Opening Prayer
Lord God, I address You as the Beauty so ancient and so new, who has chased away my blindness and breathed upon me fragrantly. I acknowledge that all earthly beauty is but a pledge of Your love—a ring given by the Bridegroom to draw the heart back to Himself. I renounce the ugliness of my previous search for joy in created things, choosing instead to focus my desire upon the Most High King.
I offer this Dedication of Beauty by consecrating the disordinate social frictions and spiritual paper cuts of this day as little tokens of my desire for You. Receive my patience in the face of domestic disorder or the chaos of the temporal vocation as a humble currency used to purchase immense spiritual growth. Let the distractions of the world serve only to remind me of the Light that has no setting and the Dawn that no tomorrow follows.
Amen.
Luke 11:27-28
27And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. 28But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.
Blessed John Henry Newman
Blessed John Henry Newman evaluates old churches as witnesses of Him who is the first and the last. The Gospel “Blessed the womb” is fulfilled in this Gospel Palace. This basilica is a visible specimen of the communion of saints, proving that “Tradition is necessary to understand Scripture“. Newman evaluates these buildings as emblems of Jesus Christ. We must adorn the soul rather than the body so we too can be a “holy temple”.
The soul is frequently lured by the “unreal pleasures” of the world, which act as shadows that fade as we mature in the spirit. We must acknowledge that these passing delights cannot provide “food for eternity” and will eventually leave the heart in misery. We are called to redirect our desires toward the inexhaustible beauty of God, the only Object that never perishes or disappoints.
“We must begin, indeed, with the heart… but while we begin with the heart, we must not end with the heart. We must not give up this visible world.”
— Blessed John Henry Newman
Mary and the Magisterium
Mary is the “Beauty of the Most High King,” a radiance that Newman recognized as both ancient and ever new. In her, we find the perfection of a soul that has been sought out and captured by Divine Love.
- Does my church "inspire me to worship God through its age and beauty"?
- How am I "reaching out my own hands towards posterity" to pass on the Faith?
Closing Prayer
Lord, I love the beauty of Your house and the place where Your glory dwells.
Amen.
