The Way of Beauty Podcast: Recent Episodes
David Clayton
David Clayton discusses the intersection of faith, art, and culture through the lens of Catholic teaching and the Way of Beauty.
I recently had the privilege of being interviewed by Zach Elliott of the Life and Beauty - LAB podcast about my book The Way of Beauty. I enjoyed this excellent interview very much. Zach had taken the trouble to read and absorb the contents of my book and presented intriguing and original insights. Thank you Zach!
The home website is vuvivo.com
Alternatively, you can here on Apple or Spotify
Apple Podcasts: LINK
Spotify Podcasts: LINK
YouTube: LAB the Podcast with David Clayton
IG: @labthepodcast - Reels of the conversation were shared here.
@vuvivo_v3
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Here is a recent interview I did with Brandon Vaidyanathan for his Beauty at Work podcast.
This is a channel about how beauty works in our world and shapes the work we do. Brandon is a sociology professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington DC. His podcast explore the meaning of beauty in relation to science, justice, morality, food, religion, work, and other aspects of our lives. Through the interviews he conducts he examines how beauty works -- how it shapes our personal and social lives in ways that may both contribute to and impede our flourishing.
I talk about my work as a painter and how my training at university in science has contributed to that.
I refer to the work of the 17th century sculptor, Bernini in the course of the interview:
Bernini, the Rape of Proserpino.
Bernini deliberately cut deeply into the stone to generate sharp shadows and create a rythmical array of lines that mimic the mathematical parabolas and elipses that the physicist uses to describe the natural order.
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Buy The Daily Routine Journal on Amazon today to begin your journey of personal vocation and purpose:
David shares how a chance encounter 35 years ago led him to develop a process – The Vision for You – for discerning one's calling in life through spiritual exercises and daily habits. Simone Rizkallah was mentored through this process, which helped her reevaluate her life during COVID-19 and accompany others in understanding current events.
Simone has partnered with the Way of Beauty to produce the Daily Routine Journal, providing a place to continue these exercises, to remember how God is working in your life, and to narrow in on your calling each day.
The Vision For You: How to Discover the Life You Were Made For
Here is a recording on an interview by Trea Bailey of the Classical Education podcast of myself and my wife Margarita talking about beauty in our lives and in education.
Margarita and I are both going to be talking on how to introduce and education in beauty into a classical education at the excellent Koinonia Academy in Plainfield, New Jersey on May 6th
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It was my pleasure to be invited by Bonnie Landry, who lives in British Columbia, Canada, to an conversation on her podcast for Catholic families and homeschoolers.
Here are Bonnies show notes:
The Way of Beauty by author David Clayton is a book I’m reading presently. We are loving the book so much that I wanted to interview David to help explore the ideas he presents in light of family life. We can augment the richness of Catholic family life through beauty and parents will reap the harvest of deepening their understanding of beauty and the role it plays in our lives. We expand our ability to contribute to the culture through David’s exceptional book.
6:17 - How do we cultivate an appreciation of beauty in family life?
16:25 - How to engage children in Sacred art
18:40 - Harmonious proportion and how it plays out in our lives
34:43 - The Liturgy of the Hours and it's patterns
40:57 - What is the best way to encourage artistic ability in children?
50:23 - The Way of Beauty and The Little Oratory books
Charlie and Michel tackle this one, while David and Fr Brad take a break. This is an interview of David Cayley who recently republished Ivan Illich’s work and was a personal friend of his.
Can the love of the common good be recovered when we live in countries whose culture and institutions seem at odds with it? Should we retreat in enclaves, join secession movements, or stay put in our local community, wherever it may be? Can a political common good ever be achieved given the political realities that we live in? What is the Christian called to do in such a situation?
The greatest crimes of totalitarianism are done in the name of the Common Good, this is why we must understand what it really is.
What is the Common Good - a list of goods and services to be handed out by the state? or a metaphysical final cause that guides moral action?
In the last chapter of the book, Illich offers an apocalyptic view of industrial societies and the forced segregations that have been imposed on families and on people for the sake of efficiency. Is his a Marxian critique of capitalism or does he offer a third way that even supporters of the free market should give heed to?
Ivan Illic picks up on ideas of Hugh of St Victor who proposed that the purpose of scientific research was to aid mankind in contributing to the raising up and ultimate redemption of the natural world; in contrast the both the laissez faire attitude of modern environmentalists and the exploitative attitude of some, as first articulated by Francis Bacon.
A pilgrimage for the conversion of the state and the nation and for freedom, on the Octave of Pentecost.
David Clayton, Fr Brad Elliot OP, Dr. Michel Accad, and Charlie Deist discuss the rediscovered ideas of Ivan Illich, who died 15 years ago, and in particular an essay from a collection called Shadow Work. His essay describes how the imposition of Castilian as the national language of Spain by Queen Isabella, became a tool of the state for control of the people. We also show how the development of communication through the printing press created a desire to control its use and has parallels today in how big institutions and governments are trying to control the flow of information through the internet.
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Why the search for social justice, self-help, sentiment and parish programs is the worship of self. And why the worship of God will give us the authentic justice, self fulfillment, true happiness and genuine community we all yearn for.
David Clayton and Charlie Deist discuss how the artist’s understanding of beauty can have an impact on human health. We were interviewed by Dr. Michel Accad. The link for the episode is here.
A 50-mile Pilgrimage to Mark the 50 Days of Pentecost, for the Conversion of the Nation. A Call for the Holy Spirit to Guide Us and Give Us Courage
Body, soul and spirit! An engaging and somewhat philosophical conversation on principles of health. How do we identify good nutritional and exercise habits? Amongst the myriad of fads, what rules should guide one’s health choices and behaviors?
Hormetics is the harmony of diet, exercise, prayer and almsgiving in the Christian life. The traditional pattern of Christian living as exemplified the by Melkite Catholics and the Benedictines anticipates and perfects the science of ‘health and wellness’.
Why mask wearing fractures society, and the devil is faceless because he is anti-personal. What are the benefits of mask mandates and social lockdowns?
Does Nigel Farage’s success with Brexit provide a model whereby a Trumpian third party can steal votes from the Democrats and and influence the policies of the Republicans to promote the values of family, nation, faith and freedom in the US?
With our new President introducing executive orders bound up with Critical Theory and identity politics, and withdrawing the proclamation on religious freedom, what does the future hold for Christians?
Here is a great interview. Dr Sebastian Mahfood, of Holy Apostles College and Seminary and a teacher on the new Masters of Education in Catholic School Administration talks to the Program Director, Fr Peter Stravinskas.
Fr Stravinskas is also the President of the Catholic Education Foundation.
David Clayton and Charlie Deist discuss the trouble in DC on January 6th, Donald Trump’s Executive Order on Architecture, and his Presidential Proclamation on the 850th Anniversary of the Death St Thomas Beckett.
Caleb Brown talks about how Marshall McLuhan, Thomas Aquinas, and his Christian faith contributed to his writing of Blue Ridge, a murder mystery set in the Appalachians, which never mentions Jesus, church or Christianity once.
What diet is right for you? Keto? Paleo? And what pattern of eating? One meal a day? Snacks every two hours? Perhaps it’s none of these exclusively, but instead a balanced combination in harmony with the annual cycle of traditional Christian fasting.
Pontifex University Press publishing another collection of essays by Fr. Vincent McNabb. This volume is called The Wayside: A Priest’s Gleanings. Mike Hennessey, a lover of the writings of McNabb wrote the foreword to the book. He discusses how this collection of early essays reveals his great charity and holiness. Mike is the chair of the Belloc Society and he gives us fascinating insights into the influence that McNabb had on Hilaire Belloc.
The essays we refer to specifically from the list below are: The Riches of Ritual, Jane Seedcombe Woolweaver, and An Innocent (which is about the alcoholic prisoner).
Buy the Kindle Edition - $8.60
The Wayside: A Priest's Gleanings
By McNabb, Vincent, Horwitz, Matthew
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Buy the Paperback - $15.95
By McNabb O.P., Fr. Vincent, Horwitz, Matthew
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The beauty in Catholic culture speaks of the unity that brings families and society together in peace through Christ.
I’m with composer Paul Jernberg once again. Our starting point is the following excerpt from Musicam Sacram and the following statement:
Musicians will enter on this new work with the desire to continue that tradition which has furnished the Church, in her divine worship, with a truly abundant heritage. Let them examine the works of the past, their types and characteristics, but let them also pay careful attention to the new laws and requirements of the liturgy, so that "new forms may in some way grow organically from forms that already exist, and the new work will form a new part in the musical heritage of the Church, not unworthy of its past.
How does a composer balance the new with the traditional, proscribed forms with invention? Paul gives us his approach.
PaulJerberg.com
MagnificatInstitute.com
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This is a march in which we meditate upon the spiritual meaning of marching itself. It is exercise that is natural to us - walking - that is ordered to our ultimate end. I see the 50 miles as a symbol of Pentecost, the 50-day after Easter on which the Holy Spirit descended upon us. It is a call for conversion and Christian chivalry.
Paul Jernberg and I discuss in greater depth exactly what constitutes sacred music and how this corresponds to what the Church has said on the subject, particularly in the controversial encyclical, Musica Sacra (which is often used to justify rock bands in church! )
William Deatherage is a recent graduate of Notre Dame is on fire for the Faith. He interviews me for ClarifyingCatholicism.org a new hub featuring a team of new and dynamic writers and bloggers!
Can COVID-19 instead be viewed as a kind of hormetic stressor — a shock to the system that forces a vital adaptation?
Marian devotion nearly died out after Vatican II due to misinterpretation of the Council, some willful. First Paul VI, with Marialis Cultus (1974) and then most significantly John Paul II who reversed that.
A combination of Protestant Evangelical fervor and the methods of church-planting ‘missiology’, and orthodox Catholic teaching and practice.
When we order all that we do to our highest calling, union with God, doors open in front of us regardless of where we start from.
The genius of women, as described by Pius XII and Pope St John Paul II a phrase that describes those qualities that women distinctly offer the world for our greater good and the greater glory of God. This is not, as some may characterize it, a push to confine women to the home or the convent (unless they choose such life), rather it is encouraging a fuller use by women of the gifts that God gives to them for the good of all.
Incorporate natural activity as a habit for Lent which is harmony with your spiritual life. It will enrich the life of the whole person, body and soul.
Jim Woodward was temporarily sectioned in a mental ward in England when he was 24 and diagnosed as psychotic. That was 24 years ago. Now, because of the Vision for You process, he has transformed. He is a stable and happy contributing member of society who has converted to Catholicism and sees his faith as central to his life. He now runs his own business and lives in Orange County, CA.
Did you know that Mark wasn’t the first gospel to be written? In fact, they were written in the order in which they appear in the Bible - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The spiritual exercises of the Vision For You process will encourage personal discipline in harmony with our natural purpose in life. We not only have greater self-discipline, but we also have a better sense of how to direct it.
A gulf-war veteran describes how the Vision for You process changed his life: I urge you to watch or listen to this. My friend Peter Murphy was sent to the first gulf war just a few weeks after his 17th birthday. When he returned he was mentally ill for years, eventually being diagnosed with PTSD. I am a stiff-upper-lip Brit, but a tear came to my eye when he described the effect of his change had on his marriage and how it gave him a family. God is good!
Which painting would you rather contemplate on your deathbed? How this question in an art history class made a believer out of a young atheist Lawrence Feingold
There is a prejudice in the West today, even among orthodox Catholics, that elevates the written word above visual art in the culture. Consequently, we have lost the art of connecting symbols to hidden realities and to the detriment of personal holiness and the Faith.
Sports psychology observes that we engage in internal dialogue - ’ self-talk’ - which the secular anthropology can’t account for, but Christian anthropology and theology can via the ideas of the spirit of man and divine inspiration #bodysoulspirit
The lesson seems to be, once again, that science is catching up with tradition. Conform your spirit to God’s will, let your spirit rule the rest of the soul and the soul rule the body and all is well.
Philosopher Jennifer Frey talks to David Clayton about St Thomas, Boethius, happiness, suffering and the virtuous life.
If you inherited so much money that you never needed to work again for the money, what activity would you do five days a week? As long as what comes to mind isn’t actually sinful, then the chances are that it is what God wants you to do too!
Here I describe the spiritual exercises that allow us to root out the self-centeredness that causes our unhappiness. so that God can enter our lives more deeply. It’s a process that works.
This week, I am going to direct you to the first of a series of three talks that I have been invited to give for the Institute of Catholic Culture. In this one, I describe the story of how I met David Birtwistle at a cafe in the King’s Road in Chelsea, London in 1988. As a result of this contact, I asked him to take me through a series of spiritual exercises, even though I was a sour atheist. I describe how he sold me on taking this process. The result of this is that I became an artist, as I had always dreamed, and I became a Catholic (which is beyond anything I’d ever imagined for myself). The link is here. The Institute of Catholic Culture, Part 1. Scroll down to the bottom for the video, which is an hour long.
This process of looking at the nature of man and considering how he can be healthy and graceful is part of the holistic vision of the Way of Beauty and is fully Christian. This is the new Body, Soul and Spirit movement. What the New Age should have been!
The Way of Beauty Podcast - Episode 46 Christopher West and David Clayton on techniques for popularizing theology and philosophy so as to engage non-believers and believers alike. Our inspiration is St John Chrysostom - ‘golden mouth’ - but each of us can be golden mouthed and honey tongued if we are true to our personal vocation!
The Way of Beauty Podcast #45. David Clayton and Adam DeVille talk about the solutions to the crisis of abuse of sex and power in the Church that don’t involve the Bishops.
We discuss how the Way of Beauty offers a route to holiness and formation for seminarians and lay people.
You don’t need to be a monk or a nun to be a mystic. Every single one of us is meant to be one, and through the Christian tradition this can happen at our local parish church. Fr Jeffrey Kirby’s book tells us how.
Should we create a book like this today? You might think that it is obvious that we should (assuming we have anyone capable of it), but there are some problems - would actually read it if we did? Wouldn’t it just be a museum peice from the moment it is created?
How do you turn your average Catholic parish that follows the missalette and is a state of carefully managed decline - it has an aging and declining congregation and doesn’t mind as long as the people who go are happy? How do you persuade a successful Praise and Worship parish - whose liturgy is barely distinguishable from an Evengelical Christian worship - that there is something even better?
Here David Clayton and Paul Jernberg discuss how you deal with real people and real situations in order to change the music. This is the mission of Paul’s Magnificat Institute - magnificatinstitute.org
One of the unique facets of Christian spirituality is contained in the way that sacred music speaks to the heart. This does not happen via the manipulation of emotion, rather the response of the heart preceeds emotion and is more authentic than it.
David Clayton and Paul Jernberg discuss how sacred music must be performed with a unique artistry. Do chorister pray or do they perform?
Here Paul Jerberg and I discuss what can be done to introduce good sacred music in your parish and the need for a formation for choir directors, priests and bishops. Sacred music is not just a matter of subjectivity - most priests and bishops seem to have lost sight of the fact that there are objective standards.
Here I talk to Matthew Horwitz who was the editor of the Pontifex University Press republication of a series of essays by Fr Vincent McNabb called God’s Dealings With the Minds of Men, Essays on Biblical Inspiration, Mysticism and the Imagination.
Marxism and socialism sees man and his freedom as despensible to the ‘greater good’ which is a flawed understanding of the Christian idea of the common good; it is deliberately decietful in its aims and promotes conflict and misery within society in order to achieve them.
There will be no renewal of sacred music and no evangelization without composition of new sacred music. It must participate in the tradition but resonate with people today.
Sacred music should draw worshipers into the contemplative dimension of the liturgy. It appeals to that part in us that hears the ‘still, small, voice’ and we develop that faculty through contemplative prayer.
Sacred music must resonate with contemporary worshipers while participating in the principles that go right back to the origins of sacred chant in the Apostolic Churches.
Christopher West talks to David Clayton about popular culture and the New Evangelization and lessons from Bruce Springsteen and Our Lady of Guadalupe: Popular culture doesn’t speak to the lowest common denominator, it speaks to the highest common denominator. Like it or loath it, the best rises to the surface. The reason so much of it is bad is that Christians have done such a woefully bad job at participating in contemporary culture. There is a gaping hole for Christians to occupy if we want to and we could learn lessons from the cultural Marxists in this respect!
If we learn to work with the natural structure of the body, our movement will be natural, graceful and dignified; and we will feel healthier and be more active. Are these aims good? Are they Christian?
Art speaks in way that words alone cannot for as well as presenting the image, it is instrinsic to art that it connects and establishes relationships, between the viewer and the prototype, via the image and using the imagination. This stimulates the faculty by which we ‘see’ the invisible through the visible and so is essential to the development and retention of faith in God.
If we are to evangelize the culture, how do we persuade Catholics that beauty matters? Jules Miles interviews David Clayton for her Mystery Through Manners website.
‘A Distributist is someone who won’t shop at Wallmart and grows chickens in their suburban backyard and thinks everyone else should do the same.’ David Clayton and Fr Brad Elliot discuss this economic and cultural ideology.
This is the fifth and final in our series, the Cloister in the Cul-de-Sac. In this one Charlie Deist and I discuss how, once we have established the life of prayer and service to others, we can take active steps to engage with others around us.
‘Economics has an important part to play in creating fertile soil in society for the gospel to take root.’ This Fr Brad Elliott OP is David Clayton’s guest. We discuss economics and Catholic culture.
The psalms and scripture are the basis of liturgical prayer. Scripture contain the principles by which we worship and much of the text that we pray when we worship.
It is very difficult to know what to do when you leave seminary. This process gives the answer.
It is important to understand the nature of what we are painting, this involves not only the physical anatomy but also the anthropology of the person. Even then we have to understand how the person relates to the things that surround him, most immediately clothes. The painting of drapery is generally very weak because artists don’t understand how the cloth behaves and how it hangs on a person.
This is a creative retrieval of scripture interpretation in the manner of the Church Fathers - presented for the modern age and in the light of all we know now.
You don’t need to take vows, you don’t need a third order, or for there to be a community already in existence to have a community. Do the prayer of community and fellowship will come to you. It starts with the Spirit and then people will come.
Iconography and Iconology are the study of the sacred image and the symbolism of the content respectively. Jonathan Pageau is someone who is both a master craftsman and and a deep understanding of both. This has relevance in the Christian life way beyond the church building, it extends out into every human endeavor.
It is a spiritual paradox, that the best way to relieve my lonliness by by trying to relieve the lonliness of others.
If we are lonely we have to look at ourselves first. Someone once said to me (and it was only slightly tongue-in-cheek): ‘If you’re not happy with your parish, then please don’t come to ours, we don’t don’t want you messing up our church too.’
‘Women have a special gift as homemakers. Modern feminism cannot abide this and as a result so many people today are spiritually homeless.’
How do we prepare for old age? Can we still respond to God's grace and be joyful as our faculties decline. I reflect on this in the light of having seen both my mother and my sister struggling with and both dying of brain cancer in recent years.
This is a wide ranging discussion covering topics such as how medicine ignores the soul and science ignores substance and form and why this is so important.
As he points out, many people think that the ideas of self-love or self-interest is at best a necessary evils, and at worst sinful and contrary to Catholic teaching. Similarly many say that the principle of the private property is in some way contrary to the idea of working towards the common good and as both are enshrined within Catholic Social Teaching, leave us searching for an elusive middle ground when trying to do what is right in real-life situations. In fact, when we understand the nature of these things, we find that there is not conflict at all.
All the evidence shows us that that more new people there are in the world, the better the world is and the better it is for the rest of us. Fear and the hatred of mankind as the cause of it in the post-Christian West drive an irrational pessimism that creates greater evils and suffering than those they are seeking to remedy.
I like it isn’t the same as it is good! Is beauty in the eye of the beholder, or is their a standard of ultimate beauty by which we can judge the beauty of the world around us? And who cares anyway? The Way of Beauty podcast Episode 11.
The traditional interpretation of scripture and reading of the cosmos - the Book of Nature - sees Mary in almost every detail, who then, in turn, shows us her Son. Until we rediscover that art of seeing the interrelatedness of all things around us, and that so much that is good is in some way a sign that points to God, through Mary, we cannot create a culture that reflects cosmic, and hence Divine beauty.
Charlie and David discuss why it is natural for both men and women to grow flowers for beauty, and why it is, perhaps surprisingly, so important for the human flourishing and even the encouragement of a culture of life!
David Clayton talks to Charlie Deist about this iconic peice of street furniture, how it’s design is influenced by high architecture and the liturgy and why this is an inspirition for all designers today who want to elevate souls as well as make more money!
This building has three storeys of different sizes, it is just like a musical chord, in which you have three different notes that combine to create a single harmonious whole. Christians saw this as a natural inclination to respond to beauty, which points to the beauty of God, who is Three Persons.
This week David talks to Charlie about how the liturgy and not socio-economic factors is the most powerful influence on the culture. And how it is the beauty of an authentic liturgical culture that is the driving force.
We quote John Paul II from his encyclical Centesimus Annus
[...I]t is not possible to understand man on the basis of economics alone, nor to define him simply on the basis of class membership. Man is understood in a more complete way when he is situated within the sphere of culture through his language, history, and the position he takes towards the fundamental events of life, such as birth, love, work, and death. At the heart of every culture lies the attitude man takes to the greatest mystery: the mystery of God. Different cultures are basically different ways of facing the question of the meaning of personal existence. When this question is eliminated, the culture and moral life of nations are corrupted.
, and Pope Pius XII who wrote the encyclical Mediator Dei on the liturgy, and included reference to sacred art. We refer to the following passage:
"195. What We have said about music, applies to the other fine arts, especially to architecture, sculpture and painting. Recent works of art which lend themselves to the materials of modern composition, should not be universally despised and rejected through prejudice. Modern art should be given free scope in the due and reverent service of the church and the sacred rites, provided that they preserve a correct balance between styles tending neither to extreme realism nor to excessive "symbolism," and that the needs of the Christian community are taken into consideration rather than the particular taste or talent of the individual artist. Thus modern art will be able to join its voice to that wonderful choir of praise to which have contributed, in honor of the Catholic faith, the greatest artists throughout the centuries. Nevertheless, in keeping with the duty of Our office, We cannot help deploring and condemning those works of art, recently introduced by some, which seem to be a distortion and perversion of true art and which at times openly shock Christian taste, modesty and devotion, and shamefully offend the true religious sense. These must be entirely excluded and banished from our churches, like "anything else that is not in keeping with the sanctity of the place."
And consider the following pictures. From the Baroque period of the 17th century:
St Jerome Reading by Georges De La Tours, French 17th century
A portrait painted by St Anthony Van Dyck when a teenager and a student of Rubens. Flemish, 17th century.
Landscape by Corot, French, 19th century
And we consider the following buildings in our discussion of the Victorian Neo-Gothic
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, designed by AW Pugin, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, england, 19th century.
St Mary's Newcastle-upon-Tyne, interior.
The Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool, England, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert-Scott, begun early 20th century, completed 1978.
Paddy's Wigwam - the Catholic Cathedral, Liverpool, start and completed in the 1960s.
The K-2 telephone box, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, with Queen Elizabeth Tower housing Big Ben, in the background, designed by AW Pugin.
Street furniture that is derived from and points to the liturgical culture. Icons of the English landscape - the red letter box and the red phone box.
Industrialization, mass production and capitalism do not create a culture of beauty, they simply propogate and amplify the underlying culture, for good or ill. For example, Wedgewood china is the product of the English industrial revolution!
Here is an in-depth explanation of how to do meditation and contemplation with sacred art, and how it helps to transform us in preparation for the highest prayer - liturgical prayer.
As you pray, keep in mind two sayings:
'Success in prayer is not measured by how we feel during the prayer, but from the work we put in', and 'in spiritual matters, it is in the trying that we are successful.'
Remember also, the spiritual life is about happiness, but while meditation and contemplation can be very pleasant experiences, they can also be dry and distracted. If we give this our best shot, it will contribute to our general happiness not simply to a feeling during the prayer itself.
Here we go!
I start by doing a short meditation of gratitude - in which I list 10 or so items from the day that are good and thank God for them; and a review of conscience in which I look at my resentments and fears, acknowledge my sins and ask for forgiveness (see the daily routine in The Vision for You book).
- Exclamation: Blessed be God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three persons and one God.
Praise: Psalm 116 (117) O praise the Lord all ye nations, praise him all ye peoples, for his merciful kindness is more and more toward us; and the truth of the Lord endureth forever.
Penitence: Lord have mercy (3 times)
Petition: Father, may the Holy Spirit lead me to Jesus, in Jesus Name, Amen.
Prayer from the heart: Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (8 repetitions). Repeat this prayer as a way of eliminating distraction. If thoughts occur during let the good ones go through to their resolution and even be ready to write it down if its something worth remembering. If it is a bad thought, refocus on the Jesus prayer.
At the end of these eight meditations, I pray an extended period of contemplation. I set the clock to 15 minutes and repeat the Jesus prayer again (I will mention this at the end also).
- Exclamation: Blessed be God, in His angels and in His Saints.
Psalm 116 (117), Lord have mercy (3 times)
Petition: Oh you saints and angels in heaven, pray for me to Lord our God, that I may have all that I desire most deeply and all that is good for me, but only in accordance with His will. Father, hear our prayers, in Jesus Name, Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (8 repetitions)
- Exclamation: Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Psalm 116 (117), Lord have mercy (3 times)
Petition: Mary, Mother of God, please show me your Son. Pray for me to the Lord our God, that I may have all that I most deeply desire, and all that is good for me, but only in accordance with His will. Father, hear our prayers, in Jesus Name, Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (8 repetitions)
- Exclamation: Blessed be Jesus Christ, True God, and True Man. Behold the Lamb of God.
Psalm 116 (117), Lord have mercy (3 times)
Petition: Oh God, take away my sins and the fears and resentments that arise from them. Let me die with you spiritually through baptism Amen. In Jesus' name, Amen
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (8 repetitions)
- Exclamation: Blessed be Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, my Lord and my God.
Psalm 116 (117), Lord have mercy (3 times)
Petition: Oh God, let me rise spiritually through confirmation and through the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, Amen
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (8 repetitions)
- Exclamation: Blessed be Jesus Christ, ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father, and the Holy Spirit the Paraclete descending upon us.
An alternative image might be Pentecost
Psalm 116 (117), Lord have mercy (3 times)
Petition: Oh God, let me partake of the divine nature and enter into the mystery of the Trinity through the Eucharist in the sure and certain hope of bodily resurrection after death. In Jesus' name, Amen
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (8 repetitions)
- Blessed be God, Our Father in Heaven whom I behold through Jesus in the Spirit.
Psalm 116 (117), Lord have mercy (3 times)
Petition: Oh Father, grant all that I deeply desire and all that is good for me in accordance with your will. In Jesus' name Amen
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (8 repetitions)
- Blessed be Jesus Christ and His Mystical Body, the Church, transfigured and shining with uncreated light.
Psalm 116 (117), Lord have mercy (3 times)
Oh God, let me shine with the Light of Christ as I go out into the world that I may draw others to you, for their joy and peace and Your greater glory. In Jesus name, Amen
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (8 repetitions)
Extended contemplation: Then the contemplation stage begins. I always repeat Jesus Prayers as described in order to eliminate distraction, while being alert to other thoughts that crop into my mind. I follow the good trains of thought and if necessary write things down so that I can remember them afterwards. If bad thoughts occur I focus more on the repetition of the Jesus Prayer.
Philippians 4:6: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Book: The Wellspring of Worship by Jean Corbon.
Book: The Spirit of the Liturgy by Benedict XVI
These are two old ideas that are new to many people today, and surprisingly they are connected. Pope Benedict XVI told us that the driving force for the New Evangelization is the Domestic Church. Prayer in the home focussed on a place set aside for it and marked by sacred images goes back to Roman times; the method of seeking to evangelize the post-Christian West termed the New Evangelization. So while the problem is new - how do we convert people whose parents or grandparents were Christian and think they already know enough about the Faith to know they don't like it? - the answer is the same as it ever was. We must be supernaturally transformed, shining with the love of Christ so people want what we have! And it is prayer in the Domestic Church that plays a crucial part in that personal transformation.
Links and quotes:
“Therefore, it must be emphasized once more that the pastoral intervention of the Church in support of the family is a matter of urgency. Every effort should be made to strengthen and develop pastoral care for the family, which should be treated as a real matter of priority, in the certainty that future evangelization depends largely on the domestic Church.”
— Pope Benedict XVI, address to the PLENARY ASSEMBLY OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR THE FAMILY, Clementine Hall, Thursday, 1 December 2011
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO PARTICIPANTS AT THE PLENARY ASSEMBLY OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR THE FAMILY, Clementine Hall, Thursday, 1 December 2011
“The family is the first school of prayer where, from their infancy, children learn to perceive God thanks to the teaching and example of their parents. An authentically Christian education cannot neglect the experience of prayer. If we do not learn to pray in the family, it will be difficult to fill this gap later.”
— John Paul II, Weekly address, the Vatican, Dec 2011
Weekly address, the Vatican, Dec 2011
Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Ratzinger: on the New Evangelization
Way of Beauty blog article: The New Evangelization and the Domestic Church - Pope Benedict XVI on the connection between the two
Pictures of Roman home altars and dining arrangements, followed by a modern icon corner:
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Roman Catholics have forgotten how to pray with sacred art and hardly anyone seems to care - this is as true of the pious and traditionally-minded Catholics as it is of liberals and it has been so for 200 years. Until we re-learn to this ancient practice, the Church will continue to hemorrhage believers and fail to evangelize the faithless. They knew the importance of this in the past and this is why people were martyred for defending the use of art against the iconoclasts 1200 years ago. Can you imagine anyone doing the same today?
I discuss just why art is so important to the mission of the Church; and how St Thomas's Fourth Way can give us insight into how to harness its power to re-evangelize the culture.
This is the title of my latest book and it describes the story of how I was persuaded nearly 30 years ago, by a man called David Birtwistle, to do a series of spiritual exercises that enabled me to fulfill my dream of being an artist. I started off as a bitter, anti-Christian atheist yet he persuaded me to give it a go. As a result, I not only became an artist, I became a Catholic!