Category: Grace

Fra Angelico – “Heaven on Earth” Exhibition – Part 2 – Ascension, Pentecost, the Last Judgement

On By Deacon Paul O. IaconoIn Acts of the Apostles, Art, Art Education, Artists, Beauty, Beauty built on Gospel Values, Catholic Art, Catholic Education, Catholic Spirituality, Catholicism, Christian Spirituality, Christianity, Evangelization, Faith, Fra Angelico, Fra Angelico's Paintings, Grace, Hope, Jesus Christ, Mary - Our Blessed Mother, New Evangelization, New Evangelization of the Catholic Church, Pentecost, Religion, Religious Art, Renaissance Art, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholic Beliefs, Roman Catholicism, sacred, Sacred Art, Sacred Artists, Sacred Images, Spirituality, Uncategorized5 Comments

I hope you had a blessed Feast of Pentecost!

Please read Part 1 of “Fra Angelico – Heaven on Earth” (posted here on May 16, 2018) in order to receive a proper introduction to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s extraordinary exhibition that, unfortunately, closed this weekend..

As you moved into the gallery that exhibited this once in a lifetime collection of Fra Angelico paintings you first saw the beautiful painting entitled The Ascension of Christ, The Last Judgement, and Pentecost (the Corsini Triptych). It is painted in egg tempera with gold leaf on a wood panel. Fra Angelico painted it during the years 1447-1448, seven years before his death in 1455. It was loaned to the Gardner Museum from the Galleria Nazionali d’Arte Antica di Roma – Galerie Barberini Corsini, Palazzo Corsini.

My photographic images of that painting are found below:

The Ascension, Last Judgement, and PentecostIMG_1686

The following quotation is taken from the Exhibition’s commentary found on the right side of the painting. Mesmerizing in its detail, Fra Angelico’s painting pictures three biblical events. At left, Christ ascends into heaven over the heads of the Virgin Mary and the  Apostles. At right, a masterfully foreshortened dove – the Holy Spirit – descends to earth. The story culminates in the center. Christ passes judgment over the living and the dead, saving the worthy (left) and condemning the wicked (right). While the damned cower from fearsome devils who attack the poor souls with claws, angels embrace the blessed.

“This small devotional triptych – a painting with three parts – served a cultivated individual, probably a cleric (deacon, priest, or bishop) in Rome.” Please compare its three episodes to others in my upcoming posts. In the above painting Fra Angelico adopts a vertical presentation. This energizes the connection and communication between heaven and earth. The Gardner Museum’s curator remarked that this technique “enlarges the central scene, and emphasizes” the Catholic Church’s spiritual power.

Fra Angelico, as a Dominican priest, desired to present that Jesus’ act of Redemption (passion, death, and resurrection), and His Ascension back to the Father, made possible the moment of Pentecost. Christ’s actions enabled the eventual opportunity for our free will to choose to accept His Truth and be fed by the Spirit’s power. It is the Father and the Son’s will to have the Holy Spirit nourish us through His grace. This grace is available to us through the proper administration and worthy reception of the Holy Sacraments. Thus, we come to the central panel –  the Last Judgement. Did we freely accept His Sacramental grace or did we ignore, and thereby, reject it? At that moment will we be on the right or the left of Christ?

Allow me to make some personal points on the three close-up photos below. In the first panel of this painting, notice the gold work around the body of Christ. I was allowed to closely examine it. I have never seen a painting’s gold work done with such precision and delicacy. It is not just gold leaf that is applied in a flat manner to the panel. It appears to be actual raised strands, or threads of gold, all applied with great precision. As you slowly move left or right around that part of the painting you notice the light catching the gold and literally radiating and shimmering around the image of Christ. IMG_1745

The Ascension, with Pentecost below.

Second, the image of Pentecost, with the Blessed Mother in the center of the Apostles as the dove hovers and the fire of the Holy Spirit descends upon them and gives them the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:23; 1st Corinthians 12: 4 ff; Galatians 5: 22 ff).

Notice St. Peter, filled with conviction, speaking to the assembly of men below (“Peter’s Discourse” found in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 2, verses 14 ff.). Also, notice the clothing on one of the men who gather outside of the upper room listening to Peter: the detail of the lace work on the bottom of one of his garments, and the shadows on the man’s red leotard/shoe. If you stand away from the painting at approximately eight to ten feet to take it all in (as you see in the panoramic top photo) you don’t notice all the detail; but the blessed Fra with his extraordinary perception, noticed the need for it, and he painted it in. A master of detail, and as a true maestro, he knew how to successfully accomplish it. Wonderful!     The last two close-up pictures are below.

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My photos (through the kindness of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), and            my text © Deacon Paul O. Iacono 2011-2018. Photos taken with an iPhone 6, no flash.

 

St. Francis of Assisi, Faith, and Grace

On By Deacon Paul O. IaconoIn Catholic Spirituality, Catholicism, Christian Spirituality, Christianity, Faith, Gospel Reflections, Gospel Teachings, Gospels of Jesus Christ, Grace, Roman Catholic, Saints, St. Francis of Assisi5 Comments

The following is my homily for the 27th Week in Ordinary time delivered at St. Francis of Assisi Church Wakefield, Rhode Island USA, October 6, 2013. The memorial of St. Francis of Assisi was celebrated on October 4th. 

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This weekend, as the Church remembers the life of St. Francis of Assisi, let’s pause for a moment and examine the virtues that energized Francis’ life.

We can begin by saying that he was a simple man. He pursued simplicity. This does not mean that he was of limited intelligence, or that he pursued simplicity for simplicity sake, rather, it means that he was successful at eliminating everything from his life that did not enhance his love of Jesus and service to his fellow man.

In other words, he was continually aware of the four eternal goals of life: keeping our soul in the state of grace, awareness of judgment by God, eternal life, and companionship with God Himself.

He realized that “to be simple is to see things with the eyes of God. St. Francis pursued simplicity because he innately knew that God Himself is simple.”

Other characteristics of Francis’ life are the virtues of faith and love. St. Francis understood that by praying for faith, by acting faithfully and lovingly, his spiritual life would be stressed – like an athlete preparing for a match – enabling him grow stronger in faith and love of God. He knew that if he committed himself to it God’s grace would assist him in this spiritual exercise.

In St. Francis’ life story we see his extraordinary reaction to his father’s demand for repayment for the fabrics he took, and sold, to benefit the poor.

How did he react when accused by his father?

In innocence and detachment he publicly disrobed –  a humble nude standing majestically in the Assisi town square.

Michelangelo should have attempted to sculpt that scene in marble. For what was the scene?

It was the image of the young Francis, not confronting the Goliath of military invasion, rather, the Goliath of a garden serpent (in the form of acceptance by society and his father’s love) who tempted him to return to the sweet life, “la dolce vita”.

But it was also the image of the grace of a Divine call to live a virtuous and detached life, filled with love for God and His creation.

The simple grace of Francis’ vision would be the stone that would bring down the giant of his own ego and worldliness.

Now let’s apply this to our Gospel (Luke 17: 5-10).

In today’s parable Jesus demonstrates the power of faith for overcoming temptation and obstacles.

But what did Jesus mean when He said that our faith could move trees and mountains? (see  also Matt.17: 20; Mark 11:23)

In the Middle East  – even to this day – the term “mountain mover” is used for someone who could provide the solutions to great difficulties.

So when Jesus tells us that if our faith was just the size of a mustard seed we could “uproot trees and mountains,” His emphasis is on His grace working in conjunction with our faith.

The gift of His grace is sufficient to assist us in dealing with our problems. Jesus doesn’t say that all our problems will instantly go away, rather, He says that we will be able to endure them, and yes, like Christ Himself, even overcome them.

So, we know St. Francis of Assisi today because he responded, in a heroic way, to the specific grace that he was given as a disciple of Christ.

Faith and grace was infused into his soul, and ours, at the moment of Baptism. If we choose to participate in Christ’s Sacraments, and do so on a regular basis, grace will build upon grace, and like Francis, our perception will become clearer, we will understand our personal Christian duty, and know how to respond to it.

With today’s Gospel, and St Francis in mind, we can say that God wants us to respond to His grace and scale the mountains of our own difficulties – to climb upon the crosses of our everyday life – because it is through this effort that we receive, in His love, the ability to be His partners in eternity.

At the end of his life, if St. Francis had been asked the question of what did he accomplish, he would have probably answered that he accomplished – nothing.

Rather, he may have said that it was as a loving disciple of Christ that he responded to the gift of God’s grace – and that it was God’s grace working through him that enabled him to perform good deeds and loving actions.

Let us pray that, in the spirit of St. Francis, we respond to God’s grace with the same faith, love, and generosity of spirit.

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Copyright © 2011- 2013 Deacon Paul O. Iacono All Rights Reserved. Notes on the art: The first image of St. Francis is a 13th century contemporary image of him. It is found in the Benedictine Monastery in Subiaco, Italy. Thanks to Digitalnun at www.ibenedictines.org. The second and third paintings are by Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516). Bellini painted this around 1480. The third painting is a close-up of a section of this painting by Bellini which shows a curious and loving rabbit peeking out of his den just as St. Francis receives the stigmata. The last photo is of a cloak that was worn by St. Francis. You may observe it and other personal items of St. Francis, such as his prayer book, slipper, and a cincture in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy. Quotations on simplicity based on a 1936 sermon by Fr. Ronald Knox. The reference to “mountain mover” and its usage in the Middle East was provided by D. Schwager. My thanks to him.