VATICAN

Vatican Museum: Beauty that Unites 41

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.

Bartolomeo Montagna (c. 1450-1523); Madonna and Child; oil on wood; c. 1503; Vatican Museum, Art Gallery, © Musei Vaticani

O kind and good Mother,
whose own soul was pierced by the sword of sorrow,
look upon us who are poor and sick,
as we stand beside you on your Son’s Calvary.
Chosen to receive the sublime grace of suffering,
and hopeful of fulfilling in our flesh
what is lacking to the Passion of Christ,
for His Body, the Church,
we consecrate ourselves and our pain to you
so that you might place them on the
Altar of the Cross of your Divine Son.
Accept, O Sorrowful Mother, this our consecration,
and strengthen in our hearts the great hope that,
as partakers in Christ’s sufferings,
we might also share in His consolation now and in eternal life.
So be it!

(Pope Pius XII – Act of Consecration of the Sick to Mary, 9 October 1957)

Under the direction of: Paolo Ondarza

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