Beauty

To Encounter the Mystery

While St. Benedict is silent on the subject of contemplating art, the 1500+ year history of Benedictine monasticism has borne out the fact that art and beauty are very much at home with the monk and the monastery. Perhaps it is because, like the architecture of our monastery, art can make the invisible visible and point us to the infinite for which our hearts are made. Our own monastery walls are covered with works of art that are always there as an invitation to enter into what the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls “the mysterious encounter known as prayer” (CCC 2567). The artistic genius gives shape and form to this encounter and so helps us more readily stand in awe before the mystery of God.

For this reason throughout the booklet you will find the frescoes of Giotto di Bondone (12661337), especially drawn from his cycle on the life of Christ on the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel (Padua, Italy.) The genius of Giotto expresses that mysterious meeting of heaven and earth revealed in the Incarnation when God, the inexpressible beyond which we long for, became flesh, became one of us and so became touchable, knowable. Giotto’s faces and figures show the sublime sweetness and grace of eternity within the pathos of our human experience.

• Art: Pay attention to the paintings in

this booklet. Look at the details in each painting. Look at the faces, the hands, the gestures in each. What do they show?

What do they point to? How does it help you see more of the mystery of Christ? • Music: Select a work of music, perhaps related to the liturgical season (Advent,

Christmas, Lent, Sacred Paschal Triduum,

Easter, Ordinary Time). Consider reading an introduction to the piece to prepare.

Then listen together in silence in one sitting, away from distractions, paying attention to movement of the music and words (if it has any). You may consider: • Bach – St. Matthew Passion • Bach – Violin Partitas • Beethoven – Concerto in C major – op.56 • Beethoven – String Quartet in A Minor – op. 132 • Brahms – Symphony no. 4 in E Minor – op.98 • Chopin – Nocturns • De Victoria – Tenebrae Responsories • Dvorak – Serenades op. 22 and op. 44 • Dvorak – Stabat Mater op. 58 - Leggende op. 59 • Mozart – Mass in C Minor • Mozart – Requiem • Pergolesi – Stabat Mater • Rachmaninov – All-Night Vigil • Schubert – Piano Trio no. 2 – op. 100 - Sonata for Violin and Piano no. 2