The picture above just took my breath away. In the high Sonora desert at the foot of Mount Graham lies the Serbian Orthodox women's monastery of Saint Paisius Velichkovsky. Here is an article with pictures that Fr Milovan has posted at his blog, Again and Again. This monastery must be a well-kept secret, as I had never heard of it.
The sisters have a MySpace site, which you can visit as I briefly have, and see what they are doing. It looks like they have uploaded some of their music. I'll be going back there for more visits, and I invite you to do the same. I've also added a link to their site in the side bar.
It's a beautiful photo. There's a value in creating beautiful buildings. We need to strike a balance between over-emphasis on such things and under-emphasis. It's not appropriate for us to expect people in poverty to produce lavish church buildings. It's also not appropriate to say that a church building that looks like a Wal-Mart is as good as one where the architecture points us to heaven.
Christ is Everything. He is joy, He is life, He is light. He is the true light who makes man joyful, makes him soar with happiness; makes him see everything, everybody; makes him feel for everyone, to want everyone with him, everyone with Christ.
Where there is no love, there is no Church. There remains only its external form, a deceit, which repulses people. That is why our churches remain empty, that is why our young people lapse. Lord, help us to become Your Church, not just its appearance.
The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author. All posts, except any or portions of any written by others, are copyright 2006-2016 by Romanos Gorny but may be used without written permission in any publication that is not for sale, as long as the source is given. Links to and from this blog are not intended to imply the author's agreement with the views expressed in any of the sites or documents thereby provided, except links to the Holy Scriptures (Old and New Testaments).
1 comment:
It's a beautiful photo. There's a value in creating beautiful buildings. We need to strike a balance between over-emphasis on such things and under-emphasis. It's not appropriate for us to expect people in poverty to produce lavish church buildings. It's also not appropriate to say that a church building that looks like a Wal-Mart is as good as one where the architecture points us to heaven.
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