How To Choose a Painting for Catechesis

The following article is written by Dr Caroline Farey and John Casey and of the Maryvale Institute and first appeared in The Sower, which is published by the Maryvale institute and distributed in both the UK and the UK. It is available online at www.thesowerreview.com.

This is written about paintings of the Annunciation, but through it they describe very clearly the principles by which one can choose a painting for catachetical purposes. This is something that is very important, but additional to its appropriateness for a liturgical setting or for devotional prayer.

Caroline and myself will be teaching the summer residential weekends for the diploma offered by the Maryvale Institute, Art Beauty and Inspiration from a Catholic Perspective. The goal of this course is to understanding of the place of beauty in Catholic culture with a special focus on visual art; by this we hope to contribute to the formation of future artists and patrons who serve the church. The course is offered in the US through the Maryvale Mid-America Center at the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas . It is design with  for working adults (and that means stay-at-home mums as well) living in any location, provided they can get to the first residential weekend. The dates of the first residential weekend are July 12-15 (Friday-Monday).   Even if you don't wish to do the written work for the diploma, you would learn a lot if you chose to audit the course - attending the residential weekend and then working through the accompanying material at home at your leisure.

The Annunciation and Catechesis

A picture of the annunciation is a resource par excellence for catechesis because it can illustrate so many interconnecting doctrines of the faith. Having said this, not all artists have the same degree of ecclesial depth and so some pictures will be of greater catechetical value than others. At this point it is also good to be aware that one might look at a painting of a great artist,r a very beautiful painting, or one that speaks very personally, or one helpful for prayer or meditation – none of these criteria, however, makes the painting necessarily the most appropriate to use catechetically. What, then, do we need to look for as catechists in order to choose the best art of the annunciation for our purposes?

The Blessed Trinity

Where there is nothing at all to indicate the Trinity, the value of the painting for catechesis is greatly reduced because, as we know, the Trinity is the ‘light that enlightens’ every dogma, every mystery of the faith (CCC 234). Most annunciation scenes, however, will depict the presence of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity in some way. The icon by Aidan Hart reproduced here gives us an explicit indication. Many older scenes show God the Father and the dove of the Holy Spirit very explicitly, with these and the lamp; angel Gabriel all oriented or pointing towards Our Lady to indicate the presence of the divine Son. Other versions work more subtly but equally effectively. Nicolas Poussin, uses light sources, one from off the painting indicating God the Father, the light shining around the Holy Spirit and the light of the angel as the messenger of the Word. Fra Angelico uses triple rounded arches to embrace the whole scene as though holding it in the stillness of eternity, so great is this moment.

Heaven and angels

Scenes that show nothing of heaven would tend to be less useful catechetically. Heaven unites with the earth at this moment and the way this is portrayed can provide important catechetical opportunities. Many icons will have a gold background indicating the heavenly nature of the event. Others have the sky bursting open surrounded by angels. Sometimes the angel Gabriel is part of the heavenly aspect, since Gabriel is a messenger from heaven, while in other pictures the heavenly scene surrounds the Holy Spirit portrayed as a dove. Catechetically, it is important to be clear with people that angels are creatures, they are not divine; but they do ‘come and go’ Christ tells us, to and from the Father’s presence, from beholding the face of the Father (see Matt 18:10-11). They can indicate the vibrancy of life in heaven.

Mary

The figure of Mary is portrayed in various ways. In the middle ages five ‘stages’ of the story in the Gospel of Luke, or ‘conditions’ of Our Lady, were outlined with changing hand gestures for each stage: conturbatio (surprise at the arrival of the angel Gabriel: Mary ‘was deeply disturbed’;cogitatio (Mary ‘wondered what this greeting could mean’; interrogatio (‘How can this be?’); humiliatio (humble acceptance and faithful submission to God’s will); meritatio (internal bliss, joy at the miraculous conception of Jesus, the Son of God).

The first two conditions lasted only a moment in Mary’s life and are probably the least helpful catechetically. That Mary dialogued with the angel (interrogatio) is of value, and this is normally portrayed as one hand raised and the other resting on an open book, as catechesis needs the same kind of questions of meaning and questions of embodiment that Mary raised - such as, how can this truth of the faith be lived out in my life? Best of all, however, are the two final moments. Mary’s humility and humble acceptance (humiliatio) is typically portrayed as hands crossed on her chest. The final moment of the joy of union with the Holy Spirit as the incarnation of the Son of God takes place (meritatio), is often painted with arms extended and hands completely open. Poussin’s annunciation is a perfect example of this with Mary’s yellow cloak indicating the golden acceptance of grace flowing down from her mind and pouring onto the wood of the platform, like the step of an altar, on which she sits. These scenes would be a constant reminder in a catechetical session of the joy that comes from acceptance of the grace of God and the teaching of the Church. Mary should portray, too, the exquisite dignity of the human person when humble and obedient, when listening and open, when joyful and freely accepting, longing for and fulfilling, the will of God.

The Archangel Gabriel

How the angel is portrayed can indicate more about Our Lady. It was a custom amongst some artists to  ensure that the angel was portrayed lower than Mary as an indication that she, as mother of God, would be their superior, their queen. Amongst other artists, since Gabriel was ‘from God’, he was portrayed floating or flying down from a heavenly realm. As long as the majestic angelic nature is in evidence, the position can be informative wherever placed. The angel Gabriel, as the messenger of the Word of God, embodies certain signs of the message. Pointing upwards and pointing to Our Lady’s womb are typical gestures. Sometimes, as in the icon here, the wings tell the same story, with one pointing to God from where the Word has come,and one pointing to earth, an indication of the Word to be made flesh. The lilies carried by Gabriel in some pictures remind us of Mary’s purity because she was conceived without sin. This dogma of the Immaculate Conception depends partly on this Scripture passage and particularly on Gabriel’s greeting, not calling her by her expected name, ‘Mary’, but using a special Greek word approximately translated ‘full of grace’ but carrying so much more meaning.

Buildings and curtains 

Buildings indicate the temple and the Church, the old order and the new with Mary often on the threshold. Mary is the model of the Church, the ‘house of God’. It is good if there is a building in the picture for these reasons. Sometimes the building is actually a portrayal of church architecture, sometimes it is more figurative. Sometimes it is in the architecture that stonework or woodwork is seen in the form of a cross. Where the building structure is very ornate, it might be an exaggerated form with excessive structural focus,such as in the painting by Crivelli. Curtains are important for many of the same reasons but the artist doesn’t always portray these with the significance that they deserve.

The original tabernacle, following the designs given directly by God in the desert, was a tent with curtains embroidered with ‘blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen’, a refrain repeated throughout the book of Exodus (see Ex 36:8ff). Frequently, the background of the scene is not a building but a bedroom. The curtains are not only the tabernacle curtains, those of the ‘tent of meeting’ or the temple curtains – often in two parts to remind us that it will be ‘torn in two’ at the crucifixion (Matt 27:51) – the sword that will pierce Mary’s heart (Lk 2:35).

The veil, drawn back indicates the fullness of revelation, the fullness of God to be conceived in Mary. A curtain is also reminiscent of the curtains around a medieval altar. If the painting is from Northern Europe or England, the curtain drawn up as a hanging bag directly over the space between Gabriel and Our Lady – the space into which the word is spoken – bears a strong resemblance to the hanging tabernacle in medieval churches before the Council of Trent prescribed a lockable container. At this point the annunciation scene is carried forward to the Eucharist and the paschal mystery.

Garden and landscape 

Finally, it is helpful to examine the garden or landscape in the picture for our catechesis. The Song of Songs is the source of the early idea of the enclosed garden symbolising Mary’s virginity (4:12). Landscapes turn our thoughts to land, and in biblical terms this is the promised land flowing with milk and honey, indicating our eternal homeland of God’s life of joyful love, the destiny for which the Father prepares us through the redemptive grace and adoption that comes from the work of the Holy Spirit and the Son of God made man.

Real Men Grow and Pick Lilies...Yes They Do!

Is gardening for beauty and delight a male or a female occupation? Talking to many here in the US, the impression I get is that people see growing food for produce, or rearing animals for food as a masculine thing; but growing a garden for its beauty? Definitely not. They will rear chickens in their back yard, but growing flowers? No, that is for girls. In response to this I would say that the call of every man to cultivate the land, should have 'three acres and cow' is at once too narrow and too broad: narrow in that seems to imply that only a utilitarian view of cultivation; and broad in not every man is meant to be cultivating even three acres of land, but he should at least have a plant-pot and a geranium on the windowsill of his 3rd floor city-centre apartment! Adam was gardener; Christ, the new Adam, was mistaken for a gardener and my great grandfather was head gardener of the Duke of Northumberland (so the family lore goes). Also my grandfather was a keen amateur gardener and my father still is a devoted gardener, who also had a garden-nursery a garden design consultancy business. All were men! Perhaps this is a little family line of the 'Downton Abbey' old world pro aristocracy view of life in which every man has his proper place passing down through the family line, holding out against modernist utilitarian view of the land.

The garden is a place for relaxation and contemplation for city dwellers. The city being the place of culture and the natural place for man to live (according to psalm 106 and Aristotle alike). The city garden then is a sanctuary and is described in scripture as a place in which everything is grown for its beauty and to delight the senses - taste, smell, vision - rather than simply sustenance.  

Also, I note, Christ went to the Garden of Gethsemene to pray. He went to the wilderness to meet the devil; but he went to the garden to find the Father in his time of agony. The garden is a sanctuary of the natural world raised up by man to something greater, so that contemplation of its enhanced beauty raises our spirits to God and as such prompts our praise of God the Father in a way that even the beauty of the wilderness is unable to do. When Mary Magadalene saw Christ in the garden, as mentioned above, she mistook him for the gardener, which seems to me to be symbolic of who this was, she was seeing more than we might give her credit for. 

Reading the book of Revelation, that too seems to suggest that man is meant to be a city dweller, for our final home will be the liturgical city of the New Jerusalem. But this is a garden city in which the Tree of Life flourishes and Eden has been restored by Christ the Head Gardener. 

I wonder if the root cause of the idea that flowers are cissy is the same as that which has created the tendency towards the feminisation of the prayer in the Church (leading in turn to a reduction in the number of priests)? It seems to me that it is, although I can't say exactly how - perhaps this removal of anything contemplative from masculine list of activities is a common element.

Perhaps then, accordingly, just as we should be encouraging fathers to lead prayer in the home we should also be encouraging boys to start growing things so that contribute to the beauty of our homes and cities and make them sanctuaries of peace as a gift for the family (even if it begins with just in a plant pot inside the house).

I am not suggesting that macho men should discover their inner femininity, rather, that we need to learn to see that cultivation for beauty is as thoroughly masculine as it is feminine. For as Leo XIII say in his encyclical Rerum Novarum, men should be encouraged to cultivate the land and in so doing will, 'learn to love the very soil that yields in response to the labor of their hands, not only food to eat, but an abundance of good things for themselves and those that are dear to them [my emphasis].'

Consistent of this idea of the gardener growing good things for those that are dear to him, to use Leo's phrase, we see in the Song of Songs that while the garden is identified with the lady, commonly seen  as Mary, a 'garden enclosed'; it is the man who is the gardener who woos her by growing and gathering lilies for her. What strikes me when I look at the traditional pictures of the garden enclosed shown below, is not how our attitude to Mary has changed, but how are attitude to nature and gardens, even as Christians, has changed. I wrote an article that touches on this called Come Out of the Wilderness and Into the Garden . It is this differing attitude to gardens and man's relationship to them that makes this identification of Mary as the garden enclosed so unusual to us today.

As an aside: reading again through Anton Chekhov's the Head Gardener's Tale (and I can't remember why I had cause to read through it the first time!) it is interesting to note that in this short story written in 1894, the gardener is proud of his position, for we are told he calls himself 'Head Gardener' even though he is the only gardener and has no subordinates. The scene is a sale of flowers in 'Count N's greenhouses'. He tells a tale to the narrator in  which a judge acquits a vagrant for the brutal murder of an just and beloved village doctor. The tale itself seems to my unlearned appreciation to be asking questions about how justice and mercy are balanced (and I'm not sure I'm with Checkhov in what appear to be his conclusions...perhaps some literature experts can interpret for us, the story is here  - it really is very short!) What I find particularly curious, is that Checkhov made the narrator of the tale, who a mysterious sage, an aristocrat's gardener. Is there any significance I wonder? Comments please!

Pictures below is  Noli me tangere by John of Flanders, 14th century - Christ with holy spade! And below that: Martin Schongauer, Madonna in Rose Garden, 15th century; and below: Gerard David, early 15th century Flemish.

and finally, below, the York Psalter, 12th century

St Andrew's Church in Maine - A Model in Interior Decoration

Here are some photos St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Newcastle, Maine. It was designed  at the end of the last century by the English architect Henry Vaughan. There are many beautiful neo-gothic churches in New England, and what generally comes to my mind when I think of this style is the grand stone churches of, for example, Boston or New York. Vaughan who was English but received many of his commissions in the US design in this grand manner too. St Andrews is different from these in that it is based upon medieval wattle and daub construction, such as All Saints in Crowfield, Suffolk which dates from the 14th century. Henry Vaughan designed only one other, to my knowledge in this country, half-timbered style. This is the Catholic church in Groton, Massachusetts and is currently not used.

I love Victorian neo-gothic and do not think of it as a pale imitation of something that existed earlier. To my mind, the architects of this period, starting with figures such as Pugin, are a model of how to look back at the past work and study the principles that define it and then create original work that both evokes that period and is an authentic architectural style in its own right. As such, I always think, they provide an example of how Catholic culture could be re-established today.

(Before I go any further I must say that I am very grateful to the Rev Conner of the church who very generously took the time met me and show me around when I traveled up to Maine and for Anna Shaw a parishioner who took most of these photographs just for us.)

Detail of the exterior wall, above and below is the church in Suffolk that inspired Vaughan in his design

 The recently restored reredos, above

 Looking towards the back of the church

The Paintings of an American Catholic Master, Carl Schmitt

 Two years ago, I wrote a  feature on the American artist Carl Schmitt (1889-1989).  What has prompted me to look at his work again is the publication of a beautiful book of his work called Carl Schmitt, The Vision of Beauty. Schmitt was a classically trained American artist who was a friend of Hilaire Belloc, who owned work by him, and who contributed a weekly column to Chesterton’s Weekly Review when Belloc was its editor. He was much travelled around Europe, but spent most of his adult life living in Connecticut. I like his still lives particularly see below and at www.carlschmitt.org). He was a faithful Catholic all his life and quite apart from his art his Catholic legacy is strong. He had 10 children who all kept the faith and one of whom was a priest. Descendants of Schmitt were involved at the instigation of Thomas Aquinas College in California and founded and still run Trivium School, an independent Catholic boarding high school with a great books curriculum. This is on the other side of the country and less than an hour south of Thomas More College, in Massachusetts. Sam Schmitt, who wrote this book and works for the foundation that works to preserve his memory is a scholar of chant and the liturgy and I met him before he took his current role when he was working with us at TMC. It was with great pleasure that I received this book to review. What caught my eye at the time was this deposition. This is a good example, in my opinion, to study when considering how to balance the general and the particular characteristics of the person. For good sacred art, that balance has to be right.

Some time ago, I wrote an article (Is Some Sacred Art Too Naturalistic), about the tendency amongst modern naturalistic artists to paint sacred art in which the rendering, especially the faces, is too naturalistic and too particular to one person, like a portrait. The result is paintings that look like the next door neighbor dressed up in old-fashioned clothing in a staged Victorian tableau. In my assessment there was too much emphasis on the particular and not enough on the general human characteristics of the saint or person depicted. It is the general characteristics that enable us to relate to those aspects that we are supposed to be inspired by and imitate, such as virtue. By definition, we can only aspire to imitate those aspects that are common to us. It is not possible to imitate something that is particular to someone else.

The sacred art of baroque of the 17^th century (in contrast to 19^th century naturalism) always plays down the individual characteristics with skillful use of shadow, depletion of color and variation in focus. This is not to exclude the particular altogether; we must know enough to know who is depicted. It is a question of balance. An example of how a baroque artist described this is given here.

In a very 20^th century way, Carl Schmitt has done the same here. I like also the way that he has set up the composition. The circular sweep that contains the main forms is well handled, introducing enough variation (for example in the tilt of the heads of the women) to stop them looking to rigidly bound by the compositional form.

Some might feel that there is too much 'general' and not enough 'particular' for their taste (it is something that crosses my mind). Regardless, I think it is a useful thing for today's artists to see how Schmitt has approached this problem, and at the very least avoided the pitfalls of so many current naturalistic artists.

I am delighted that this book features a large number of his very beautiful still lives. They show the same skillful balance of the general and particular and are reminiscent of the great French Master Chardin. You can read about him in an article I wrote entitled Cosmic Onions, What Does Still Life Have to Do with the Liturgy?. In these Schmitt demonstrates that he understands the baroque sensibility (developed in the century before Chardin) in which large areas of the painting are in soft focus and depleted of colour. This means that the hard edges, deep contrast and most brightly coloured areas correspond to those parts that we focus on naturally within the composition. He gives us information where we naturally seek it. This is how the naturalistic artist appeals to our natural way of look at the cosmos and delighting in it. The focus of the eye is sharp and coloured in the centre, but monochromatic and blurred in the extremes and when we look at the world around us, the intellect process this information so that what we see in our mind's eye delights us. God made us this way so that we delight in the beauty of his creation, and the skilfull artist understands this and gives us visual information that corresponds to this natural desire of the intellect.

I show several of his still lives below.

Photos courtesy of the Carl Schmitt Foundation

An Intensive Summer School in Academic Drawing for Catholics - Useful Whatever Your Preferred Tradition

Learn the Academic Method and Earn College Credit Whatever your preferred style of art, I always feel, if you are an artist who seeks to create beautiful work you must learn to draw. Drawing is the core discipline, the musical scale, of visual art and if an artist cannot draw then any correspondence of his art to his original idea is just a rare and lucky accident. I am approached all the time by people who wish to learn to paint icons and usually my first piece of advice is to learn to draw as well as studying the tradition you are interested in.

The best training I know is the academic method which is a systematic method of training hand and eye that was developed by Masters such as Leonardo and Michelangelo. I did a summer school in Florence in this style and in just two weeks my drawing ability improved by orders of magnitude (and I thought I was pretty good at art before I went!). You will produce a drawing of a cast in charcoal - I did the cast drawing you see left at the same atelier in my first month of full-time study there. My icon painting teacher encouraged me to go and as a result the quality of my icon painting improved dramatically as well. If you don't like what I do now, all I can say is that you would have hated what I used to do before I studied in Florence!

Thomas More College of Liberal Arts has teamed up with the internationally known Ingbretson Studios, based in Manchester, NH to offer summer school. As well as the art instruction there is a program of lectures and museum visits that focus on an deeper understanding of the Western naturalistic tradition. At the end of the two week course I will give talks that place this in the context of a Catholic worldview.

Ingbretson Studios is run by Paul Ingbretson, who is one of the leading exponents of the academic style of painting around today and a Master of the Boston School (the father of the Boston School is the great American artist John Singer Sargent). One of his star former pupils is Henry Wingate, who residents of Front Royal, Virginia will know well and whose work I have featured in the past (it is his portrait that is in the poster below; I have also posted his Sacred Heart). Within 15 minutes of the TMC campus, Paul's workshop has become a little epicentre of Catholic naturalistic artists. I know of four serious students at least who have begun long term study there as a result of recommendations from myself or Henry. Thomas More College students also go there for a weekly evening class during the semester.

For information on the summer school, go to the Thomas More College website here. For insight into what Masters in this style can produce today look at the work of Henry Wingate, here (I have also posted his Sacred Heart below); or one of my teachers in Florence at the Cecil Studios Matt Collins, who comes out of the same Boston line. His Christ Carrying the Cross is below.

Thomas More College Alumnus Enter Novitiate for Oratory of St Philip Neri in Lewiston, Maine

Here are some photos of Br Tyler Tracey's entrance into the Novitiate of the Fraternity of St Philip Neri at the Basilica of Ss Peter and Paul, Lewiston, Maine. This is an Oratory in Formation founded just last August and Br Tyler is their first novice. So it is a young community just beginning to establish itself and making a great start. There are three priests. I attended the ceremony which was last Friday afternoon and which was followed by Vespers and Benediction. I was especially glad to be able to make it as Br Tyler is a former student of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts and I know him well. I have additional personal reasons for wanting to support this new community and that is that my experiences of the liturgy of the London Oratory was so influential in my conversion and my continued contact with the London Oratory and with the Birmingham Oratory has been so nourishing for my faith. Both are churches where the liturgy reduced me to tears...for the right reasons!

Mgr Caron, the superior of the community described proceedings as follows: 'On Friday, May 3, at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston, Bro. Tyler Tracey was admitted as a member of the Fraternity of St. Philip Neri for the probationary period of one year in the course of a rite which was taken in part from the one prepared by Blessed John Henry Newman for the Birmingham Oratory.  It begins with singing the hymn to the Holy Spirit, Veni Creator. The postulant is questioned as to his desire to live according to the Oratorian charism, and all pray for him using the Litany of St. Philip, composed by Blessed JH Newman. After publicly stating his intention to life according to the statutes of the Fraternity for the coming year, he is given the habit of the community. Each member of the community offers him a fraternal sign of peace, and all venerate the relic of our holy father St. Philip. 

He joins the community for the celebration of Vespers and Benediction. It is the custom in the Oratory to sing Vespers publicly on feast days. May 3 is the feast of the Apostles Philip and James. St. Philip the Apostle was the patron of St. Philip Neri. St. Philip Neri retained devotion to his namesake the Apostle throughout his life. Vespers, or Evening Prayer, concluded with a brief period of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, followed by Benediction.'

Congratulations to all! My prayers are with you.

Above: people starting to gather in the church early (yours truly closest to us on the rhs). The basilica was completed in the 1930s inspired by the French gothic. There is extensive and beautiful woodwork throughout the church. If I turned around from my position in the pew, the photo below shows the sight I would see.

Christian Geometric Art in an Arabic Gospel

Last week I featured the first work produced by my students at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in their sacred geometry class. They did eight sided figures based upon an Islamic design. Just in case anyone has been wondering if this is an over adventurous pushing back the envelope of what appropriate in the context of sacred illumination, I thought that it would be interesting to show these images that I discovered on the British Library website (which is wonderful resource for images of ancient manuscripts). These are from a 14th century Palestinian gospel of St Luke. I have no additional information as to why this particular design was chosen. All I can say is that I would have been very happy to see this in my bible because of the four-fold and eight-fold symmetry that exists in this. Four symbolises the world and four gospels were chosen by the Church so that the Word was carried to the four corners of the world by the four evangelists, each evangelists is symbolised by the four figures described as sitting around the throne of Christ in the book of the Apocalypse.

Regular readers will be familiar also with the symbolism of eight: it corresponds to the eighth day of Creation that ushers in the new covenant: the incarnation, death, resurrection of Christ. Sunday is the eighth day of the week. In the basic repeat unit, which is repeated like floor tiles, we have, geometrically portrayed, four versions of the Word in the gospels (four small octagons) spinning out of one large one, the Creator himself, enthroned and in glory. Pictorially, this would be Christ in Majesty surrounded by the Angel, the Lion, the Ox, and the Eagle. When you have four of the repeat units combined, there is long-range order which has a fourfold symmetry in which four large octagons surround the central, which is the broad design of this 'carpet page'. There is a beautiful harmony to this, and it seems to me to reinforce the superabundant truth of Eucharist: that through the propagation of his gospel in a literary description of his life, Christ in Majesty is really made present in the world in the liturgy of His Holy Church.

I repeat, this is my personal reaction to this design, a meditation upon what I am seeing, so I could be reading more into this than the artist intended. However, as an artist, I would happily reproduce this design with the intention of incorporating this symbolism into my work. There is such a beautiful harmony to it, it seems.

Images: below the images of the 14th century gospel, I have given the Thomas More College, Christ in Majesty to illustrate the point, painted by myself.

The Franciscan Liturgical Art - An Inspiration for Rebuilding the Church Today

The rich artistic fruit of the spirituality of charity and poverty. Following the excellent feature introduced by Shawn Tribe - the Sacred Liturgy and the Apostolate - on how liturgy is the 'indespensable' source of momentum for increased charity and social and cultural regeneration; and my own piece Should We Sell All the Art in the Vatican and Give the Money to the Poor?, I thought that I would explore a little further the part that sacred art and the beautiful decoration of our churches has to play in this. St Francis of Assisi is the figure to whom are encouraged to look in this regard, so perhaps the easiest way to think about this is to consider the effect he had in his day.

 I am no expert on St Francis himself so I am taking a simple approach. I am working on a couple of assumptions that I am hoping are reasonable: that a focus on charity and concern for poor and the art of third order Franciscans artists are all reflective of the Franciscan spirit of the age; and these are consistent with the spirituality of St Francis himself. The artists are those such as Giotto, Cimabue and the anonymous artist known as the 'Master of St Francis'.

 There are a number of points that can be made about the art. Just looking at the interiors of these churches one can say that there is huge importance attached to their beauty and harmony with the liturgy. But it goes further than that. They are highly innovative. Features such as the increased naturalism and heightened sense of the suffering of Christ represented a departure from the strict iconographic prototype that governed the art of period before. However, although innovative the always worked within the broader the principles of what makes art worthy of veneration and it is therefore authentic sacred art that deepens our participation in the liturgy. There is no accounting for how God might choose to inspire individual artists, but it does not seem conceivable to me that a whole culture changing movement which is for the good, (which is what we are talking about here), could happen without a deep attachment to the liturgy.

If we look at the interiors of the churches, for example, notice how much is adorned with geometric patterned art. This suggests to me an deep awareness of the sources of the symbolism that generates such geometry, predominantly scripture and the cosmos. One of the commonly held ideas of Franciscan spirituality is that of an interest in and love of the beauty of the natural world that St Francis inspired. Whatever the truth of this, I would say that as a general principle one could not create such 'cosmic' art unless one was able to read the cosmos symbolically and had a deep understanding of how that symbolism and the beauty of the cosmos points us to something greater, to the rhythms of the heavenly liturgy and ultimately to God.

To the degree that all of this inspires a true liturgical devotion, then, as Shawn's feature points out, this will inspire devotion also to charity for the poor. In addition, one should say that he needs of the poor are spiritual as well as material. The poor need their souls saving just as much as the rich do and this art is for all people, rich and poor.

To my mind, all of this beauty is consistent with the twin aims that I have heard Pope Francis speak of rebuilding the Church - evangelisation - and caring for poor. When one relies on God we rest in an infinite and superabundant source of all that is good (including wealth). Inspiring people, rich and poor alike to come closer to God will create benefits in every area of our lives. Pictures are of the interior of the Basilica of St Francis:

I couldn't find this in high resolution, but I wanted to show it because of the traditional quincunx design on the altar (the shape where four circles spin out of the central circle  - symbolising the creation of the cosmos),

Above: a crucifixion by Cimabue contrasted with an iconographic (Romanesque) cross painted in Umbria in the 12th century. The former focusses on the suffering of Christ, while the latter on his glory on the cross.

Below: St John and Our Lady during the Passion from the Master of St Francis.

And finally my own version of the Franciscan gothic figures painted for the chapel at Thomas More College.

Some Geometric Art from Thomas More College Students

Here are some examples of geometric art produced by students from Thomas More College of Liberal Arts. They are their first projects for my Way of Beauty class. They were asked to produce an octagonal tile pattern that was based on a traditional Islamic design. I asked them to design the corners and the border and decide on the colour scheme. I encouraged them to use as few colours as possible, using only what was required to give contrast and allow clarity of design. I also insisted on the shape being described by a continuous piece of tape which wove an over under pattern. The colouring was deliberately muted and downplayed as this allows for less clashes of colour. On the whole, I prefer to use natural, earth colours for the same reason. These are difficult to get in the sort of coloured pencil sets that most of our students have, which tend to have very bright, artificial looking colours. If they used these alone then the result would look something like a bad record cover from the 1960s. This might have sold music in 1967, but it won't cut it in traditional design (if only our liturgy musician realised that the same is true for the style of folk music of period)...anyway, back to these design. To try to eliminate the impression of psychedelic kitsch, they carefully built up the colour by overlaying it with lightly shaded layers of earth brown and grey pencil. Students are Isabelle Anderson, Theresa Scott and Katherine Blicharz. In assessing these, remember that this is the very first project that I set them. They are intended as exercise before designing a church floor.

Public Access to Farmland...in the San Francisco Bay Area

Holy cow! Its just like going for a walk in England! In my recent trip to California I decided to investigate the footpaths in the area. As usual, I tried to find the countryside that is the most beautiful - farmland -  and expected to be able to indulge in my favorite complaint: how all paths in the US are in specially created parks that aim to create the 'wilderness' experience, which means that you spend the whole day walking through forest, unable too anything further than the nearest tree trunk. To my surprise, I found that there are plenty of areas of beautifully farmed land to which the public has access.

In Britain, in common with most European countries, there is no wilderness left and the countryside is privately owned farmland. This doesn't stop people being able to feel a connection with the land and enjoy it, however, for there is widespread public access to private land. It is the remnant of the traditional Catholic understanding of land as a 'common good'. If you are surprised by this you can read about exactly how in an earlier article Farms, Country Walks, Private Property and the Common Good. I enjoy farmland because it is more beautiful than the wilderness, if farmed well. The New World obsession with the 'wilderness experience' as exposure to pristine beauty  (strongest of all in New Zealand in my experience) is a reflection of the New Age paganism, which sees man as an unnatural influence on a perfect Nature, rather than a positive influence that raises a fallen world up to something greater.

It is the same worldview that gives rise to the culture of death. When the activity of man is viewed as necessarily unnatural, then human activity is seen as something that should be limited. The easiest way to do so is to enforcing population control; and the obvious ways to achieve this are abortion and contraception.

As well as contributing to making my visit to the Bay Area very enjoyable, these parks are a small symbol of hope for me. I visited two areas. The first is called Briones Regional Park. I am always curious as to why we are allowed onto this land. This is preserved as pastureland because it is the watershed lands that fill the reservoirs that supply water to much of the region. The regional government that leases the land, as I understand it, insists also that there is public access. Trees would suck up too much water so the land is kept for pasture. It has been ranched for about 200 years (since the Spanish colonial days) and so the terrain has been formed by that. At this time of year there is a lot of rain and so everything is lush and green - even the locally produced descriptions remark on how like English countryside it looks. 

The second area is called Lucas Valley and it is in Marin County which is north of the Golden Gate bridge. Much of the valley is own by the film producer George Lucas, but I am told that the matching names are coincidence. What is interesting about this is that we have an arrangement forged between private landowners so that people can enjoy the scenery. I know this because at he beginning of the walk I saw the following notice (perhaps noblesse oblige isn't dead after all!):

So here are some photos of the walk. First Briones Regional Park in the East Bay:

The second area is Lucas Valley.

In the height of spring both of these areas will be filled with wild flowers. It is a little early for the full display, but I took some snaps of some of those that I saw as well.

Summer Schools Teaching Art, Theory and Practice, in a Beautiful Abbey in Devon, England; and Kansas

Taking place at Buckfast Abbey, a Benedictine monastery set in the beautiful Devon countryside, the Maryvale Institute has offering a short residential summer school that will take place in August and which offers you the chance to study Catholic traditions in art. Called Teaching the Catholic Faith Through Art it is held at Buckfast Abbey in Devon (there are more photos of the abbey in its setting at below). It is taught by Dr Caroline Farey and myself and those who attend have the option to deepen their studies afterwards by enrolling on the degree level diploma, Art, Inspiration and Beauty from a Catholic Perspective. The cost for the weekend including tuition and full board is just 275 GBP and the dates are August 15-18th. Readers on this side of the pond who might feel that its too far to go need not be discouraged: as some of you will already know, this course is also offered in the US also. The residential weekend is in July at the Maryvale Center at the Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas. As well as this course about art theory, in Kansas they are offering a 5-day course in which students can learn to paint in the style of the illuminations of the English gothic psalters, such as the Westminster Psalter. Beginners and experienced artists welcome. Posters for all three are shown below, and from these you can get the contact details.

The Maryvale Institute is the only Higher Institute of Religious Sciences in the English speaking world that has full pontifical status.

Below and top: Buckfast Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in the Devon countryside.

Chinese Landscapes in Berkeley, CA

I spent Easter Week in Berkeley, CA recently and so as I always try to do when visiting a town I went to visit the local art gallery. It is amazing what treasures even a local gallery can have sometimes. Berkeley is the home of hippies and is where the Sixties began, so I was ready also for plenty of whacky stuff. However, it is also the gallery of one of the most famous and wealthiest universities in the US which was founded well before this so hoped for at least something good. The website even mentioned that there was a Rubens in the collection.

It didn't look to hopeful when we approached the gallery and the exterior looked like this...

There are some buildings that, like a pearl inside the oyster shell have beautiful interiors despite their exteriors. This wasn't one of them. It was bare concrete on the outside and bare concrete on the inside. It really could have done with a few good pictures to spruce it up a bit. However, what we were presented with, for the most part, managed against all odds to make it even worse. The whole gallery was given over to an exhibition called 'Silence' which was based upon John Cage's 1950s composition 4'33''. For those who don't know this is a 'composition' in which the musicians sit in front of a blank score for this period of time and follow the instructions to do nothing, ie sit in silence.

As we progressed, it didn't look too hopeful. For example there was I mime artist lying on the ground rolling around in slow motion. It wasn't even interesting enough to affront. Not wanting to cause offence I just quietly walked past as though I hadn't noticed he was there. Most of the rest of stuff is the sort of avant garde modernist stuff that I used to pretend to be interested in order to look arty. Isn't all of this past it's sell by date yet? The was some traditional art - this being the Bay Area lots of Buddhist art. I don't remember any explicitly Christian art of course - they are liberal, but not that liberal. 

I was just beginning to wonder if the curator might have been better advised to have followed John Cage's example and present us with  a series of empty rooms, when I turned the corner and saw a room of traditional Chinese landscapes on screens. 

The monochrome landscapes are worthy of study even by those who wish to work in the Western tradition. The skill in varying the focus, having some areas clearly defined and others hazy, yet maintaining a unified image is great.

What was interesting to me also was the fact that the reverse side of the big screen shown above had a geometric pattern on it, which could have come straight from a Romanesque tiles floor.

So while I can't say that the exhibition is worth travelling a long way to see, these examples made it worthwhile crossing the town.

New Mosaic, OId Technique

Here are some photo's of a new mosaic just installed in Wales, designed and made by Aidan Hart.  (H/t David Woolf) I have taken the them from his website, here. Aidan's photos give us a sense of how it was produced as well as the what the final product looks like. The church, St Martins is an Anglican church in Cardiff on a town street and the mosaic is on the exterior. I like this - we must not underestimate the power of beauty and the face of Christ especially to draw people in to God. I found a photo of the church before the mosaic was placed there on the internet, see below. I hope the congregation will not think it is undignified that it includes in the pawn shop nextdoor. I personally think that the juxtaposition of the mosaic and shop emphases how we must think about beauty reaching out and touching people in the everyday activities of life and competing with all the advertising and other imagery that is out there. The method that Aidan used, if I have understood him correctly, is the 'Ravenna' or 'double reverse' method that involves putting tracing the design onto a temporary wet 'putty 'base (a slow drying mortar or plaster) and then placing the tesserae into the putty so that the artist can see the design developing as it would be seen eventually. Then a piece of glued linen is stuck to what is now the open face. The mosaic is turned over (carefully) and the putty is removed. This leaves a reverse image stuck to the linen. So far, all of this work is done in the studio. Now the mosaic, is placed into the mortar in situ. This means that the linen is facing outwards and the tesserae are pushed into the wall. Once this has set, then the linen is removed and the side of the tesserae that is open to the air is cleaned and you have the final image.

I remember that when I was in Aidan's classes he always used to stress how valuable it was for painters to study mosaics if they wanted to discern what colours contributed to particular effects, for example, flesh colours. Sometimes when you study paintings it is difficult to discern exactly what combinations have produced the final colour because with paint one wash is placed over another and you only see the combination, but can't see what is below the surface and has contributed to that effect. With mosaic, however, tesserae of pure colour are used to created a pixelated image and the combined effect is created in the mind's eye. So for example, a green effect might be created by having no green tesserae at all, but rather by having alternately pure blue and pure yellow tesserae sitting next to each other. When I gain a general impression I will 'see' green, but when I examine particular areas closely enough to resolve individual tesserae, I will see only blue and yellow. As painter, I can look at this  and create that particular green in my icon by using a the same blue and yellow  but in alternate transparent washes.

Above: work in progress - putting the tesserae into the base putty

The reversed image stuck to the linen, with the base putty removed and before being placed into its final position on the church

 

Mozart's Laudate Dominum in Ahmeek, Upper Michigan (pop. 123)

In some ways it is surprising that I became an artist (apart from the lack of talent in painting that is...before someone comments!). I always find that music can transport me more readily and more powerfully than any painting can. At one point I was deciding whether or not I wanted to be an artist or a banjo player (I am being serious - Appalachian clawhammer style...but that's another story); but the point here is that in the end I chose art. The reason was that although I found listening to music more compelling than looking at art, I always find painting more absorbing than practising scales. And if I was to be a musician, practising is how I was going to have to spend most of my working day. So picked the activity I enjoyed most.

I have described before how the chant and the music of Palestrina that I heard at the London Oratory drew me into the Church (see Glory be to God for the Brompton Oratory). This is not the only time that I have been moved to tears by the beauty of music. Before I became a Catholic I would very occasionally have these experiences where its beauty struck to the soul and stopped me in my tracks, I could feel myself breaking out in goosepimples and the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. Somehow I would feel vulnerable and embarrassed, as though it was opening up my soul for all to see and it was out of my control. My pulse raced and I felt flushed.

These pieces of music, I believe, were awakening my spirit to the glory of God although until the experience in the Oratory I would not have recognised it as such. I was being prepared, despite myself, for the reception of the Word. Most were not overtly religious pieces and if, like this one, it was intended for the liturgy, I did not hear it in a liturgical setting. It is because of these experiences that I have the conviction that beauty in the wider culture is so important in directing us to God. Although I did not interpret what I was feeling with a connection with the divine at the time, I feel certain now that these experiences contributed to my becoming a Catholic. These pieces of music grabbed my soul and whether I knew it or not, sent it spinning in a Godly direction, modifying my taste and preparing me for the next step until I was ready to receive Him. This is why we want a beautiful and noble pop culture that takes you from where you are and sends you in the right direction.

So here is one of those pieces (there are about 8 of them altogether). I first heard Mozarts's Laudate Dominum (from Vesperae solemnes de confessore, KV339) when I was a student at Michigan Tech, about 25 years ago. Michigan Technological University, is a small engineering college in a remote part of Michigan, the 'UP' (Upper Peninsula) which is on the southern shore of Lake Superior. I was doing a Masters in Engineering there, and had volunteered to sing in a choir, something I had never done before. There was no audition. After a conversation with the director I was told that I was probably a baritone, so that's where I went. Musically I was at the level of having to learn my parts by listening to my neighbour and memorising it. Most of the singers were better than I was and we had some strong sopranos and altos and this piece required one of these to be good enough to do a solo. I can remember at the first practice of this piece and doing the choral part, and then hearing the solo, accompanied at this point by piano. Even this stopped me in my tracks, but for me it is the occasion that we actually performed is as memorable as the music.

One of the choir members was a religious (I'm guessing now a Franciscan) who was priest at Our Lady of Peace, which was in a tiny little hamlet of about 100 people called Ahmeek. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a remote area with a very small population and lots of trees. Just to give you an idea: a hundred years ago it had a thriving copper mining industry. The biggest town was Calument, MI which had a population of 100,000 and almost became the capital of the state. Now Calumet has, according to Wikipedia, a population of 723. Yes, 723 people. This has declined from the time that I was living there when the population was about 850. The only big employer in the area is the university, founded originally to give engineers to the mines, but which was maintained by the State as it provided also excellent engineers for the car industry (about 10 hours' drive south, in Detroit).

The Copper Country Chorale, our choir, went to give a concert of Bach and this piece by Mozart in the little white clapboard church. The town was silent on the Sunday afternoon that we went there. Once we got into the church we realised why. All 123 of the population were in the church waiting for us. I have never sung before such an enthusiastic and appreciative audience, who perhaps had not heard something like this before. After the concert in which the Mozart was sung by our soprano beautifully, and the applause died down, an announcement was made that the town would like us to go down to the basement of the church. So we wound our way down the stairs, one after the other. In the basement there was a huge homemade banner which read 'The Town of Ahmeek Welcomes the Copper Country Chorale', and trestle tables covered with tablecloths and laden with plates of homemade sandwiches and cakes. There was something so human and genuine about it all. I was a cynical 24 year old, but the natural generosity of the community touched me and I felt myself pushing back tears for the second time that day (please don't tell anyone else about this - I'd be ashamed for people to know it. I'm an unemotional Englishman.)

Anyway, here's the music: I have linked through to an old recording, so I hope you'll forgive a little scratchiness to the sound. Lucia Popp, who sings this has the version that I have heard that I like the most. She is a Slovak soprano who died in 1993.

The photos, by the way of the the church in Ahmeek and scenes from the Keweenaw Peninsula, a little spur of land that contains Ahmeek and juts into Lake Superior. The final one shows the university.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBMpS78rsBM

Thomas Aquinas on the Psalms and the Liturgy as the Source of Wisdom

Educators take note! Here is the greatest source of wisdom. When writing about Jean Leclercq's Love of Learning and the Desire for God, I referred to his description of the tension that exists between the  different educational approaches of the scholastic and the monastics schools . The former characterised (in part) by relying of very dry, technical language of logic; the latter relying on more accessible language that draws on sources such as scripture more directly, which while more poetic and beautiful might be criticised for lacking precision). As Leclercq points out, when the spiritual life of the person is centred on the liturgy, then either form of education can open the door to full knowledge, in love and through God's grace. The liturgy is the place where all of this can be synthesized and one is immersed in God’s wisdom and this, deep in the heart of the person, is where we form the culture. St Thomas is the first name who comes to mind when one thinks of scholastics so his attitude to the liturgy would be of interest in this regard. In his little book Thomas Aquinas and the Liturgy, David Berger directs us to Thomas's special regard for the psalms and in the Divine Office as source of grace and wisdom, which reinforces the point that Leclerqc made. This regard for the psalms arises because Thomas considered that within the single book of the psalms they contain the entire content of theology.  Berger refers us to his commentary on the psalms where Thomas says the following: 'The material is universal for while the particular books of the Canon of Scripture contain special materials, this book has the general material of Theology as a whole.' Then in referring to their special place in the liturgy where they are to be sung he says: 'This is what Dionysius [the Areopagite] says in Book 3 of the Celestial Hierarchy, the sacred scripture of the Divine Songs (Psalms) is intended to sing of all sacred and divine workings.'  St Thomas goes on to tell us that these are presented in the most dignified form - liturgical praise, thanksgiving and prayer. And according to St Thomas, says Berger, 'wherever theology reverts to the psalms it shows it's character of wisdom in a special way'

Then referring to Aquinas's early education as a Benedictine at Monte Cassino, Berger says: 'The love of singing the psalms in the context of the divine office, founded in Monte Cassino, seems to have stayed alive in Thomas all his life. The best known of Thomas's early biographers, William of Tocco, who had the privilege of knowing Thomas personally, reports that he would arise at night before the actual hour of Mattins.' (p14)

If wisdom is the goal of education, this reinforces the idea that the liturgy, including the liturgy of the hours, should be at the heart of the life of an educational institution, and that students should be encouraged to understand the value of this in helping them to achieve their goal. It is not simply that it is the whole psalter is sung in liturgy, but that the liturgy itself prepares us to receive and accept the wisdom contained within them in a special way.

One hopes that it is having the same effect on me as it has on St Thomas, even if only partially!

Plus don't forget to tell your friends about the course on art and beauty this summer.....

The Suffering and Death of Christ in 15th Century Relief Carving

Following on from last week's relief carvings of the Entry in Jerusalem, here are some images relating to the Passion: two Western 15th century relief carvings appropriate for Easter - the crucifixion and a deposition; and late gothic painting of a deposition.

The carvings are English in a gothic style (where there was no Renaissance). They are carved in alabaster which was quarried in Nottinghamshire. What is interesting is that when painting in the same century, the Flemish artist Rogier Van Der Weyden painted his figures as though they were occupying a foot-wide space projecting out to plane of the painting. Employing, very clearly, a far greater degree of naturalism than the English sculptors did, he nevertheless painted a backdrop so as to eliminate the chance of the illusion of too great a depth.

All of this helps to ensure that there is a balance between adherence to natural appearances, which communicates visual realities; and stylization through some departure from strict naturalism, which lends a symbolic quality to the image and communicates invisible realities. Keeping the image to a space that doesn't deviate far from the plane of the painting and restricting the illusion of depth communicates the presence of the heavenly dimension, which is outside space (and time).

 

Two Relief Carvings of the Entry into Jerusalem

Here are some images selected, at least initially, with Palm Sunday in mind. They have three things in common: they are of the same subject - the Entry into Jerusalem; they are both relief carvings; and they are both by Lorenzo Ghiberti. Ghiberti, who worked in the first half of the 15th century, is famous for creating the bronze doors of the Baptistry in Florence. The first is wood polychrome, that is painted wood, and the second is from the north doors of the Baptistry, cast into bronze.

Relief carving commonly seen in the sacred art of the Eastern church (I have written about this here). Its limited three-dimensionality ensures a flatness that suits the intention of the iconographic style to portray the heavenly realm, which is outside time and space. I would love to see artists from the Roman Church following the example of their Eastern brethren and producing relief carvings in Western forms. The most obvious place to start would be to develop the Western iconographic forms, such as the Romanesque as there are close parallels with what the East has done. However there is relief carving in more naturalistic forms too. Ghiberti worked in the period when the Renaissance and the gothic overlapped and to my eye, the polychrome reminds me of a gothic carving, while the bronze relief seems to have aspects of a classical naturalism that points forward the masters of a hundred years later.

The reason that relief carving might be effective today is that the strange world that it occupies, which sits somewhere between two and three dimensions always seems to lend to the image a symbolic quality. This would help to counter the great disease of modern naturalistic styles, which is sentimentality. All Christian art, no matter what style, involves a balance between naturalistic appearances and idealism (or stylisation) which communicates invisible truths (Pius XII talked of a balance of 'realism' and 'symbolism', in Mediator Dei). The tendency of artists today is to swing to the extremes. Those who wish to paint or sculpt naturalistically tend to forget the symbolic content; and I am suggested that relief carving would push them into including it.

Diploma on the Theology of Sacred Art - Pontifically Validated, distance learning, with Residential Weekend in Kansas

Open to all. No qualification needed. Distance learning with residential weekends in the US or the UK The course is intended both for working artists and those interested in art (with the thought that you might become the future knowledgeable patrons of the art). The Maryvale Institute  which offers this course has a mission is to deliver degree-level education to working, mature students. As such it is designed so that no previous qualification is required in order to attend this course. The teaching method works from first principles and so anyone with the innate ability, almost regardless of previous levels of education, will flourish. This has been so successful that their methods have attracted attention in Rome and and a result the Maryvale Institute has been made the only Higher Institute of Religious Sciences - graduate and post-graduate level educational institution - with pontifical status in the English speaking world.

It is good news that its courses are now offered in the US via the Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas. This is not your standard online course - the Maryvale Institute has developed its own method of teaching at a distance through use of expertly designed coursebooks and attendance periodically at residential weekends. Termed 'collaborative learning' that is so effective that they view it as superior to the education received at conventional full time courses. The recent awarding of pontifical status is recognition of not only of its faithfulness to the Magisterium of the Church, but also the standard of excellence in the teaching offered.

The dates of the first residential weekend are July 12-15 (Friday-Monday). The link for courses are here. Contact Kimberly Rode from the archdiocese for information about both.

The year course costs only $1095 including course materials, tuition, accomodation and meals for the residential weekends and assessment. You will be required to buy a few books in addition to this.

Video of Sculptor Andrew Wilson Smith at Clear Creek, Oklahoma

Here is small video of sculptor Andrew Wilson Smith who is currently working at Clear Creek monastery. I enjoyed seeing him work and the hints we got of the process by which he actually works. I also enjoyed the views of the monastery. I would have loved to have seen a little of more of him working and little less of the human interest aspects (such as scenes of him wet shaving), but that's just me I guess. I wrote a piece, here, last year about his methods and his work at the monastery. He had described this to me over the phone, but I found it interesting to seem him doing it on film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBe5ALQTYUI&feature=youtu.be

Update on Vespers at the Veterans' Hospital in Manchester, NH

Readers may remember my writing about a small group of us making the commitment to sing Vespers and Compline at the Veterans hospital in Manchester, NH. We have been singing there fortnightly now since September last year. One of the things that I stress to those students from Thomas More College who go with me is that all are benefiting from this even if no one is able to come. Sometimes it has been down to Fr Boucher, myself and Dr Tom Larson and just a couple of others with no one else from the hospital in attendance. Most patients are so ill and incapacitated that they cannot make it without help and sometimes for very good reasons that help just isn't there at that time in the evening. Undaunted we had kept the commitment going; and we always take care to sing well. The prayers on these occasions are often directed towards the souls of those who had died that day and for their families. Slowly things have begun to develop. Gene, who heads the team of chaplains (and who is not Catholic) has been very supportive and has moved the times around slightly so that a regular prayer group that visits, does so when we sing Vespers. Because this is, for the most part, just singing the psalms and canticles from scripture, this is a genuinely ecumenical form of prayer. This dedicated group of visitors are then able to bring a small number, in wheelchairs, into the chapel and this has happened the last couple of times. Also, a nurse who had heard about what is happening has taken it upon herself to bring some patients to the Vespers.  She came for the first time a month ago.  Each time we hand out printed copy so that people could sing along with us.

We heard from Fr Boucher that she was so moved by the 4-part arrangements of the Our Father and the St Michael Prayer (by Paul Jernberg) that she brought these patients back. This time he asked if he could keep a copy of the music, and especially the St Michael Prayer (his name was Michael).

When we had finished the Office, we were asked if we could go down to the floor below and into the room of a man who was with his wife and close to dying, so about eight of us walked into his room and sang the Our Father and the St Michael Prayer. If we needed convincing that what we were doing had value, then this experience alone has provided it.

There are a number of things that make this a good thing to do at different levels. I am convinced that what is contributing to the fact that it does seem to be connecting this is a harmony of substance and presentation. The substance is scripture; and in our presentation I think it is that we are singing the psalms in the vernacular and in such a way that just about anyone can join in with the singing of the unison parts at least. The four part harmonies  arranged by Paul for the gospel canticles, the St Michael Prayer and the Our Father (which he also composed) are easy to perform. This means that we don't need expert choristers in order to offer something that is accessible and beautiful which allows for moments of quiet meditation from the congregation.  (You can access the music through the page heading 'Psalm Tones' above.)  And here are recordings of two of the four-part harmonisations, first the Our Father, and then the St Michael Prayer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC8kqYYbJEc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwIoAzbo9wA&feature=related