I’m currently reading Mr. Blue by Myles Connolly. The title character is a sort of holy fool, fascinated by color, children’s picture books and the movies.
This passage really struck me. At first it seems very naive; but the last sentence strikes home with a profound insight:
But now we have a new art, luminous, vivid, simple, stirring, persuasive, direct, universal, illimitable—the animated picture. It can create a new people, gracious and graceful, sensitive, kindly, religious, a people discovering in beauty the happiest revelation of God. No art has ever had the future the motion picture has. If it fails, no art shall have had as great and lamentable a failure.
Thank you for sharing this. My oldest son (who is away from home for the first time this year and who I miss so much!) visited Mount Angel this past week. His friend is a first-year seminarian there for the Diocese of Yakima, Washington. It was nice to hear the same sounds he may have heard and to see the same scenery he saw. What peace and beauty!
Thanks so much for posting this! This is the abbey where my long-lost cousin the monk lives who I mentioned here:
http://et-tu.blogspot.com/2007/03/writing-icons.html
I’m really excited to see this, I’ve been wanting to visit him ever since we were introduced via email!
Judy and Jennifer,
You are very welcome. What a very happy coincidence!
The God Tube website actually has quite a few different videos of Mount Angel Abbey. I’ve watched a few of them and will link them all below (on the site they are scattered among homilies given at a church in Oregon and some pro-life videos). In one of them they even show a monk writing icons…maybe it’s your cousin, Jen?
The Way of the Monk Part I (I believe this is the one that showed the monk writing icons)
The Way of the Monk Part II
The Beauty of Mount Angel Abbey (slideshow to the tune Adoro te Devote)
Prayer Warriors: Reflections on the life and purpose of a Benedictine Monk
Holy Silence
The History of Mount Angel Abbey
The Lord of Creation sights and sounds of the monastic life
The Vows of a Benedictine Monk
The Monks of Mount Angel Abbey reflections on the monastic life by those who are living it
Video of a monk writing icons? That must be him—how cool! I plan to watch them all, but which one shows that, do you know off the top of your head?
Sorry, I can’t read. I see now that you already told me.
It doesn’t look like him, but it must be—I believe he’s the only iconographer there. Maybe it’s an old shot. Anyway, thank you so much for passing these on!