DAZZLE ME

I pray for wonder.

God is so awesome.  But we are so accustomed to HIs awesomeness.  And just as it is a terrible thing to grow accustomed to evil, it is even more egregious to allow the glorious to grow common.

So pray and fight against it.

One way to do this is through beauty.  Beauty grabs your mind and heart in a vice grip and says, “Wait a minute!  Consider me!”  And instead of fighting against it like we might a dissertation or street preacher, we are utterly helpless, at least for a moment, before true beauty.

The other day I was sitting in the a side chair of our sanctuary praying my Liturgy of the Hours and reviewing my homily before Mass when a server came out to put something on the credence table.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw him look, do a double take, and then just stand and stare at a painting we put in our sanctuary for lent.  

As you saw yesterday, St. Sebastian is in another periodical because of the art generated at the parish.  Nobody asked for a printout of my last homily (which was brilliant and erudite by the way), but they did an article on a painting and because of it I was able to also talk about some truths of the faith.

I think about the time we were on tour with the choir and they began to warm up in the parking lot of a church in which they were about to perform.  People paused in their touring about and stopped and listened.  Had I been simply extolling the virtues of beauty my bet is I would catch fewer people and held on to them for a shorter period.

As Fr. Benedict Groeschel would say, “It is ultimately beauty that will save us.”  You cannot win anyone over if you do not first have their attention.  You won’t get anybody’s attention if you don’t have something beautiful.  Beauty does not come out of a catalogue of mass produced articles.  People are looking for a unique, beautiful voice.  How are you going to give it to them?

I pray for wonder.