We are so very grateful to everyone who has visited this website over the past year. It was on August 1, 2011 that I posted my first essay. By midnight tonight over […]
Thank You! Our One Year Anniversary!
St. Peter Chrysologus’ Appeal By Christ To Be Transformed
Today is the memorial of Saint Peter Chrysologus. Peter was born in the late 4th century in northern Italy. In 424, after serving as a deacon and priest in Emilia, he became […]
Summer 2012 Workshop in Painting Sacred Images – A Few Reflections
Over the past six years I have participated in numerous workshops in sacred art and have produced a number of sacred images, each of which helped me understand the techniques of this […]
A Sacred Image – The Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ
You are probably thinking, the poor old fellow has made a mistake in his spelling. Shouldn’t the title read “Son” of Justice? One evening a passage from Evening Prayer in the Divine […]
A Most Amicable Teacher – The Insights of Artist Robert Henri
One of the great pleasures of life is discovering and becoming friends with people who have a similar philosophy of life – especially when it comes to understanding truth, goodness, and beauty. […]
Ken Jan Woo – sacred artist
Please see my post of July 9, 2020 entitled Chinese Martyrs and the Art of Ken Jan Woo. Thank you.
A Decisive Hour for American Catholics
As we approach the conclusion of the Fortnight for Freedom, we draw near to the decisive hour, an hour of decision in the history of our great nation; an hour which truly […]
3rd Century Bronze Medallion of Saints Peter and Paul
In response to a valuable comment made about my post – Part 2 – Icons, Icon Painters, and Praying with Sacred Images, I thought everyone would enjoy seeing one of the oldest […]
When People Or Governments Get In Our Face
Recently I received a rather funny email from a friend concerning a God loving Marine coming to terms with an atheist professor. It triggered, however, a serious reflection on how we, as […]
Seeds of Faith and Art
In our Gospel today, from St. Mark Chapter 4: 26-34, we have two important parables concerning the reign of God: the first concerns the farmer’s sowing of seed and the second refers […]
Icons, Icon Painters, and Praying With Sacred Icons: PART 3
My favorite sacred icon of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the 6th century encaustic icon of Christ Pantocrator (Christ The Almighty One) from St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula. This sacred image was a […]
Part Two: Icons, Icon Painters, and Praying With Sacred Icons
The sacred icon is a visual aid that helps the person enter into a conversation with God, an angel, or a saint. If a sacred icon is to be painted with this […]
A New Class of Iconographers Begin Their Studies: The Work of The Holy Spirit
On Wednesday evening, May 23rd, ten members of the Fra Angelico Institute for the Sacred Arts here in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island USA were commissioned and blessed to […]
Icons, Icon Painters, and Praying With Sacred Icons: Part One
A few issues have come up in discussing some basic terms with people. I would like to be clear on how I have come to understand these words because it may affect […]
St. Matthias and the Renewal of Easter Hope – The Lord Loves His Friends
Today is the feast day of St. Matthias. The Acts of the Apostles relate that Matthias was chosen by lot to replace the disciple who had betrayed Jesus in the garden. In […]
Stones that Sing – The Photography of Dennis Aubrey and PJ McKey
A few months ago I discovered the exquisite photography of Dennis Aubrey and PJ McKey. They have a blog here on WordPress called Via Lucis. Their post of May 10th discusses and […]
ORO et CREO: PART THREE – A Personal Reflection
This is the third part of a three part series on a Spirit filled idea called Oro et Creo (“I Pray – I Create”). This idea was started by artists Jamie Medeiros […]
ORO et CREO: I Pray – I Create – Part Two – A Wonderful Idea For Your Church
This is the second part of a three part series with Jamie Medeiros, an artist whose parish is in Tiverton, Rhode Island, and Deacon Tom Lambert, a Permanent Deacon within the Diocese […]
ORO et CREO: “I Pray – I Create” – Part One
Soon after an article appeared in our Diocesan newspaper (The Rhode Island Catholic) in June 2011 on the Fra Angelico Institute for the Sacred Arts, I spoke on the phone with a […]
Shaped By The Potter’s Hands
All of us struggle with the reality that the experiences of our life may harden our hearts and deafen our ears to God’s truth. We may be similar to the disciples in […]
Our Living Hope: The Tomb Cannot Hold Us
Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants – we are all an Easter people. For two thousand years we have – through faith in historical documents and human witness – been invited to believe in […]
Holy Saturday Meditation: Something Strange Is Happening
“Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on the earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled […]
Good Friday Meditations
It was about nine in the morning when they nailed Jesus to the cross. From noon until three o’clock there was darkness over the whole world. At three o’clock, Jesus cried out […]
What Does The Silence Of Christ Say To Us?
In the passage from the first Epistle of Peter known as the Canticle of Peter (1 Peter 2: 21-24) Peter describes Jesus’ acceptance of His passion. He explains: “Christ suffered for you, […]
The Artist As Contemplative – Part 4 – A Meditation on the Scourging of Christ
In this series on the Artist As Contemplative it is my hope that you are exposed to some different techniques that may assist you in your prayer relationship with Our Lord. The […]
The Feast of St. Joseph – Universal Patron of the Church
At the birth of Christ, the seven hundred year old messianic prophecies of the prophet Isaiah became an historic reality. On a yearly basis, we celebrate and remember that moment on the […]
The Artist As Contemplative – Part 3 – Prayer Tips
Today, we are asking our good friend, St. Teresa of Avila to help us in the process of thinking clearly about prayer. She is a worthy mentor – for she cuts to […]
The Artist As Contemplative: Part 2: A Simple Step Into Prayer By St. Teresa of Avila
In our last post, The Artist as Contemplative – Part 1: The Proper Approach, we discussed the need to have the proper approach to prayer. One of the assumptions that I have is […]
The Artist As Contemplative – Part 1: The Proper Approach
All artists, by their very nature, contemplate. They are natural born contemplatives. In its dictionary definitions we see that the word contemplate means: 1) “to intently look at something, 2) to study […]
Whose Star Do We Follow?
St. Thomas, in his Summa Theologiae, has a wonderful meditation on today’s Solemnity of the Epiphany. He says that “Salvation was to be through Christ and apply to all sorts and conditions […]
Christ Child by Fra Angelico
To all the friends, followers, and members of the Fra Angelico Institute for the Sacred Arts, We wish you all a very Merry and Holy Christmas Season and a grace filled New […]
Sacred Artists Must Be Empty Vessels
In this morning’s Gospel St. Luke is clear that Jesus is carefully listening to the argument that breaks out among His disciples as to who is the greatest among them. One translation […]
The Triumph of the Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows by Jed Gibbons
Today we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation – or Triumph – of the Holy Cross. The early Catholic Church was intensely persecuted during the first 280 years of its life – […]
The Birth of Mary – The Pure Disciple Who Shows Us the Way
We cannot allow this day, September 8th, to slip by without celebrating the nativity of our Blessed Mother. For as the Invitatory in the Roman Breviary says for today’s feast: “Come, let […]
Sacred Iconography and Personal Creativity – Do Not be Afraid!
What is iconography? The Sacred Iconography Guild is one of the twelve Sacred Arts Guilds that is sponsored by the Fra Angelico Institute. As of this post we have six members of […]
The Eternal Now and the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today is the memorial of the Coronation of our Blessed Mother. Sacred icons and images have expressed the Queenship and Coronation of the Holy Theotokos – the Mother of God – for […]
The Dormition – Assumption of Mary
Over the past two weeks, our Sunday Gospels have stressed the truth that to be a faithful disciple of Christ we must keep our focus – in good times and bad – […]
Welcome to the Fra Angelico Institute
Our First Post As our first post – on August 1, 2011 – I would like to explain that the mission of the Fra Angelico Institute for the Sacred Arts is to […]
