At a conference last month, Bishop James D. Conley of the
Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska said:
Our New Evangelization must work to make truth
beautiful. By means both ancient and new, we must make use of beauty – to
infuse Western culture, once more, with the spirit of the Gospel… By means of
earthly beauty, we can help our contemporaries discover the truth of the
Gospel. Then, they may come to know the eternal beauty of God.
There are many
ways of doing this, Conley notes, by exposing the world to the rich artistic
imagination of the Church, which extends from the time of Christ to today.
Music, literature, architecture, paintings, sculptures, and stories of the
human experience – these all are tools of earthly beauty that help us to see
the eternal beauty of God.
Stories of the
Saints are also beautiful testimonies that can bring all of us closer to the
Father, especially stories of those in our own back yard. Familiarize yourself
with and share the stories of Fr. Emil Kapaun
and Cora Evans.
Both from the United States, these holy witnesses could soon be named among the
saints!
