Friday, December 11, 2015

Hans Urs von Balthasar on Beauty

"We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance. We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past -- whether he admits it or not -- can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love." — Hans Urs von Balthasar (Seeing the Form)

1 comment:

KathY said...

The following discusses beauty, too, said by Fulton Sheen. Coincidentally it's part of my post for today. Hope you enjoy this thought, too.

"In moments of crisis and doubt, in worries whether to undertake this task or omit it, to go on this journey or not - listen to the voice of the Spirit within. The union of your soul and the Holy Spirit can become a kind of spiritual marriage, giving the joys of the spirit born of a unity that leaves all other joys as sorrows, and all other beauty as pain. For the first time in your life, you would begin to love not that which is lovely [or beautiful], but that which is Love [Beauty, as well]: the Spirit of the Most High God."