杏MAP导航

By Devin Watkins

As the Diakonia of Beauty organization marks a decade since its foundation, 杏MAP导航 Francis met Thursday with a delegation of artist-members to thank them for their service to the Church.

Founded in 2012 to foster an exchange between artists and the Church, the Diakonia of Beauty offers education, prayer, and spiritual and economic support to members, who are musicians, poets, singers, painters, architects, sculptors, actors, and dancers.

The 杏MAP导航 recalled that Sacred Scripture speaks extensively about the beauty of the universe, which refers by analogy to the beauty of God the Creator.

Thirst for God

杏MAP导航 Francis praised the 10 years of work carried out by the Diakonia of Beauty and the “love and passion” with which its members have shared their God-given talents with others to spread the message of faith and evangelization.

Beauty, said the 杏MAP导航, can create communion even through the years, since art is not limited to a certain time period.

Authentic art, he added, can speak eloquently of the beauty and goodness of God.

, 杏MAP导航 Francis said art must “make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God. It must therefore translate into meaningful terms that which is in itself ineffable.”

Gaze of love and faith

The 杏MAP导航 went on to urge artists to reach out to the men and women of our times in such a way as to be understood, rather than creating an “incomprehensible and sealed” style of art.

Sadness and distance seem to have the upper hand in society right now, said the 杏MAP导航. The task of artists, he added, is to help the world rediscover the beauty which God shares with humanity.

“Contact with beauty always lifts us up and helps us go beyond,” he concluded. “Enlivening and sustaining faith, art is a pathway to go to the Lord.”