Above: The Conversion of St. Augustine, by Fra Angelico and his workshop, circa 1345-1455
This post contains this arts missioner’s meditation on a passage of St Augustine of Hippo’s biography, known as Confessions, followed by a listing of opportunities in faith and the arts with some wonderful poets, scholars, creatives and contemplatives who are friends of Cathedral Arts.
“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”
Augustine (354 – 430) uses Beauty here as a name for God, a name some feel makes God more accessible to them. He writes under the influence of Plato for whom Beauty is the object of desire and closely connected to the Good.
“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.”
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, the one whom Augustine refers to as “ever ancient, ever new,” comes as light which casts what does not perceive him into deep shadow. “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” (John 10:1-2, NIV)
Similarly, Beauty, living in the little world that was Augustine, had the effect of casting him out of himself.
“In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created.”
When I remembered Augustine’s passage on Beauty, I wondered how it might serve the Cathedral’s mission of helping people fall in love with God through beauty and also help me write a blog post. Writing is a lovely thing to plunge into, as is our mission in the arts. But misusing Augustine’s use of the word “beauty” here is an unlovely temptation for me. Beauty, here, is a symbol for Godself—a word meant to roam free rather than to be domesticated for my own purposes.
“You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all.”
The seeming distance between Augustine who is “a little world made cunningly” (in the words of John Donne), and God is no distance at all, but rather an “endless night” in contrast to the Beauty and Light of God.
“You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”
Reflective of Augustine, Donne’s poem referenced above ends with “And burn me O Lord, with a fiery zeal/ Of thee and thy house, which doth in eating heal.”
I hear in these lines my own plunging and recognition of the church as “Thy house”— both a cathedral built of many souls and an instrument of God’s healing. I feel concern for Donne’s cure.
I conclude my meditation with a prayer for our little world: May the fragrance of incense, the sound of voice and organ, and the grace to take and eat break through and help us to know ourselves to have been touched by Beauty, and burning for peace. Amen.
Here are the promised notes……
Between the services on Sunday we have coffee downstairs at 9AM and share in lectio divina—divine reading—from which flows meditation and creative conversation not unlike this blog post. And if you are coming to Albany and have not seen the tulips in Albany’s Washington Park, now is the time—they are at their most beautiful now.
Speaking of fire, church and the senses, the Cathedral will offer the ancient liturgy of the Pentecost Vigil this year on Saturday, May 27 at 7PM. Our friend Dr. Brian Taylor of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Schenectady will be the organist.
The Chalice of Repose Project Lenten Workshop with Therese Schroeder-Sheker was a recent time of deep learning and meditation — “transformational rather than merely informational,” as one participant put it. We are collecting interest for future workshops with Chalice, which are open to only ten participants. You can learn more and show your interest HERE.
It is due to the years-long interest of Father Paul Hunter in the writings of Schroeder-Sheker that the Chalice of Repose Project came to our cathedral. The next blog post will be a sequel to his last, Grail Questions, which you can read HERE, or on the Chalice of Repose Project website.
Our leader in poetry, Evan Craig Reardon, will soon record a discussion with poet Bruce Beasley whose new book, Prayershreds, was just published by Orison Books. You can read about Beasley’s work HERE while you await the release of our conversation with him.
Save the date for more poetry!—on Saturday, November 4 we will welcome poet, scholar, musician and priest Malcolm Guite to the Cathedral of All Saints. He will speak on the Psalms for our Annual Bible Symposium.
Peace.