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DocumentationUplifting our Gaze and Spirit: Art and PrayerHis Holiness Benedict XVI gave thefollowing address at a General Audience atCastel Gandolfo on August 31, 2011.Dear Brothers and Sisters,In this period I have recalledseveral times the need for everyChristian, in the midst of the manyoccupations that fill our days, to findtime for God and for prayer. The Lordhimself gives us many opportunitiesto remember him. Today I would liketo reflect briefly on one of these channelsthat can lead to God and can alsobe of help in the encounter with him.It is the way of artistic expression, partof that “via pulchritudinis” — the “wayof beauty”, of which I have spokenseveral times and whose deepestmeaning must be recovered by menand women today.It may have happened on some occasionthat you paused before a sculpture,a picture, a few verses of a poemor a piece of music that you founddeeply moving, that gave you a senseof joy, a clear perception, that is, thatwhat you beheld was not only matter,a piece of marble or bronze, a paintedcanvas, a collection of letters or an accumulationof sounds, but somethinggreater, something that “speaks”, thatcan touch the heart, communicate amessage, uplift the mind.A work of art is a product of the creativecapacity of the human being whoin questioning visible reality, seeks todiscover its deep meaning and to communicateit through the language offorms, colour and sound. Art is able tomanifest and make visible the humanneed to surpass the visible, it expressesthe thirst and the quest for the infinite.Indeed it resembles a door open onto the infinite, on to a beauty and atruth that go beyond the daily routine.And a work of art can open the eyes ofthe mind and of the heart, impelling usupward.However some artistic expressionsare real highways to God, the supremeBeauty; indeed, they help us to grow inour relationship with him, in prayer.These are works that were born fromfaith and express faith. We can see anexample of this when we visit a Gothiccathedral: we are enraptured by thevertical lines that soar skywards andAddress by His Holiness Benedict XVIThe nave at the Gothic cathedral ofCologne, Germanyuplift our gaze and our spirit, while atthe same time we feel small yet long forfullness....Or when we enter a Romanesquechurch we are spontaneously promptedto meditate and to pray. We perceivethat these splendid buildingscontain, as it were, the faith of generations.Or when we listen to a piece ofsacred music that plucks at our heartstrings,our mind, as it were, expandsand turns naturally to God.I remember a concert of music byJohann Sebastian Bach in Munich,conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Atthe end of the last passage, one of theCantatas, I felt, not by reasoning but inthe depths of my heart, that what I hadheard had communicated truth to me,the truth of the supreme composer, andimpelled me to thank God. The Lutheranbishop of Munich was next to meand I said to him spontaneously: “inhearing this one understands: it is true;such strong faith is true, as well as thebeauty that irresistibly expresses thepresence of God’s truth.”Yet how many pictures or frescos,fruits of the artist’s faith, in their form,in their color, in their light, urge us tothink of God and foster within us thedesire to draw from the source of allbeauty. What Marc Chagall, a greatartist, wrote, remains profoundly true:that for centuries painters have dippedtheir paintbrush in that colored alphabetwhich is the Bible. Thus howoften artistic expression can bring usto remember God, to help us to pray oreven to convert our heart!Paul Claudel, a famous French poet,playwright and diplomat, preciselywhile he was listening in the Cathedralof Notre Dame to the singing ofthe Magnificat during Christmas Massin 1886, had a tangible experience ofGod’s presence. He had not entered thechurch for reasons of faith but rather inorder to seek arguments against Christiansand instead God’s grace workedactively in his heart.Dear friends, I ask you to rediscoverthe importance of this path also forprayer, for our living relationship withGod. Towns and villages throughoutthe world contain treasures of art thatexpress faith and beckon to us to returnto our relationship with God. May thevisits to places filled with art, then, notonly be opportunities for cultural enrichment— that too — but may theybecome above all moments of grace,incentives to strengthen our bond andour dialogue with the Lord so that — inswitching from simple external realityto the more profound reality it expresses— we may pause to contemplatethe ray of beauty that strikes us to thequick, that almost “wounds” us, andthat invites us to rise toward God.I end with a prayer from a Psalm,Psalm 27[26]: “One thing have I askedof the Lord, that will I seek after; thatI may dwell in the house of the Lordall the days of my life, to behold thebeauty of the Lord, and contemplatehis temple” (v. 4).Let us hope that the Lord will helpus to contemplate his beauty, both innature and in works of art, so that we,moved by the light that shines from hisface, may be a light for our neighbour.Many thanks.28 Sacred Architecture Issue 21 2012Photo: MkillW- His Holiness Benedict XVI