The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 57
My son, Ira, believes that everything is art. When pressed for clarification by his older brother or by his parents he simply asserts that everything, in its own way, is art. He is quite insistent. He has not arrived at this belief by careful reasoning and study of philosophical aesthetics, but by means of the way the world comes to him and moves through him. Ira is an artist. He attends to a set of phenomena in everyday life that escapes the notice of most people. This capacity to perceive is not something he learned as much as it is something he bears into the world. Sometimes it is a burden for him, but most of the time it is a gift for all of us.
The fact that our Father Benedict makes room in the community for Ira is a source of great joy for me. It can be challenging to share life with an artist, especially with regard to creating structure and order according to an imposed standard, or rule. Yet, as my dear friend, the principal of a secondary school for the arts, has taught me, providing a clear and livable structure wherein daily life and art are carefully integrated is salvation for artists and their art.
As is evidenced by the life and work of a visionary like Thomas Merton, Benedictine spirituality does not squelch creativity and stamp out the inner light that burns in an artist's soul. It tends the fire by building a furnace and carrying the wood and channeling the life-giving heat as a gift for the world.
Br. Chad
This was very much the case at St. John's Abbey, where artists of many kinds thrived. The embrace of the arts was one of the reasons I loved St. John's so much while I was there for graduate school.
ReplyDeleteI see art embraced by you, Br. Rawleigh, Br. Philip in different ways. I wonder how my own artistic sensibilities will eventually manifest in this community. Something worth meditating on.
The St. John's Bible is a case in point there, Kate. I imagine that we will all be deeply blessed by what your inner fire manifests in the kiln of our community.
ReplyDeleteYes, the St. John's Bible is a visual form of the art they embrace. They practice visio divina with that Bible, in fact. Have you ever seen any of the volumes? They're beautiful. They tend to travel, so perhaps we'll see a set in Phoenix in the not-too-distant future.
DeleteI'm excited to grow with this community. It's already been such a blessing to be here.