Encounter the Catholic Imaginative Vision as it is incarnated in works of art, architecture, and literature, as well as in the artists and intellectuals who have given it further expression. With one post per week, explore the expression of the Church across times and cultures.
It has been said that God writes straight with crooked lines. The origins of the Basilica of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows might provide an example of that kind of oblique writing.
The Veil of Veronica, on which the image of Christ's face was miraculously preserved, has played an important role in Holy Week traditions, responding to our desire to see the face of God.
In the fourth chapter of "Letters to a Young Catholic," Weigel explores the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition in Jerusalem to reflect upon Mary's unhesitating "fiat" to the will of God.
In the third chapter of "Letters to a Young Catholic," Weigel explores two places that confront us with the reality of Christ: a monastery on Mt. Sinai and the Holy Sepulchre.
The Irish island of Skellig Michael provided a remote and penitential setting for an ancient monastic community that sought a life of solitude, prayer, and self-sacrifice.
In the second chapter of "Letters to a Young Catholic," Weigel explores the grittiness and historicity of Christianity, focusing on the bones of St. Peter in the Vatican excavations ('Scavi').
In the first chapter of "Letters to a Young Catholic," George Weigel explores what it means to grow up Catholic, growing into a common way of life with shared customs and a shared symbolic world.
On the massive "Maestà," Sienese painter Duccio tells multiple stories within his depiction of the Nativity and sets the scene amongst the context of the Old Testament prophets.
Through the potency of a storm at sea and the power of Christ's words, Dutch master Rembrandt leaves the Christian viewer challenged and in awe.
In the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, Mary, Queen of Peace, is depicted beckoning out to the world, "Basta! Enough! Stop the violence and war!"
A century ago, the people of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, actively entrusted their city and nation to Christ, manifesting his invisible kingship in a now-iconic statue.