[This article is a sequel to the 9/19/21 email newsletter, "See the Unconquered Fortress of a Mighty Archangel".] Why does the Church venerate an invisible warrior? Because spiritual warfare is the lot of Christians on this earth. Pure and simple. The great Archangel, St. Michael, is known as the Prince of the Heavenly Host [...]
Italian folk songs are often performed using an artistic technique the Italians have perfected. They call it “Bel Canto”, a name that literally means beautiful song or music. The Harvard Dictionary of Music describes the vocal technique as placing “emphasis on beauty of sound and brilliance of performance rather than dramatic expression or romantic [...]
Have you ever found yourself so transfixed by the beauty of something that you become totally absorbed in it, or found yourself listening to a single piece of music over and over because it speaks so deeply to your heart and soul? That is what happens to me each time I listen to the [...]
A few years ago I met a woman named Carolyn who, with her husband, had joined their church’s prison ministry team and were volunteering at a local prison. We were attending the same seminar where, in small group sharing, she told a riveting story. I honestly don’t recall any other details of the seminar [...]
Can a secular dance routine be a sacred window? It’s a fair question, and if I were a lawyer (or a Jesuit) I’d answer with a resounding, “It depends.” The key notion in discerning transcendent values in our world is not so much whether something is religious or secular – although the former has [...]
[This article follows the article of August 8, 2021, “Were These Brothers the Greatest Tap Dancers of All Time?” See also the email newsletter version.] “I think it's pretty safe to assume the Nicholas Brothers were superhuman,” was what one commentator had to say to the Nicholas Brothers’ performance in the 1943 film, Stormy [...]
Switzerland is like a hidden jewel in the middle of Europe, a mountainous land with a highly secretive banking system and a tradition of remaining neutral during wars. The Swiss culture has given the world exquisite chocolates, precision watches, cuckoo clocks, the Swiss Army knife, and even the modern marvel of Velcro! What an [...]
I’m sure that the 19th century English hymn writer, Frances Havergal, never imagined her unassuming hymn, “Take My Life and Let It Be” (1874), would be brought out of its obscurity and made into an enchanting devotional piece nearly 150 years after she wrote it. The poetry is simple, and the traditional hymn tune [...]
As the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest to settle her young, my home is by your altars, LORD of hosts, my king and my God! (Psalm 84:4) The most colorful ones are like flashes of natural radiance and personality that remind us in a certain way of the holy [...]
Donna Tartt, in her Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Goldfinch, makes a remarkable statement that perfectly encapsulates the mission of Sacred Windows: “And isn’t the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty?” Ah, that “larger beauty”. It should really be spelled with a capital B: the Trinitarian Beauty of God’s life. [...]