Great insights from the former Abbot of Pluscarden Abbey, posted to YouTube for all to access. These are a rare treat.
The Gothic Form, part I, The Crusader Bible
A Classic Book on Art and Beauty to Be Republished: The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty
Beauty in the Spiritual Life, Part 1: Beauty as a Principle of Choice
The conscience can act in a prohibitive sense, that warns us against sinful acts. But there is another principle of choice that is more positive and affirmative and is a creative impulse that works in harmony with the order that underlies the beauty of all things. That is the conscience of creativity that chooses the most beautiful option.
Can You Paint a Holy Icon of Someone Not Yet Canonized? The Answer is Yes!
The painting of the image is part of the natural process of growing devotion that always occurs prior to canonization. This is the process by which we collectively and organically recognize the sanctity of someone. The official canonization comes after this and does not make someone a saint, it merely accepts what is already known.
Rite by Rote! Why learning of the texts of the liturgy will transform worship, improve singing, improve art, and renew the culture
You can’t be a doctor by studying pre-Med. That’s all most Great Books programs give us - supporting texts. They ignore the story of Christianity that forms us to contibute to and conserve the cultute - salvation history as described in the Bible, and lived out through our participation in the sacraments. The more intimately we know these texts, the easier it is to worship well and to be Christian in everyday life.
Why Portraying God as a Gray-Haired Man Offers Hope to Radical Feminists
So much of today’s gender wars and identity politics, I feel, emanate from a poor grasp of the Christian understanding of both human and divine love. It is more common, through the popularization of the Theology of the Body, to focus on nuptial love as a type for God's love, and rightly so. But we should be careful not to neglect what the types of paternal and maternal love tell us about God's love too.
