THE ONE, THE TRUE, THE GOOD, AND THE BEAUTIFUL

“The poor of the world need more than the crude fundamentals of food and shelter, they also need beauty.” This is not the exact quote as I could not find the reference this morning, but it does explain why I will never apologize for the Church commissioning works of art. (Okay, I take that back, there are a few works of art for which I apologize, but at least they tried.)

“The One, the True, the Good, and the Beautiful: they come together and they go together. When all is said and done, we will be saved by the Beautiful (and) one of the things we are in danger of losing today is the Beautiful.” (Fr. Benedict Groeshel giving a retreat for priests.)

Having this in mind the Church has always been a Patroness of the Arts. Yet today, in the most affluent society ever to exist in all of history, we relegate our purchases of “art” to mass-produced pieces ordered from catalogues. Now, like being able to find a McDonald’s hamburger in any city or hamlet in the world, you can find a Catholic Church with the exact same crucifix as the one in your hometown. This, in turn, means artists do not find a market for nor hone their skills on religious art. The chain effect is that it then becomes more and more difficult to commission works of art from artisans who understand Christian symbolism and the difference between art for art's sake and liturgical art.

Find a way to be part of the cure. There are many ways in which this might be done depending on your resources and level of influence (of which you have more than you realize.) Seminarians from the seminary of the Diocese of Cleveland have a “John Paul II Night of the Arts” each year in which they celebrate prayer and art. Poetry, music, improvisational comedy, artwork, photography, and the theatrical arts are presented for the community.

Occasionally money is donated to a parish for a “work of art.” When this happened at my last parish we decided to ditch the catalogues and hire a local artist to create a piece for us that would be unique to the parish. We had the parish crest made in stained glass for the school. And for my Aunt’s eightieth birthday my cousin had a piece commissioned from the same company as her gift (see below).

Find ways in which you can support the work of artist. Clevelanders will have a unique opportunity to do so on March 25th. The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus will be performing Rachmaninoff’s “All-Night Vigil (Vespers – all of it) at Severance Hall (a great opportunity for Lenten reflection) to raise money for the Chorus.

Even if you have no monetary resources, go to that concert in the park and take young ones with you so that they can learn what it is to enjoy the arts. When they grow older they will appreciate art and be promoters of it. Rob, who visits Adam’s Ale from time to time has a website on which he posts his short stories. The first one is a heart-wrenching story of what happens when the Theology of the Body is forgotten or ignored and persons sexually use each other as a means to an end. (WARNING: SEXUAL CONTENT) But venues such as this allow you to give encouragement to artists in our midst.

Here are just a few more suggestions of ways in which Catholics can promote the arts in general:

* Become a member of a local arts organization. It does not have to be great. Even the local community theater forms budding artists and trains youth how to attend the theater.
* Attend live performances.
* Donate to worthy arts organizations.
* Promote the use of primary source artists in your home, school, business, parish, and community.
* As much as possible, influence arts toward the promotion of the dignity of the human person and the glory of God.
* Develop your artistic skills.
* When possible, employ live musicians in lieu if recorded music.
* When purchasing souvenirs, look for original or hand-made works of art or arts and crafts. (Why go to Italy and bring something home made in China?)
* Consider sponsoring a performance or art show in your home, community, or parish.
* Try to purchase recordings or pieces directly from the artist when possible.
* Consider donating to a scholarship for artists.
* When enjoying a street or park performance, donate as well as you can when the plate is passed.

WHEN YOU'RE RIGHT, YOU WRITE

About a year ago, two of my best priest buddies and I went on retreat at Trinity Retreat House in Larchmont New York which was put on by Fr. Benedict Groeshel of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Because of parish duties we had to leave early on the last day of the retreat (like 5:oo AM) to get back to Cleveland, but Fr. Benedict said that he wanted to talk to us before we left. So, at 5:00 AM we knocked on the door of his humble dwelling and not only was he up, he was busy writing! He gave us a blessing and an instruction, "You boys need to start writing. You need to start getting the word out."

So we bundled ourselves into the van and headed out in awe until one of us said, "So, what do you suppose he meant?" It was then we realized that hadn't the slightest idea. (And truth be told, I think the comment was mostly directed Markus who is the most articulate and knowledgeable of us and who in fact is now in Rome studying his poor little heart out - Hi Markus - have an espresso on me today.)

Anyway, it did start me writing. Sometimes with success, sometimes not. A couple of successes have been an article on architecture and one on the liturgy. The one on liturgy was reprinted in Scotland and spurred an article by Terry Mattingly which was printed in a number of places.

Another priest whom I am proud to call a friend has also gotten into writing. An excellent article by him appeared in Dappled Things, a place for young (and happy) Catholics to post their thoughts, entitled, "Catholic Education and Masturbation." A more recent article by him can be found in First Things.

If you are Catholic, HAPPY, and a person of prayer, consider getting the pen out (or the keyboard.) Help get the good message of faith out. Write an article, a letter to the editor, a blog entry or at least journal! Don't be alarmed if it is not printed or read (I think barely a soul reads this blog) for if nothing else, it sends a message out to those managing such things that they have a readership that thinks a certain way and it organizes your thoughts, causes you to contemplate so when it comes time for you to speak out, you have something from which do draw. So get on it! Start today!