Letter from the Pastor
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October 23, 2022The ancient Greek word for beauty was kalos, a word with many other, yet related connotations such as "what is proper," or "what is good;" and as a result the Greeks didn't leave us a clear cut model of beauty. But the One, True, Good and Beautiful were first principles for the Greek minds. They are interrelated and from these four principles everything else flows. The beautiful is true and good, because it shares in the One beauty-God Himself.
The early Church looked at the idea of the beautiful in reference to God. St. Augustine in the Book IV of his Confessions discusses at length the concept of beauty: Late have I loved thee, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved thee! Thou was within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for thee. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things, which, thou created.
St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae gives three distinguishing characteristics of beauty: wholeness or integrity, balance or harmony, and claritas, splendor, radiance, light, or brilliance. The chief characteristic is claritas, 'radiance' ... beautiful things shine. If a work of art contains all the three elements, then the person may be reasonably assured that the work is beautiful. If one of these three elements are deficient, then the work will be deficient; and though it may gain acceptance as a work of art, it will never be considered beautiful. The eyes and ears of our soul enable us to “see” and “hear” the transcendent beauty present in things.
When we sense Beauty, our minds transcend this world into the next; we stop and think about or reflect on the beautiful. There is an instinct in us that is always attracted to the beautiful. The more beautiful a thing is, the more we are attracted to it, because it is also, true and good. Music, art or the sunset sails us away from the everyday into another and higher realm. Art and beauty opens up larger questions of life’s meaning, questions that inevitably lead to talk about God.
I hope you will find the Church beautiful; I pray you will sense the transcendent. And that will lift your hearts and minds to the worship of God. After all, as beautiful as it is, our Church is not a museum, rather it is a vibrant House of God where we come and gather as a family of faith to worship God in the Beauty of His Holiness.
We are still waiting for the installation of the two triptychs, the pedestals for the Tabernacle, Mary and Joseph, and the rest of the saints, the new baptistery, and the new altar rail with the original gates from the 1931 church. I am hoping that everything will be completed in the next 10 days. The paintings will take a bit longer. They are being painted in Poland; when competed the paintings will be sent over to us and then installed in the triptych.
It will be well worth the wait!
