Vatican Museum: Beauty that Unites 40

Beauty creates communion. It unites onlookers from a distance, uniting past, present and future. Pope Francis has recalled this on a number of occasions. The Church has always translated the universality of the Good News into the language of art. From this premise, this dramatic moment in history characterized by uncertainty and isolation, gives rise to this initiative which is a partnership between the Vatican Museum and Vatican News: Masterpieces from the Vatican Collection accompanied by comments from the words of the Popes.

Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino (1591-1666) – St John the Baptist – Vatican Museum, Art Gallery, © Musei Vaticani

O Jesus, who vanquished death and sin, we are yours!
And yours we wish to remain, we and our families
and all who are most dear and most precious to us,
in the ardour of our youth, in the wisdom of old age,
in the inevitable discomforts and renunciations of advanced age:
always yours.
And grant us your blessings, and spread Your peace
throughout the world, O Jesus,
as you did when you appears the first time on that Easter morning
to your closest companions,
and as you continued to do so in the following apparitions in the Cenacle,
on the lake, on the way.
Nolite timere:
ego sum:
pax vobis:
pax et benedictio, per singulos dies: in aeternum.

(John XXIII – Easter Urbi et Orbi Radiomessage of 17 April, 1960)

Under the direction of: Paolo Ondarza

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