Catholic musicians gathered to blog about liturgy and life
Usually it’s that other blog that provides amazing liturgical eye-candy, but in case some of our readers might enjoy seeing the new Ordinariate Use in action, here is a link to some stunning photos of last night’s inaugural Liturgy in honor of Blessed Cardinal Newman at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, London.
Bishop Conley published an essay today, very similar to a talk he recently gave, promoting Beauty as the most immediately useful among our means of evangelization.
God still speaks to these individuals in the language of truth and goodness. But their understanding is blocked by popular misconceptions—especially the idea that truth and goodness are purely subjective, and thus relative to the individual or group. “To each his own” or “who’s to say.” What Pope Benedict called the “dictatorship of relativism.”
Fr. Robert Barron, the Rector of Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary in Chicago, a theologian and great communicator of the faith, has lately taught that in the New Evangelization we must “lead with beauty.” Fr. Barron says that postmodern man might scoff at truth and goodness, but he’s still enthralled with beauty. He says that beauty is the arrowhead of evangelization, the point with which the evangelist pierces the minds and hearts of those he evangelizes.
To say with the poet, “look up, look up at the stars” is to point to creation or even to an artistic achievement, invites the nonbeliever first to appreciate what is and then to consider the origin of that which is.
In a cultural environment bereft of wonder, beauty takes on an even greater importance than it would otherwise have. Something in the experience of beauty is almost undeniable, even for the person who rejects the idea of objective truth or goodness. Beauty can get through, where other forms of divine communication may not.
Bishop Conley quotes a relatively unknown Hopkins poem above, The Starlight Night, worth considering below in its entirety. I think that as artists we all know that beauty costs. Pope John Paul said as much in his Letter to Artists. In this poem, beauty is the reward. Both are true for us, and the urgency is there on behalf of the many.
(Update)
In a talk that is destined to be a historic turning-point in discussions on the New Evangelization, Bishop Conley’s recent address (is a video forthcoming?) pointed a laser-beam at the most indisputable of the transcendentals: beauty.
Unlike the other transcendentals–being, truth, goodness, and unity–beauty is almost inarguable. Everyone believes in beauty.
That is to say, everyone except the 20th century art world believes in beauty, as Roger Scruton argues below in a piercing 2011 documentary. As a warning, there are examples of obscene modern art in this video, and they may–and frankly should be–offensive.
One of the reasons Bishop Conley’s address is so refreshing is the near-absence of beauty in most discussions on the New Evangelization. The working document for the Synod on the New Evangelization, for example, spoke of beauty in one very limited and quite underdeveloped paragraph, which neglected the vast heritage of Western liturgical art and pointed towards the East. It spoke of music not at all.
Some responses refer to the subjects of art and beauty as places for the transmission of the faith and, therefore, are to be addressed in this chapter dedicated to the relationship between faith and knowledge. Many possible reasons are given to support this request, especially those coming from the Eastern Catholic Churches who have a strong tradition in this area. They have been able to maintain a very close relation between faith and beauty. In these traditions, the relation between faith and beauty is not simply a matter of aesthetics, but is rather seen as a fundamental resource in bearing witness to the faith and developing a knowledge which is truly a “holistic” service to a person’s every human need.
The knowledge coming from beauty, as in the liturgy, is able to take on a visible reality in its originally-intended role as a manifestation of the universal communion to which humanity and every person is called by God. Therefore, human knowledge needs again to be wedded to divine knowledge, in other words, human knowledge is to adopt the same outlook which God the Father has towards creation and, through the Holy Spirit and the Son, to see God the Father in creation.
This fundamental role of beauty urgently needs to be restored in Christianity. In this regard, the new evangelization has an important role to play. The Church recognizes that human beings cannot exist without beauty. For Christians, beauty is found within the Paschal Mystery, in the transparency of the reality of Christ. (para. 157)
Since the goal of Christian life is gazing on the face of God, beauty is of the utmost urgency. The beautiful is an icon of God. It is above us, elevating us. It cannot be subsumed to our whims of the moment. And as Bishop Conley penetratingly explains, beauty can be accepted even by those who have been made immune to God under any other aspect, including truth.
See this remarkable website here.
While God “speaks to our souls through intellectual truth and moral goodness” in addition to beauty, “these forms of communication have become problematic. Many people, especially in modern Western culture, are too intellectually and morally confused to receive such a message.”
Because of this confusion, beauty may be the transcendental which “can get through, where other forms of divine communication may not,” the bishop taught.
“When we begin with beauty, this can then lead to a desire to want to know the truth of the thing that is drawing us, a desire to participate in it. And then the truth can inspire us to do the good, to strive after virtue.”
Bishop Conley said that “clearly, beauty has a major role to play in the New Evangelization” and enumerated three ways in which this can be done: through liturgy; appreciation of historic Christian culture; and openness to beauty in all its forms.
He called beauty in liturgy the “most essential” point, noting that “worship … is the basis of Christian culture” and pointing to examples of great converts who were struck by the solemn rites and extraordinary chants of the Catholic Church.
The bishop’s second recommendation was to become familiar with the beauty of historic Christian culture, such as Gregorian chant, in order to help others who appreciate it to understand the Christian beauty that inspired it.
Finally, he invited Catholics to “open our own minds to beauty, in all its manifestations” in both nature and culture, which will help us to understand beauty as “an earthly reflection of God’s glory.” more here from CNA
On the Feast of Blessed Cardinal Newman, October 9, the Westminster Cathedral Choir’s Vespers will be broadcast live by BBC Radio.
Master of Music: Martin Baker
Assistant Master of Music: Peter Stevens
Organ Scholar: Edward Symington.
