The beauty of buildings and art can help to raise our minds and hearts to the divine.
I have a
childhood memory of watching up at a wall mural painting by the famous Irish
artist, teacher, broadcaster and public commentator, Seán Keating, in
the Church of the Holy Spirit in
Ballroan, in south Country Dublin. I recall my later mother telling me,
once, that the same Seán Keating (who died in 1977) would spend time gazing at
one or other of the murals from the pews beneath during mass. Not only is this
a beautiful work of art but the artist, so it is claimed, saw himself in the
person of John the Baptist who resembled him in the painting. They are
extraordinarily beautiful works of art in an extraordinarily beautiful
church. Perhaps the artist was gazing as much at the truth and beauty in
and under and beyond the physical composition mounted on the transept walls as
he was at the artistic beauty he had conceived and brought to life. There
is a mystery about the things of the Holy Spirit and the earthy world in which
we have been planted that invites us to stop and gaze, to pause and wonder, to
ask and remain awhile. In those moments we might sense an inner feeling or even
voice that speaks ‘This is a wonderful world – immerse in it’ or ‘I
saw the Spirit coming down from Heaven like a dove and resting on him’ (John
1:32 ).
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