Pope: Art is an open door to the infinite

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy  (Catholic Online) - In a General Audience held on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict XVI returned to a theme which has recurred regularly during his Papal Magisterium and is a distinctive part of his theological vision, beauty as a path to God.

He reminded 5,000 pilgrims of the universal human response to beauty as reflected in a sculpture, a painting, a poem or a beautiful piece of music. The Pope said it is "something bigger, something that speaks, capable touching the heart, of communicating a message, of elevating the soul. How many times, then, can artistic expressions be occasions to remind us of God, to help our prayer or the conversion of the heart."

Pope at Castel Gandolfo

The Pope said that works of art "open the door to the infinite, to a beauty and a truth that goes beyond the ordinary. A work of art can open the eyes of the mind and heart. Perhaps sometimes, before a sculpture, a painting, a few verses of a poem or a song, you have experienced deep within an intimate emotion, a sense of joy, that is to have clearly perceived that in front of you there was not only matter, a piece of marble or bronze, a painted canvas, a series of letters or a combination of sounds, but something bigger, something that speaks, capable of touching the heart, of communicating a message; elevating the soul.

"The work of art is the fruit of human creativity, which questions the visible reality, trying to discover its deep meaning and to communicate it through the language of shapes, colors, sounds. (It) is an open door on the infinite (which) opens the eyes of the mind, of the heart.One example of this is when we visit a Gothic cathedral; we are enraptured by the vertical lines that shoot up towards the sky and draw our eyes and our spirits upwards, while at the same time, we feel small, and yet eager for fullness... 

Read more here...

I found the following encouragement from both Popes most personal as I contemplate about taking a second degree in architecture:

Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI are encouraging the flourishing of all the arts in a great renewal of humanity for our age. Rather than withdraw from the arts they call Catholic artists to lead the way to their renewal and recovery. John Paul addressed his letter to "To all who are passionately dedicated to the search for new "epiphanies" of beauty so that through their creative work as artists they may offer these gifts to the world." ...

It is time to get this relationship right for this Third millennium. We need Catholics, other Christians, other people of faith and good will to respond to the call of Christ the Divine Artist and take their place in creating new "epiphanies' of beauty." Pope Benedict's words to the pilgrims at Castel Gandolfo should be taken to heart by all of us. In an age mired in ugliness, materialism, and a disdain for true beauty, Christians should lead a resurgence of the arts and create new epiphanies of beauty which draw all men and women to the source of all that is beautiful, the living God.