Letter from the District Superior
Fr. John Fullerton
District Superior, USA
Those who love God love His reality. They seek Him through the things that He has created. This is particularly true of the Catholic artist. Using his God-given talent, he attempts to represent what God has done, whether it be by depicting a pastoral country scene, a family around the hearth or the Madonna with her Child.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the Catholic artist tries to flatter the good God. He begins by admiring a natural or supernatural reality, then desires to reproduce what he has contemplated. In the process of making again what God has made, of creating a likeness of a divine work, he understands the thing he represents more deeply and he resembles God the Creator, in a limited human way.
One of the worst diseases to afflict the soul of a man is the hatred of what is, whether it be hatred of self, hatred of neighbor, hatred of suffering, or hatred of life. Such a hatred leads a man to have the desire to tear down reality or at least to warp and pervert it. If such a man is an artist, he will not use his talents to be a window into the wells of God’s creation but to express defiance and rebellion. He will depict chaos, disorder, and ugliness. He will prefer any reality of his own creation to what God has done.
This issue of The Angelus is meant to assist our readers to appreciate truly Catholic art and its ability to uplift the soul. Of particular interest are a few articles on some artistry accomplished this past year: the building and adorning of the New Immaculata in Saint Marys. There, the talents of many Catholic artists were combined to create a place that is an image of Heaven itself, through the depiction of scenes of the Apocalypse and, more simply, through beauty, harmony, and order.
Let us not allow the invasiveness of man’s creations in today’s world, and the flight from reality, oppress our soul. God is. While we are in this life, our souls can be lifted up to Him by means of Catholic art. We see now in a dark manner, but we do truly see.
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