Beauty | Fr. Chad E. JarnaginValues - Beauty, Communion, PeaceAs an Anglican Mission to Nashville | Franklin, we desire to cooperate with God in the transformation of our souls. Sacred rhythms are the undercurrent of what we do and we intentionally have a contemplative stillness to assists in a time of rest and response.BeautyWe believe beauty inspires us in accordance of our view of God - The ultimate source of creativity, beauty, artistry, and holiness. Our desire for and orientation toward beauty is in fact a desire and orientation toward God. We also believe that this orientation leads us to repentance and enables our ongoing spiritual formation. Beauty is so quietly woven through our ordinary days that we hardly notice it. -John O’DonoghueIt would serve us well to reframe the concept of beauty. Our subjectivity certainly has a default. Beautiful things don't ask for attention. (Walter Mitty)... From time to time Jesus was the revealer or beauty. His miracles empowered beauty... his word/ life embodies beauty.Luke 4:18-21“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,because he has anointed meto proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captivesand recovering of sight to the blind,to set at liberty those who are oppressed,to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”There is a lot going on in this Gospel. Jesus teaching in the synagogue means he was accepted in their ranks... which made what he says even more bothersome for them, and we now see it as him being the embodiment of this word. Also- Let’s be reminded that he is voicing these words of Isaiah in suffering terms: Poor, captives, blind, oppressed.There is beauty in contrast. There is no light with our darkness. No darkness without light - No melody without movement; No crescendo without silence. We can become so used to mediocrity that we find it difficult to look for beauty. How do our senses return? We need pallet cleansers as well as healthy spiritual practices.Contemplation is a gift, not an achievement. This practice of will heighten our senses; Gives us a calmer approach for responding, awareness, meaning, & discernment.“I stood willingly and gladly in the characters of everything - other people, trees, clouds. And this is what I learned, that the world's otherness is antidote to confusion - that standing within this otherness - the beauty and the mystery of the world, out in the fields or deep inside books - can re-dignify the worst-stung heart.”―Mary Oliver
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