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Views from the Choir Loft

Many Questions | Pope Saint John Paul II’s Letter to Artists (Part 2)

Richard J. Clark · September 19, 2014

AST WEEK, POPE SAINT John Paul II’s Letter to Artists was discussed. As art expresses truth in its beauty, Saint John Paul asserted that the Church needs art.

      * *   Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists • 1999

VERY KIND READER sent me this beautiful three-minute video on Pope John Paul II’s “Letter to Artists”. The information accompanying the video indicates:

A tribute to John Paul II’s “Letter to Artists”, as read by students at John Paul the Great Catholic University. This video was posted in April 2014, to commemorate his canonization to sainthood, and as a gift to Christian artists throughout the world.

THIS VIDEO ACTS AS A WONDERFUL MEDITATION on the role art plays in prayer and in our relationship with God. As such, Saint John Paul’s letter opens the door to a number of questions. Here are just a few to begin a broader discussion:

1 • What role does art play in our interior and exterior prayer life?
2 • Therefore, What implications does beauty and art have for the liturgy?
3 • E.g., What roles do music, architecture, and vestments play in our prayer?
4 • Do art and beauty require intricacy and complexity?
5 • What implication does the subjective nature of judging beauty, and therefore the experience of art, have on corporate prayer?
6 • Saint John Paul stated in this letter: “The ‘beautiful’ was thus wedded to the “true”, so that through art too souls might be lifted up from the world of the senses to the eternal.” (§7) As truth is objective, is there a standard for what is beautiful?

“In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art.” (§12)— Pope Saint John Paul II

Pray always and be unceasingly inspired! Sacred Art in service to God and his people is a great calling—one that is encouraged by a great saint.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“We must say it plainly: the Roman rite as we knew it exists no more. It has gone. Some walls of the structure have fallen, others have been altered—we can look at it as a ruin or as the partial foundation of a new building. Think back, if you remember it, to the Latin sung High Mass with Gregorian chant. Compare it with the modern post-Vatican II Mass. It is not only the words, but also the tunes and even certain actions that are different. In fact it is a different liturgy of the Mass.”

— Fr. Joseph Gelineau (1978)

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