GROUP 4

 

7 participants: 6 nationalities, 7 congregations

 

 

 

THE ARTS

 

 

·        Beauty is a revelation of God. God’s very self is encountered within the harmony and simplicity of beauty.

 

·        In a world scarred by violence, beauty and art are icons of hope for all people.

 

·        The “crisis of beauty” in our world calls for a new language and a new reverence for artists who can speak and imagine a new vision of our world.

 

We are convinced:

 

1.                It is essential to cultivate the arts within communities of consecrated life and to reverence artistic gifts in our members. This cultivation of the arts and artists is an antidote to the violence and evil in our world and is an integral part of action for justice. It is the artists among us who will see and speak the new and the prophetic.

 

2.                Artists will help communities of consecrated life to:

 

·        Challenge the prevalent mentality of economic productivity;

 

·        Create and care for the beautiful spaces in our communities where God is encountered;

 

·        Celebrate liturgy and the liturgical year with the symbols of our tradition seen with new eyes and spoken with new words;

 

·        Tell the sacred stories to the souls and hearts of those who listen.

 

3.        The dialogue between consecrated life and the world needs to happen in deeper ways than just words. Our artists will give form to consecrated life’s contribution to the building of the new earth in music and painting and glass and stone and words. The communication of beauty will give birth to joy and life in the midst if violence and death.