Vatican Museum: Beauty that Unites! 63

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.

Cenni di Francesco, The meal in the house of the Pharisee, Portion of a predella with Stories of Mary Magdalene, Vatican Pinacoteca, © Musei Vaticani

Faith opens us to knowing and welcoming
the real identity of Jesus, His newness and oneness,
His word, as a source of life,
in order to live a personal relationship with Him.
Knowledge of the faith grows,
it grows with the desire to find the way and
in the end it is a gift of God who does not reveal Himself
to us as an abstract thing without a face or a name,
because faith responds to a Person
who wants to enter into a relationship
of deep love with us and to involve our whole life.

For this reason our heart must undergo
the experience of conversion every day,
every day it must see us changing from people
withdrawn into themselves to people
who are open to God’s action, spiritual people (cf. 1 Cor 2:13-14),
who let themselves be called into question
by the Lord’s word and open their life to his Love.

(Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, 14 August 2011)

Under the direction of Paolo Ondarza
#BeautyThatUnites
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