I believe that beauty will bring us to the gates of heaven. Beauty is God Himself and the beauty in our lives is how He desires us to encounter and draw us closer to Him. We must actively go towards God in order to become closer with Him and grow in relationship with Him. This gift of Beauty, of Himself, is evident in the natural world that He created by His own hands. But it is also present in the created beauty of the creatures He made in His image and likeness - us. The main way that I experience God is in the beauty of sacred art. I am incredibly passionate about sacred art because seeing, pondering, wondering, and learning about it reveals the truth and goodness of God in a way like no other. The more that we love God and beauty, the more we want to know about beauty and God. This works the other way too! The more we know the more we come to love. This is the great gift of how God made us - knowledge and love are incredibly intertwined with one another when we let them. It is also the gift of the transcendentals that we can experience God in every aspect of our lives.
Beauty is the forgotten transcendental. In our society we often hear “this is my truth” or “that is good” but do we ever talk about beauty? Our world today creates and lives with a great deal of ugliness. What we build and create matters because it is a direct reflection of how we view those around us. Are people worth creating a beautiful space and being surrounded by beautiful things? This is a question we must ask and live out in our lives. People deserve to have beauty surround them because they are made in the image and likeness of God, who is Beauty. The transcendentals of truth, beauty and goodness are timeless and universal properties of being. This means that to be human is to be truth, beauty and goodness. This is how God created us because God is Truth, Goodness, and Beauty! In my eyes, beauty is the manifestation of the inner truth and goodness of a person or being. We can always deny the transcendentals and most definitely fall short because of our sin and weakness, but we are still called. We are called to be like God, becoming more and more like Him everyday.
Our experience and understanding of beauty must be expanded. Beauty can be in a colorful sunset, a well formed verse of poetry, a flowing conversation, a sacred painting, a perfectly set up formula in math, or anything that holds the truth and goodness within itself. When these things have the truth and goodness inside them that the Lord has created it to be and desired it to be, it has beauty. The beautiful evokes wonder and delight, and what better beauty is there than sacred art which draws us to wonder about our faith? Sacred art has a way of drawing all parts of us into it whether that be our senses, intellect, or soul itself.
My vision for this blog is to share art historical and visio divina questions, historical background and information, along with my own reflections on sacred art to help you tap into your innate receptivity to beauty. The Lord has created us with the capacity to understand and take in the beauty that He has created and inspired in this world. You deserve to experience the Lord in the beauty that surrounds us. When we identify the beauty that is in our lives we can more easily identify how the Lord is showing up for us in the mundane. What I share is meant to help you dive deeper into the art and beauty that you encounter in our lives, along with unveiling just a potential message that the Lord has for you personally.
I chose the name Ad Porta Caeli because I believe that beauty will bring us closer to heaven, closer to Our Lord Himself. I also believe that beauty brings us closer to Our Blessed Mother. Mary is the gate which brought Jesus Christ into this world. She birthed the One who is Truth, Goodness and Beauty. Love and devotion to Our Lady will draw us into a deeper relationship with Christ and she will let us enter into her heart and her protection. Mary has appeared numerous times to the faithful, urging them to come to her and her Son, waiting for her children to love her back. May we all take Our Lady’s hand so we can see her beautiful heart and be led to the gates of her Son’s Kingdom.
Let us pray -
Lord, please help me to encounter the beauty that you have created and inspired. Lead me to the gates of heaven by your will and by your power. May I understand your truth and goodness made manifest in what is beautiful in this world. Increase my receptivity to the beauty that you have and what I have yet to learn about you as Beauty. I love your Truth and your Goodness, help me to see the need for your Beauty.
Amen.
Madeline, we are taught at a young age that God is love and God is truth. Your premise that God is beauty is a lovely one and worth noting and contemplating upon.
I would add to your expanded list of beauty those things experienced through other senses such as sound: the joy heard in the sound of a child's infectious laughter, songbirds chirping their delightful songs throughout the day, & kind words or words that comfort.
I would add to the visual the viewing of photographs of loved ones and far away lands now available through our Internet connected world. Photographs can evoke memories of good times shared & love ones that physically died.