Spirituality of Christian Art & Architecture

Wednesday we began with Mass at the Basilica of St. Clare and then listened to Rev. Michael Gaudoin-Parker speak to us about the Spiritiuality of Christian Art & Architecture.  Fr. Michael's gentle and humble nature made for a wonderful few hours of insightful wisdom and insight.

Art is not an end in itself.  It introduces the soul into a higher spiritual order which it expresses, and in some sense, explains. Christian art provides a "fullness" into which we are invited and pertains to a spirituality that focuses out "outward" toward the transcendent.  The aesthetic is to "make formal" an epiphany, a manifestation of the presence of God.

When we approach Christian art and architecture with a sense of openness and a willing to engage, there is a transformative element to it - it changes us.  Fr. used the image of the priest placing a drop of water into the chalice of wine.  It becomes immersed into the wine and is no longer able to be separated out.

When a Christian person engages in the art of faith, she/he becomes fully immersed into what it conveys.  There is an incomprehensible mystery in which we are absorbed.  However, art demands of us our willingness to be engaged in it.  There is a true humility about allowing God to speak to us through the use of art and the use of our senses.

Fr. says that all art is rooted in substance but good art begins in immanence and presents the continuity between the temporal and the eternal, between matter and good spirit between humankind and the other.