Angelus News | January 12, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 1

DESIRE LINES
HEATHER KING
Our vocation is love
Volunteers drop off Christmas gifts and other items
for needy families last month as part of the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles’ Adopt-a-Family program. |
VICTOR ALEMÁN
“We, though many, are one Body in
Christ and individually parts of one
another. Since we have gifts that differ
according to the grace given to us, let us
exercise them: if prophecy, in proportion
to the faith; if ministry, in ministering;
if one is a teacher, in teaching; if one
exhorts, in exhortation; if one contributes,
in generosity; if one is over others, with
diligence; if one does acts of mercy, with
cheerfulness.” — Romans 12:5–8
Last summer I gave a retreat entitled
“The Vocation of the Artist”
at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara,
Ireland.
The retreatants varied in age, nationality,
demographic, and religious orientation.
Some but not all were working artists.
One young American woman was
painting a series of Irish holy wells.
Another, from Dublin, had designed
stamps for An Post, the Irish postal
service. One man, a Joycean scholar,
wrote for The Irish Times. A 36-year-old
woman taught at an inner-city Dublin
school.
Our credo was a quote from Russian
playwright and short-story writer Anton
Chekhov: “If you want to work on your
art, work on your life.”
I introduced some of the members of
what I call my Personal Communion of
Saints: fiber artist Judith Scott, born with
Down syndrome; Butoh dancer Kazuo
Ohno, self-taught marine biologist
Maud Delap from County Donegal
who bred jellyfish, the first person to do
so anywhere in the world, in the family
bathtub.
The grounds of Kylemore (“Big
Wood”) comprise the former estate
of Mitchell Henry (1826-1910), an
English financier and politician who
planted over 300,000 trees. His castle,
now open to the public, is situated on a
rise that looks down on a mile-plus-long
freshwater lake (Lough Pollucapal) and
across to some of the majestic Connemara
Hills.
The opposite end of the estate boasts a
showcase Victorian walled garden.
Kylemore is also a working abbey of
30 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024