Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Holy Thou Art
What does it mean for something to be holy? I think it means that a thing or person directs us to God or expresses His presence. Holiness is connected with pious awe.
What artistic works seem holy to you? Which are the most peculiarly holy — holy in some unusual and perhaps less obvious sense? Is there some work of sculpture or architecture, painting or music, oration or literature that draws you closer to God in a way your associates don’t fully share?
Does our technological era provide new opportunities for holy expression? Movies can inspire us in ways distinct from literature and stage plays. Can video games help us toward the Lord? Might we consider the many minor forms of expression, like brief videos on social media that combine the singing voices of several, even a hundred, people in delightful song? Or some modern form of animation?
There is always much in the world to complain about. Let us momentarily focus on the good and the beautiful. Where in the arts do you find holiness and force that lifts you toward better being?
Published in Entertainment
The Tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in Mexico as the pregnant Mother of God to Blessed Juan Diego, and Aztec Indian, on December 9, 10, and 12, 1531. She left a Miraculous Image of her appearance on his cactus fiber cloak, or tilma, which still exists today for all to see in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
Our Lady came to offer faith, hope and
consolation to the oppressed natives of Mexico and to reconcile then with their Spanish rulers. She put an end to the bloody human sacrifice of the Aztecs and converted ten million natives in the next 10 years! She is the woman who carried Christ in her womb – the Christ bearer. She leads all to her son.
Handel’s Messiah, maybe. The occasional super-good Christian rock song, like Skillet’s “I Can” (nice reflection on the mercy of the Gospel) and Newsboys’ “Lost the Plot” (best penitent church of Laodicea rock song ever).
The occasional poetry that moves me. “The Brewing of Soma.”
Lord of the Rings, of course.
Music is my road to holiness. The is an organization of young singers who produce amazing hymns:
Perhaps @hartmannvonaue or another Ricochet member in Germany can provide a first-hand account of this centuries-old town tradition of reenacting the Easter story.
Amazing, indeed. Thank you.
Holiness means separated out and given to GOD. Hence Jews and any of us Baptized Christians.
When it’s spring, it’s easy to feel: everything is holy: what GOD created out of nothing and formed from chaos, and is sustained in being by His love; and you can see it all in floods of the first great gift, light itself. And then there’s man, whom he made, male and female in His own image–blowing His Spirit right in his mouth. You won’t exhaust it–go ahead and spend a lifetime with that one happy thought, in seeing God’s spark, and His care, in the doings of mankind, especially when they’re offered back to their primary source: everything from nine innings of baseball to lunch to King Lear to breeds of dogs and varieties of roses.
Among the works of man, I’m most partial to Catholic Churches, holding as they do the indwelling Presence of the Creator. As an old man who was properly cathechized I have the sense of that Presence like I was born with it. The old church buildings, borrowing and varying designs from Scripture, tell why they’re there; they’re far more than meeting houses. Look to the sanctuary lamp, the golden tabernacle door, set above the old altar, between archangels.
This image strikes me as a great work of art. Who made it? Angels?
There are great works of Catholic art, but I look at the popular image of Divine Mercy, or even more common, that of The Sacred Heart or Our Lady of Fatima, and they look like kitsch. A reminder I guess I need that GOD welcomes all comers, not just singers of Renaissance polyphony. I remember the delight I had, so many decades ago, in our plastic dashboard Jesus. It’s good to remember, and to welcome back, that simplicity if you can.
And now for something completely different.
I meditated on this and recalled that the Lord Himself is called holy by His angels.
Perhaps, holiness refers to the nature and glory of God. To the extent anything on Earth is holy, that person or thing exhibits a likeness of God or expresses His presence among us. When the angels call the Lord holy, it is praise of His incomparable and indescribable glory.
It’s like when a human being says to another, “That’s so you.” It means the action or trait is particular to that person; expressive of a personality. Similarly, to say that the Lord is holy is to stand in awe of that which we love about Him.
Well said.
My son is holy. He is incapable of disappointment because he is innately aware that God is totally in charge and whatever happens to us is for our own good.
And Faure was not a religious man in the formal sense.