Mary and Elizabeth: On Tomorrow’s Feast of the Visitation
Original artwork by Br Luis Alberto de Avila, LC
Posts from the ‘Art’ Category
May 30
Mistakes
Br Matthew Schneider, LC
Reading, waiting for the others to finish, admiring the artwork, so sat I in St Peter’s. Then I realized something new. The statue right behind me had more carving work than first meets the eye.
Before I tell you what I discovered, let’s go back a step. I had been asked to serve a minor ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica and we were in acolyte practice. The problem with being the tallest is that the master of ceremonies immediately says “cross” when he sees me. I have to do weightlifting for a few minutes, then I sit there for most of the ceremony. Where we sit tourists can’t usually get close.
Caravaggio’s “Doubting Thomas”
Br Andres Colmenares, LC
We have all gone through one stage of our life or another when living our Christian faith was more difficult than normal. Something happens that makes us put into question the very beliefs that were inscribed in our hearts. But Christ’s constant yearning is for us to “Believe and doubt no longer” (John 21:27).
Caravaggio was a painter who lived towards the end of the 16th century. There is something in his paintings depicting religious subjects that easily catches the attention of the viewer. Caravaggio’s “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas” tells the story of himself, but above all, of each of us in our journey through life.
From Copperfield Cloud to Christ
Br Erik Burckel, LC
I close my 750-page companion of the last month: David Copperfield. Now that it’s over, I have that feeling similar to the one I used to have after losing a basketball game in high school: kind of wretched all over, but with a certain bitter pleasure nonetheless. At the end of Charles Dickens’ novel, David is happy. He’s gone from sadness, suffering, and confusion to self-discovery, fulfillment, and joy, the joy of his life. I can’t help but be happy for David, recalling over and over again the events that culminated in an emotional climax at the end of the story. But I’m not David, and the book is finished. I have to leave him there happily married, enjoying the fulfillment he has searched for. What is there left for me?
A Day at the Museum
Br Daniel Carter, LC
The community of humanists from the Legionary seminary of Cheshire dropped in on the Big Apple recently. Part of the curriculum is a monthly visit to a museum, usually in New York City or Boston. These visits are always highlights for the brothers in addition to being moments of Catholic witness. When people see sixty young men dressed in black throng past them on the sidewalk, they usually stop for a second look. The braver ones even pull one or more brothers aside for a little Q&A. They’re curious.
Mar 26
Mar 19
The Ache
Br Jonathan Flemings, LC
Light diffuses itself gently on high, cream-colored, plastered walls and the worn, wooden floor from somewhere up above, filling the gallery with clarity. The hushed sounds of gentle footsteps on hardwood and the murmur of conversation somewhere in a distant atrium are an audible backdrop to the silence in the gallery where I’m standing contrapposto opposite a masterpiece. Everything else in the room recedes into a fuzzy blur round the circular frame before me. The trio of figures on the canvas seems to exist in an eternity of their own, which has just opened to admit a lone visitor. In that quiet hall something about Rafael’s creation, the Alba Madonna, captivates me, playing my soul like a cello in the hands of Pablo Casals. Gazing on the serenity of those faces and forms—the silent exchange between Mary and Jesus and John the Baptist, the motionless yet meaningful composition—is an experience of beauty.
The True Statue of Liberty
Br Matias Garmendia, LC
When I was a child, I always thought the Statue of Liberty was an image of the Virgin Mary. Now that I live in the United States, I turn my gaze once more to this magnificent colossus of the modern world, and remorse for my mistake also piques in me the curiosity to know the similarity of this symbol, maybe the most famous statue in the world, to that other, much greater icon, the Blessed Virgin Mary. In fact, I find many common characteristics between the two.
