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| Beyond Words: Trying to Connect with God's Holiness |  |
| Location: Blogs Leanne's Blog |
 | | Posted by: Leanne | 9/5/2007 1:30 PM | I just returned from my first trip to Italy. I was there presenting at a conference. I knew that the churches, museums and homes I toured while there would be filled with some of the paintings I had seen in books and was wary--wondering if I would be moved by their beauty or disgusted by the wealth spent creating and preserving them. I am committed to living simply and so I feared that the art would "turn me off."
My fears were relieved as soon as I visited my first Basilica. I looked at this art, created with such thought, care and love and which expressed theology through pictures and was moved sometimes even to tears! To stand in these places is a reminder that God is much greater than words can express and throughout the ages artists have tried to capture in symbols and paintings that which words could never express.
I have been teaching and lecturing for years now about the need to allow children to encounter God and express their feelings about God through a variety of means including drawing, painting, dancing, Holy Listening Stones, spiritual sandboxes and clay.
However, much of the Christian church today focuses on using words only to describe and explain God's holiness and presence. The 15 minute sermon is the main way we hear of God and learn God's stories. We live in a society that demands complex concepts, both religious and theological, to be expressed in ten second sound bites and as succinctly as possible.
Standing in the churches and seeing the art, and trying to imagine what I would paint if asked to create through art my faith and God's love, I was reminded that there simply are not words and there simply are no ten second sound bites to describe God.
I invite all of us to spend time pondering, meditating and praying about God's love and realizing that it is bigger than any of us can articulate. Perhaps it is even beyond pictures and words, in that silent place where God can really be known and experienced.
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Re: Beyond Words: Trying to Connect with God's Holiness | By Kim on 9/7/2007 5:10 PM | | I agree with you Leanne. But many times, than not, our actions speak far more than words. It is when we stop talking and intently listen to others and God is when I think we find peace. |
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