The artist as prophet

Popular among the Romantic Poets in England and their Trancendentalist comrades in America, was the idea that artists, be they painters, writers, poets or musicians, were prophets in society. Their duty was to bring the increasingly dull populace, enamored with money and industry, back to the love of nature through metaphor and simile. I would like to turn this secularist idea on its head and say that the prophets, especially those in the Old Testament, were artists. We can see this in the Christmas season with the singing of the beautiful words of Isaiah and David, as well as some of the minor prophets. The problem with so many modern artists is that they see art purely as self-expression, surprise, surprise, and forget that mimesis is the mirror of poesis, which is found alone in God, the only real creator ex nihilo. We artists imitate and if we love God Who is Beauty, we shall be prophets. Without love, there is no true art, merely propaganda. Without love, there is no true prophecy. To be continued...

Social Engineering

Well, applying for jobs and having some discussions with Catholic employers, including diocesan gurus, I have discovered the tyranny of the EU regarding sponsorship. Religious orders, as well as parishes, and dioceses no longer can take postulants, seminarians or employees from non EU countries without going through a long process that may not end up with a positive issue. That men cannot come from Viet Nam, where so many seminaries have either been closed or have strict government quotas, is only one example. When did Great Britain and Eire lose their sovereignty? Rhetorical question.

New Year Reflections

One of the challenges in evangelization is knowing when to give up and move on. In this world, too often we hang around a dead corpse, lamenting death, when starving people, hungry and open, are waiting for food. In Europe and in America, dioceses, parishes, priests, and lay persons keep defending the rotten schools called Catholic. I cannot discuss with some priests, and have not been able to do so for twenty-five years, the fact that so many teachers and educators have not been asked to make the oath and promise. Or why taking money from corrupt governments who control curriculumm is a good...it is not.I have a Master Teaching Certificate from NAPCIS. Look it up and make some resolutions about what you really want to support...a real Catholic school or a fake one. It is merely pride to pretend something is what it is not.

Happy Feast Day, Mary

We love you, dear Mother of God and ask your intercession.

More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, without corruption you gave birth to God the Word: True Theotokos, we magnify you.