As we build upon our talents, becoming more successful in our endeavors, we often fall to the temptation that we don't need God. But everything we are, all we can do and accomplish, is because of the gifts God has given us in the first place.
Mary Should Always Be Painted With Her Son - What This Says About Our Lady of Guadalupe
In this age of dualism in which the popular philosophies of the day swing from one extreme of spiritualism to materialism, a clear indication of both the divinity and the humanity of Christ is necessary. It is through Our Lady, the Theotokos and ever-Virgin Mary that we emphasize His humanity, without diminishing his divinity.
Bearing the "Good Fruit"
Not all artists are called to the sacred arts. Not all artists are called to work in religious themes. But all artists are called to recognize that their gifts are given to them for a purpose beyond self-indulgent navel-gazing. All artists are called to “bear good fruit” through the use of their gifts.
The Sculpture of Lee Lawrie, 1877-1963
The Battle For The Soul Of The Artist
Re-Published Series of Essays by Fr. Vincent McNabb O.P.
For those invested in the rediscovery of beauty, discussions regarding the place of the “Catholic imagination” in artistic creativity are commonplace. All too often, the investigation of these questions is distorted and misdirected by an adoption, usually unconscious, on the part of the investigator of aspects of the Romantic ethos that still dominates the secular worldview. Fr. McNabb’s approach is an antidote to this.
God, Creatives, and Priorities
Contemporary Icons from Poland
Bouguereau Bad, Baroque Good
The Last Starfighter and Feelings of Unworthiness
The Baroque is Tridentine Art for the Latin Mass
if we want to inspire a powerful Counter-Modern or Counter-Postmodern Catholic culture today, then we need to reconnect today's worship with art so that people are engaged with it in the course of their worship. This means modifying our worship — even in the Latin Mass - and painting art that connects with people today.
The Artist and Truth
Scented Candles Specially Created for Your Domestic Church
The Myth of the Solitary Artist
Book Review: The Anti-Mary Exposed, Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity by Dr Carrie Gress
The antidote to the anti-Mary is, of course, Mary, the Mother of God, known widely as the most powerful woman in the world and the source of the belief that women ought to be treated with dignity. She is a beacon of all the virtues and qualities—purity, humility, kindness, beauty—that oppose this sinister force that has cast its spell upon so many women.
God Uses Our Gifts In Unexpected Ways
A Meditation after Epiphany. The Transfiguration Icon and What It Tells Us About Christian Culture
The mandorla surrounding Christ usually shows concentric bands of shading which get darker toward the center, rather than lighter. It is painted in this way so as to communicate to us, pictorially, the fact that we must pass through stages of increasing mystery in order to encounter the person of Jesus Christ.
Les Misérables, Baptism, and Renewal
Christians Created Abstract Art 2000 Years Before Kandinsky - And Were Better At It!
Sacred number in art: St Matthew’s tells us there are 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David until the Babylonian exile and 14 from the Babylonian exile to Christ. Matthew wrote in Aramaic. In this language, the characters of the alphabet are also used for numbers. This allows for every name to characterized both in letters and numbers. When the letters that comprise the name David are treated as numbers and added together it creates the number 14. This numerical symbolism emphasizes the fact that Christ in a king in the line of David, as prophesied.
