Examen - 17
November 25, 2024
Examen: Beauty
SUMMARY: Daily life is filled with many beautiful moments, some of which we can easily miss and underappreciate. In this examen, we will focus on how we encounter beauty in many and sometimes surprising forms throughout our day and learn to see these experiences as invitations to open ourselves to God’s will for us.
PRESENTER: Derrick Witherington, PhD, STD (he/him), Assistant Director of Sacramental Life, Campus Ministry
Transcript
For today’s examen, I’d like to invite us to focus on beauty. More than something merely decorative or of secondary importance, beauty has long been associated with the divine and the individual’s experience of beauty is understood by many spiritual and religious people as being an experience of the sacred or an encounter with God. Sometimes look for beauty can be a very challenging thing, especially in a world marked by war, suffering, death, injustice, and so many forms of structural oppression; it can be hard to find moments of beauty.
When I think of this, I’m reminded of something the great 20th century German theologian Paul Tillich once wrote about a surprising moment of beauty he encountered. During World War I, Tillich found himself drafted into the German army and serving as a chaplain in the trenches of the Western Front in northern France. The Western Front was one of the worst places to be during this time. Tillich found himself surrounded by inconceivable horrors: suffering, death, mustard gas. Needless to say this was not a place he expected to encounter anything beautiful. And yet – it was here that he was surprised and startled to have an encounter beauty which had a profound impact on the rest of his life.
He writes, “to take my mind off the mud, blood, and death on the western front, I thumbed through the picture magazines at the field bookstores. In some of them I found reproductions of the great and moving paintings of the ages. At rest camps and in the lulls in the bitter battles, I huddled in dugouts studying this new world [opened to me] by candle and lantern light.” The beauty he experienced gave him hope and courage to endure, and after the war he journeyed to the museums where works were in order to look at them more closely. One of the paintings which had given him much solace was a Boticelli painting of Mary surrounded by singing angels. When he saw the painting in the museum after the war he noted: “bathed in the beauty its painter had envisioned so long ago, something of the divine source of all things came through to me. I turned away shaken.” He continued, “that moment has affected my whole life, given me the keys for the interpretation of human existence, brought vital joy and spiritual truth.”
As we gather for our examen today, I’d like to invite us to consider what moments of beauty we’ve encountered today, and how those experiences help us to understand who we are as beloved children of God basking in the vital joy of this awareness.
I’d like to invite you to get comfortable and acknowledge of the presence of God holding, loving, and creating you at this very moment (pause 10 seconds).
Now, I’d like you to think about your day. Where did you encounter beauty? Beauty has many forms and many faces: it could be meaningful interactions with students or coworkers; it could be taking a moment to watch the sunlight dancing across the gentle surface of the lake; perhaps it was a beautiful song you heard, or an encounter with a drawing or painting. Perhaps it was also taking a few moments to find joy and beauty in the crisp autumn breeze, the wind blowing through the dried leaves, or the smell of dried leaves and grass. (pause 10 seconds).
As you do this, also acknowledge the moments where you didn’t experience beauty and the joy that this encounter brings. Call to mind moments where you felt surrounded by negativity or where you felt closed off to seeing and appreciating the people and the world around you. As you do this, ask God for the grace of being able to see and perceive what is beautiful, even (and especially) in places and in people which are difficult (pause 10 seconds).
Go back to those memories of beauty. Savor them. Allow yourself to feel what you felt in that moment. What do you feel? (Pause 10 seconds).
Ask God for the grace of open eyes moving forward: eyes which are attentive to beauty in all of its hues, manifestations, sounds, smells, shapes and sizes. Ask that these experiences of beauty will enable you to experience the joy of being in right relationship with God and with the world around you. (Pause 10 seconds).
As our prayer ends, I’d invite you to say a prayer which is meaningful to you as you conclude this time of examen. (Pause 10 seconds).
Amen.
November 25, 2024
Examen: Beauty
SUMMARY: Daily life is filled with many beautiful moments, some of which we can easily miss and underappreciate. In this examen, we will focus on how we encounter beauty in many and sometimes surprising forms throughout our day and learn to see these experiences as invitations to open ourselves to God’s will for us.
PRESENTER: Derrick Witherington, PhD, STD (he/him), Assistant Director of Sacramental Life, Campus Ministry
Transcript
For today’s examen, I’d like to invite us to focus on beauty. More than something merely decorative or of secondary importance, beauty has long been associated with the divine and the individual’s experience of beauty is understood by many spiritual and religious people as being an experience of the sacred or an encounter with God. Sometimes look for beauty can be a very challenging thing, especially in a world marked by war, suffering, death, injustice, and so many forms of structural oppression; it can be hard to find moments of beauty.
When I think of this, I’m reminded of something the great 20th century German theologian Paul Tillich once wrote about a surprising moment of beauty he encountered. During World War I, Tillich found himself drafted into the German army and serving as a chaplain in the trenches of the Western Front in northern France. The Western Front was one of the worst places to be during this time. Tillich found himself surrounded by inconceivable horrors: suffering, death, mustard gas. Needless to say this was not a place he expected to encounter anything beautiful. And yet – it was here that he was surprised and startled to have an encounter beauty which had a profound impact on the rest of his life.
He writes, “to take my mind off the mud, blood, and death on the western front, I thumbed through the picture magazines at the field bookstores. In some of them I found reproductions of the great and moving paintings of the ages. At rest camps and in the lulls in the bitter battles, I huddled in dugouts studying this new world [opened to me] by candle and lantern light.” The beauty he experienced gave him hope and courage to endure, and after the war he journeyed to the museums where works were in order to look at them more closely. One of the paintings which had given him much solace was a Boticelli painting of Mary surrounded by singing angels. When he saw the painting in the museum after the war he noted: “bathed in the beauty its painter had envisioned so long ago, something of the divine source of all things came through to me. I turned away shaken.” He continued, “that moment has affected my whole life, given me the keys for the interpretation of human existence, brought vital joy and spiritual truth.”
As we gather for our examen today, I’d like to invite us to consider what moments of beauty we’ve encountered today, and how those experiences help us to understand who we are as beloved children of God basking in the vital joy of this awareness.
I’d like to invite you to get comfortable and acknowledge of the presence of God holding, loving, and creating you at this very moment (pause 10 seconds).
Now, I’d like you to think about your day. Where did you encounter beauty? Beauty has many forms and many faces: it could be meaningful interactions with students or coworkers; it could be taking a moment to watch the sunlight dancing across the gentle surface of the lake; perhaps it was a beautiful song you heard, or an encounter with a drawing or painting. Perhaps it was also taking a few moments to find joy and beauty in the crisp autumn breeze, the wind blowing through the dried leaves, or the smell of dried leaves and grass. (pause 10 seconds).
As you do this, also acknowledge the moments where you didn’t experience beauty and the joy that this encounter brings. Call to mind moments where you felt surrounded by negativity or where you felt closed off to seeing and appreciating the people and the world around you. As you do this, ask God for the grace of being able to see and perceive what is beautiful, even (and especially) in places and in people which are difficult (pause 10 seconds).
Go back to those memories of beauty. Savor them. Allow yourself to feel what you felt in that moment. What do you feel? (Pause 10 seconds).
Ask God for the grace of open eyes moving forward: eyes which are attentive to beauty in all of its hues, manifestations, sounds, smells, shapes and sizes. Ask that these experiences of beauty will enable you to experience the joy of being in right relationship with God and with the world around you. (Pause 10 seconds).
As our prayer ends, I’d invite you to say a prayer which is meaningful to you as you conclude this time of examen. (Pause 10 seconds).
Amen.