Referencing St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis de Sales shares that we appreciate beauty by knowing and seeing it, rather than by owning it. How does realizing beauty as something greater than ourselves point towards the author of beauty?
With this criteria in mind, how is monastic life beautiful?
For most of history, Churches have always been grand and beautiful. Do modern Churches stir our hearts and souls in the same way? If not, is this a loss to us?
All beauty on earth serves as a window through which we experience God. Beauty is something greater than ourselves which moves us. Is it necessary to religious life? Undoubtedly! To prepare for Sunday’s chat, please read our article, “The Spiritual Importance of Beauty”, as well as “Monastic Beauty.”
http://visitationspirit.org/2014/04/the-spiritual-importance-of-beauty/
The Spiritual Importance of BEAUTY | Visitation Spirit
http://visitationspirit.org/2014/04/monastic-beauty/
Sister Susan Marie: The inspiration for this came from an article about the modern idea of beauty but without goodness
Apr 13 2014, 7:27 PM
Al: good idea for a topic
Sister Susan Marie: We need to share the beauty of our lives and keep our hearts pointed to the good
Sister Susan Marie: And the beauty of religious life, and monastic life, is all pervasive I think
Guest8 (guest): I read an article once, that proposed that churches today built with a convention center style of architecture will actually lead people to sin whereas traditional churches point heavenward.
Sister Susan Marie: Very interesting! yes, some modern churches actually look like airport waiting areas
Alt: interesting! I do love the beauty of our Catholic Churches
Guest8 (guest): It was an interesting argument for the necessity of beauty within the church. It also discussed just the beauty of the mass as well.
Sister Susan Marie: Ornateness in a tasteful, spiritual style, leads the heart better to God, for most people
Al: absolutely
Sister Susan Marie: God is the all beautiful and can you image the beauty of heaven? Churches should reflect that
14, 7:32 PM
Sister Susan Marie: One should gasp on entering!
Al: i dont know that it could be captured!
Guest8 (guest): Yes I agree. We need to point people to what is beautiful, good, and true.
Sister Susan Marie: What Church would you point a person to?
Sister Susan Marie: For beauty?
Al: do you mean a specific one?
Sister Susan Marie: Yes if you have one in mind
Sister Susan Marie: Byzantine Catholic churches are outstanding too
Al: i do! It would be St. Lukes here in Rangeley
in the mountains, on the lake and just a simple decor
Sister Susan Marie: So God’s creation surrounding St Luke’s is the setting of beauty for simplicity:
Guest8 (guest): I think there are many that I could point to that are beautiful. Some with beautiful stained glass windows and architecture, but some that are beautiful in their simplicity as well.
Al: yes
God’s creation is breath taking
Sister Susan Marie: I know the Trappists prefer the simplicity in their monasteries, a stark beauty one might say. It helps them concentrate on the one thing necessary, the presence of God
Sister Susan Marie: Exterior beauty can lead to interior beauty, of the soul, the mind and the heart
Sister Susan Marie: Have you found that to be true?
Al: yes so much so
Guest8 (guest): I agree. I been on retreat at a Trappist monastery and find it to be quite stunning.
Al: and Fr. Paul is an artist as well as our cantor Susy
they decorate for the seasons
I feel peaceful inside
Sister Susan Marie: Yes we must include music as a part of beauty which lifts our souls to God
Al We have had people cry during music
you can feel the beauty- do you know what i mean
Sister Susan Marie: I’ve been once to the Trappist Monastery in Gethsemane in KY and chant and interior whiteness of the walls was quite an experience of prayer
Sister Susan Marie: Yes Al the heart is moved
Al: it sounds like it Sister
Guest8 (guest): I agree that exterior beauty can lead one to that interior beauty in the heart. I know when I visit the abbey of Gethsemane as well I just want to drop to my knees in prayer, and in the silence that dwells with God.
K (guest): God made us humans with senses and I think it is easier to allow Him to speak to our hearts when we are touched with beauty, be it music, architecture or nature.
Sister Susan Marie: Extraordinary silence there!
Guest8 (guest): Yes there is. I feel so at home when I am there.
Alt: I think everything about our Catholic faith evokes emotion. the incense, the music the priest lifting the host
Guest8 (guest): There is such depth in the silence.
Apr 13 2014, 7:42 PM
Al: and of course the fact that our Lord is present!
Guest8 (guest): Absolutely! Even in his suffering there is beauty.
Al: especially moving during this holy week
Sister Susan Marie: Yes this week is filled with movement, processions, and beauty even as we contemplate His great suffering for us
Guest8 (guest): As I experience Holy Week, I am profoundly amazed at his suffering that my Lord, the Lover of my soul, has gone to such great lengths to do this for even me.
Guest8 (guest): It is such a profound love and it is so beautiful.
Sister Susan Marie: Thank you- that is so profoundly stated
Guest8 (guest): Yet I must admit that I sometimes have a hard time thinking that I ever deserve such love.
Alt: true guest
: and I hardly thank Him
K (guest): When we experience beauty, it changes us because it is an encounter with He who is goodness, truth and beauty. M
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: like when we see a newborn baby- innocence and beauty
Sister Susan Marie: Yes K, well expressed point, we change for the better. so called beauty without goodness or truth may change us for the worse
Sister Susan Marie: And certainly the love of the Lord changes us for the better
K (guest): And when we experience beauty with other people we can grow together in our love for Him and for each other.
Al: love that K
Guest8 (guest): I agree K
Sister Susan Marie: The encouragement we give one another or the different facets of His beauty that we uniquely see and then share- that is the Body of Christ
Sister Susan Marie: I like that K- we ponder and contemplate together, as it were:
K (guest): I tend toward thinking that beauty is always orderly, but maybe I am wrong.
Apr 13 2014, 7:54 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I think St Francis de Sales emphasizes order in beauty
Sister Susan Marie: He said He said, “Union in distinction makes order; order produces agreement; and proportion and agreement, in complete and finished things, make beauty.
K(guest): I see the meticulous movements in the liturgy and it is beautiful.
Sister Susan Marie: And perhaps K that is what some people see in the Tridentine Liturgy
Sister Susan Marie: Those meticulous movements that the priest does
K(guest): Yes, I love the Latin Mass.
Sister Susan Marie: The beauty of holiness!
Sister Susan Marie: The most beautiful Liturgies happen when the priest is holy- you do feel then heaven is there
K(guest): And in music, when the pitch matches perfectly or there is perfect harmony, the overtones actually create more harmony. Wow the wonder of sound.
Sister Susan Marie: There is UNITY
Apr 13 2014, 8:00 PM
Am: Gregorian chants, because of their beauty and mystery, are hot now
Guest8 (guest): I think the mass allows us to see the beauty of the cross and the suffering. It takes the torment of the cross and transforms it into an image that saves the world.
Guest8 (guest): Beyond the ugliness is the supreme expression of His love for the world.
K (guest): The terms “wonder”, “awe” and “beauty” go together. Yes Gregorian chant is a source of beauty that young people are embracing. Hello Sister Mary Roberta.
Sister Susan Marie: Love profound love of Jesus, takes the horrid and makes it beautiful
Guest8 (guest): Yes there is beauty in unity. That is why the communion of the saints is so important in the life of the church.
Ca: Unity/communio of hearts & minds
Am: Monastics don’t “own” anything to speak of
Apr 13 2014, 8:06 PM
Ca: W/God & each other (?)
Mary Roberta Viano: But also beauty in the diversity of symbols: from the Bishop of Lincoln, NE, Bishop James Conley: “The Church calls us to contemplate symbols – the waving palms, the washed feet, the Easter fire – and their meaning as signs pointing to a more profound reality.”
Alt: well i think there is beauty in creation- made by God. And monastic life praises God
Apr 13 2014, 8:07 PM
Guest8 (guest): Monastic life is beautiful in its simplicity. But also as it joins together in communion with the whole church to sing the praises of God in the liturgy of the hours.
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, Al. More from the Bishop: “We are given our senses – and our ability to appreciate beauty – so that we can appreciate the profundity of this Paschal mystery.”
Ca: Yes, praising Creator with fiat to Him
Am: The whole Bible has so many symbols, we can take a lifetime studying it. didn’t Jesus arrive in Jerusalem frm the eastern part of the city?
Car: He always arrives from East!
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, Guest8, the Office is beautiful and meaningful and unifying.
Am: and somewhere in the old testament does mention the messiah will come from the East
Ca: Yes ad orientem
Mary Roberta Viano: He’s the Morning Star, rising in the East.
Am: see how beautiful just one thing from Jesus’s arrival to Jerusalem is, and everything has a meaning
Guest8 (guest): Monastic life is also beautiful in its humility and obedience to the Lord.
Am: In the silence you can hear God
Mary Roberta Viano: I love Song of Songs because it speaks of Our Lord’s overwhelming beauty – and His deep love for us.
Apr 13 2014, 8:12 PM
Guest8 (guest): As we seek to do His will, and trust Him completely with our lives we become more like Him and thus enter into His beauty.
Am: That’s really hard, Guest8. Total surrender to divine providence.
Mary Roberta Viano: To appreciate beauty I have to be still and silent.
Guest8 (guest): Yes I agree Am
K (guest): Silence, the language of God.
Ca: Yes, still small voice in silence
Mary Roberta Viano: That soft breeze that Elijah felt
Am: Me too, Sister. I think our world is too noisy. when we lost power here in the ice storm, it’s amazing you notice the lack of the refrigerator noise, or those little hums
Sister Susan Marie: Yes it is difficult but that will bring us the most beauty and peace since His Will is always the best for us
Al: Am so true!
Am: we always seem to want to run ahead of Jesus.
Apr 13 2014, 8:15 PM
Al: i sometimes like to lose power for that reason
K (guest): Our peace is in His will.
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, Amy. Again the good NE Bishop says: “This Holy Week, consider turning off the TV in your home – and the radio and the social media you consume.”
Al: i will try that!
Ca: Good advice, but tough I do that periodically
Mary Roberta Viano: So, after this chat room, no more computer until Easter Monday!
Al: I am moving to a house out of town with no internet or cell service
Ca: Al more like a hermitage!
Apr 13 2014, 8:17 PM
Guest8 (guest): Good idea Sister Mary Roberta. I wish I could, but I have to go to school and do my homework.
Al: ok Sister Mary Roberta!I will let you know how it goes
Sister Susan Marie: Yes and we will not have chat on Easter of course!
Mary Roberta Viano: That’s why I’m glad we only go online for monastic work – not just to surf.
Guest8 (guest): To truly enter into the silence can be hard.
The reason this week’s topic came up was because there are so many who look for beauty in the wrong places and separate it from goodness or even truth. That can happen on many fronts. How do we bring people back to goodness as well as beauty?
Mary Roberta Viano: True, Guest8, but that’s when we consciously hand it over to the Lord.
Ca: God’s goodness truth beauty & love = inseparable
Al: I feel like we are in a materialistic world. if we gave some of that up maybe it would help
K(guest): By living it ourselves.
Guest8 (guest): Definitely Kim! By trying to model it for others.
Ca: Imitation of Jesus
K (guest): Allowing them to want what we have.
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, inseparable, Ca – until we get hung up on the beautiful.
Guest8 (guest): And modeling the joy that it brings to our lives.
Ki(guest): Yes, with joy Guest 8!
Ca: Hung up with superficial/passing aspects of beauty= not good
Joy= from deeper grasp of beauty
Sister Susan Marie: Inner peace is a good sign of beauty that is united with goodness
Al: good Ca!
K (guest): True beauty becomes a part of us, so it last.
Apr 13 2014, 8:25 PM
Ca: Yes, Sister- deep unrest from pursuing the superficial, selfish etc
Mary Roberta Viano: Pope Francis seems very detached from beauty.
Ca: Pope radiates beauty of Christ
Al: yes what a great role model for our Church
Mary Roberta Viano: He wants to “smell like the sheep.”
Guest8 (guest): Yes Sister Susan Marie. “Be still and know.”
Alt: He really does
Mary Roberta Viano: – not very sweet smelling!
Alt: haha
Ca: Hahahaha sheep are def quite stinky
Al: I think he has kissed more people than any pope
Guest8 (guest): Yet there is a beauty in the Holy Father’s humility.
Mary Roberta Viano: – like St. Francis of A. kissing the sick and smelly leper
Ca: How wonderful that he has kissed even the skin diseased man
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, that’s why he’s joyful countenance is on the cover of so many magazines!
Guest8 (guest): And there is beauty in the geniune love and compassion that he has shown.
Apr 13 2014, 8:28 PM
Sister Susan Marie: He insists on a Church capable of “making the heart burn,” of healing every kind of illness and injury, of restoring happiness.
Ca: Now if only the guys @ Rolling Stone would take their fascination a few steps further
Alt: lol
Apr 13 2014, 8:29 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, that love and compassion are definitely beautiful.
K (guest): Yes Sister Susan, “making the heart burn with love”.
Sister Susan Marie: Yes Carla, that’s the point- to move them to truth and goodness and beauty!
Ca: Yes Sister SM- I think he
Ca: Is having great impact
Al: Another great chat! thank you! Have a happy Easter.
Apr 13 2014, 8:30 PM
Ca: Is having great impact
Ca: Blessed Easter
Mary Roberta Viano: Blessed Holy Week!
Guest8 (guest): Yes many blessings all week to all!
Guest8 (guest): May you experience His beauty this week.
Apr 13 2014, 8:32 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Blessed Holy Week and Easter to all!