of an uncreated 'light of being', the divine light of the burning bush, that shone without consuming the bush itself. Saints, who through baptism and lives of purity participate in the divine nature shine with this light too; and in their purity are able to see in ways that we can only grasp 'through a glass darkly'. This radiance is represented by the halo of light around their heads. Another indication that each figure is a source of light is indicated by the fact that none have cast shadows.
Even the apostles, who are not shown with halos (indicating that this event is prior to Pentecost when the fire of the Holy Spirit came to them) are nevertheless shown without cast shadows. This reflects the fact that in some way and at this moment, they must have been at least temporarily purified. For only the 'pure in heart' who are themselves participating in the divine nature can see the divine light. Even so, the power of such a vision to those who are unused to seeing it has knocked them back as we can see!
There are other stylistic elements that reflect truths about the objects portrayed that are not ordinarily visible. So there is a hierarchy of being in which Christ is greatest, mankind is next and inanimate beings come next. This is reflected visually by having Christ the most prominent figure amongst the six, through the design - and his size and brightness and the way in which his image relates to the other people in the composition. The mountain, on the other hand, is small relative to its natural size. In some icons, plants and mountains will be depicted actually bowing to Christ to communicate this point.
While the discussion so far relates to visible light, which is the only way that an artist working in a visual medium can portray such radiance, the light he is portraying is not in fact limited to visual light or even to electromagnetic radiation. This radiance is of a divine, uncreated supernatural 'light' that is visible to the purified 'spiritual eye', the place inside us where we see, so to speak, truth, and are connected to God. This is the 'spirit' of the Pauline anthropology (body, soul, spirit), which Stratford Caldecott, for example, equated with the intellectus of the Western medievals, and the nous of the Eastern Fathers, see here.
So how can philosophy account for this? First, it is worth describing the work of Fr Norris Clarke who is a philosopher in the true sense. He develops his own original thought, still working in the Thomistic tradition. Dr. Accad was kind enough to give me a summary of the salient points.
He wrote:
'I agree, that the work of Fr. Norris Clarke (which we cover at the end of the course, as a kind of summary and integration of everything we have learned) is likely to provide a helpful framework. Here are some of the points that Fr. Clarke distills from St. Thomas’ metaphysics (and to which he adds insights from modern “personalist” philosophy):
'The universe is an immense family of real beings, and all real beings—from the simplest drop of water to the human person—have something in common: They all exist! In technical terms, all real beings share in the act of existence. What’s more, we are all intimately connected with the source of our existence, God, who is existent in Himself (“I am who am”)
'Although all created beings share in the act of existence, each being is limited by an essence: A dog is a share of existence possessed—and limited by—the essence of “dogginess” and an oak tree is a share of existence possessed and limited by the essence of “oakiness”. God, of course, is unlimited, infinite being. According to St. Thomas, His essence is existence.
'Because created being are all finite and limited by essence, we each have something to receive from the rest of the family of beings, but we each also have something to contribute to other beings. All beings are constantly communicating of themselves to others and receiving from others to complete and perfect themselves.
'For example, even a simple pebble communicates its own existence to the rest of the world. Modern science acknowledges that: For one thing, by its existence, the pebble contributes materially to the gravitational field of the planet—even if in a most modest way. Without that gravitational field, we would all be floating about in the ether, getting evermore separated from one another!
'Because to be real is to be giving and to be receiving, we are all substances in relation. This is particularly true in the higher beings, like animals and humans who are constantly giving and receiving from one another, but it is even true at the lowest level. Water, for example, is molecular beings that are in relation with one another. Each molecule of H2O gives of itself to its neighbor and receives the actions of its neighboring molecules. The consequence this mutual interaction is a community of molecular beings that has the property of being clear, liquid, and life-sustaining for all living organisms!
'Clarke’s rendition of Thomistic metaphysics describes a wonderful community of beings, each of which, in its own way, reflects, refracts, and radiates the light of the Creator to all other beings.'
Man, of course, occupies a special place in the universe. Being at once a spirit united to a material body, he is an “amphibian” straddling the world of angels and that of earthly creatures. Because he possesses and intellectual nature that allows him to form civilizations, he leads creation on its journey back to the Creator. And, as spirit, man is also person: individually distinct and self-possessing and capable of living in self-conscious and self-determining community with others, in the image of the community of Divine Persons.
I do not know if Fr Clarke himself ever connected his ideas to the theology of the icon, but the parallels seem clear. He is describing this radiance of being in ways that are compatible with the uncreated light of being referred to by the theologians of the past, and which is manifested visually in the icon.
As I read Fr Clarke's books, this picture of being as an activity, a static dynamism in which each is giving and receiving of itself superabundantly (that is without depletion) reminds me of the dynamic of love described by Benedict XVI is his encyclicals. Benedict talks of love as simultaneous actions of self-gift and ordered reception of persons in relation, terming them agape, and eros respectively. I have written about this here.
Also, Clarke's philosophy helps me to understand something about the nature of beauty itself, which is sometimes defined as the 'radiance of being'. Beauty is an objective quality, that is, it is as an aspect of the thing considered beautiful; and in the full perception of its existence we, the subjects observing it, delight in it. But beauty has, nevertheless, a subjective component, for different subjects will have differing abilities to 'see', that is to apprehend, the incident 'light' of being emanating from the object.
I finish with an affirmation from the greatest school of theology and of life and all, that is, the liturgy. Light and life are connected in the hymn in the Eastern Rite called the Great Doxology. It opens with the proclamation, 'Glory to You, O Giver of light!' This is the divine light which we all participate in through our existence, which as human beings incorporates life, and which we possess in the fullness of our capabilities by partaking of the divine nature as baptized Christians. The connection is made explicitly later in this same hymn with the words: 'For with You is the fountain of life, and in Your Light, we shall see light.'
The fountain of life!
What is this if not the self-effusive activity of being made all the more resplendent with the supernatural gift of life by which we relate to each other and with God in love in, at its consummation, the liturgy?
As an aside: in the Mandylion above, which I painted, I was told that the rounded brow that sits in the V between the eyebrows can be thought of as the 'spirit' or the 'spiritual eye' of the person that 'sees Light'.
Pontifex University is an online university offering a Master’s Degree in Sacred Arts. For more information visit the website at www.pontifex.university
This program designed by The Way of Beauty's David Clayton gives you a unique formation in beauty and a Catholic inculturation. For artists of any creative disciplines, catechists and all who love beauty. Learn more at www.Pontifex.University.
