Turning into Who God Created by way of the Disciplines of Lent

Each yr on February 18^th we rejoice the feast day of Blessed John of Fiesole, higher referred to as Fra Angelico, Dominican Friar and Renaissance artist. This yr February 18th was Ash Wednesday. Believing that there are not any coincidences with God, I famous this timing and took it to prayer. Through the present of the Communion of Saints, what may Our Lord offer us this Lent via the life and holiness of Fra Angelico?

“A Holy Life and Creative Virtue Harmonize with Each Other”

The Office of Readings within the Propers for the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans) has the above quote as a heading for an apostolic letter written by Pope St. John Paul II on the event of Blessed John’s beatification in 1982.

Lent could be seen as a time to turn out to be who God created us to be. As we flip away from sin and distraction and switch our focus towards the issues which are everlasting, we cooperate with our true nature and make progress in that work of changing into. The lifetime of Blessed John is a mannequin of how to do that. By following his mannequin, we’ll give the world what God meant it to have via us. We can also stay, “a holy life of creative virtue”.  

John and his twin brother, Benedetto, entered spiritual life collectively at Florence round 1420. After being ordained to the priesthood John was elected to varied workplaces and fulfilled his obligations with notable faithfulness. He was additionally an exemplary spiritual in all his observances, most notably within the software of his God-given expertise to create sacred artwork. Throughout his life he managed to stay this holy lifetime of artistic advantage in a manner that impressed his contemporaries as a lot as his artwork continues to encourage us right this moment.

Pope Eugenius IV, who known as John to Rome to color a chapel at St. Peter’s and one other on the Vatican palace, famous his capacity to attract individuals to himself, not solely due to his artwork, however much more so due to his humility, his piety, and his holiness of life. The presents of artwork Blessed John left behind after his lifetime of “creative virtue” proceed to attract souls by their magnificence towards the supply of all magnificence, God.

In 1955 Pope Pius XII held an exhibition of Blessed John’s work on the Vatican and wrote:

Freed from the favored and pious legend which depicted the fervent friar portray his saints whereas absorbed in unconscious ecstasy, his brush guided by supra-terrestrial beings, his individuality has now been set in its true mild. This doesn’t imply, nevertheless, that his profound spiritual sense, his serene and austere asceticism nourished by stable advantage, contemplation and prayer, didn’t train a figuring out affect on his creative expression. Rather it supplied the ability and immediacy with which his artwork spoke to the minds of others, and, as has steadily been famous, remodeled it into prayer. For he was within the behavior of repeating, “whoever does the work of Christ should always remain with Christ.”

Blessed John’s work was simply that: work. Through a lifetime of saying “yes” to God and “no” to his personal will and proclivities, he turned who he was created to be. By doing so he gave witness to a trustworthy life effectively lived and left a legacy of sacred artwork to boost our hearts and minds to issues which are everlasting. Both his life and his artwork encourage us on our personal journey of “yes” to God and “no” to self.

In his faithfulness to a lifetime of prayer and work he turned a prepared font of what God desired to provide the world via him. Had he centered on his personal needs and plans the world would have been disadvantaged of each his physique of labor and his witness to life in Christ.

We Were Born for This Time

We are on the cusp of a brand new technological revolution, one which even impacts the world of artwork. Artificial Intelligence’s affect on the planet will increase at an exponential price, so quick that almost all of us can not fathom the extent of what all of it means. What higher time than Lent of 2026 to have a patron reminiscent of Fra Angelico, Brother Angel, to information us. What we do with our particular person non secular lives and our particular presents and abilities issues. If we select to make use of them, God can convey goodness, fact, and wonder into the world. If we select to go our personal distracted manner, the world will likely be disadvantaged of one thing God determined it wanted proper now.  

Possibly the best sin of omission is NOT changing into who we had been created to be. The “harmony of our creativity and holiness” expressed via our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, in union with our particular abilities, are what God has ordained for the world proper now. As the Communion of Saints, all of us have an necessary, even essential, half to play. The extra of us who select to watch this Lent absolutely and nurture our abilities significantly, the extra of God’s grace will circulation into the world.

Struggle Yields Strength

It is a battle to turn out to be who God created us to be. How good for Lent! If you want encouragement consider the butterfly in its pupa stage within the chrysalis. It wants to battle to develop sturdy sufficient to outlive and fly after it lastly breaks via and emerges from that chrysalis. By avoiding the battle, we’ll by no means turn out to be, we’ll by no means fly. Lent affords the proper turbo-boost of battle in opposition to ourselves. This battle will yield closeness to God in addition to power to do the work solely we will do.

Perhaps the preliminary enthusiasm for our Lenten disciplines has waned and the highway to Holy Week stretches lengthy earlier than us. Blessed John of Fiesole in all probability knew this sense effectively. The prayer-fed imaginative and prescient of a big mural doubtless fueled him for days, however then the mundane work of portray, and portray and PAINTING required greater than mere enthusiasm. It required self-discipline.

In the same manner, we’re invited to say sure to our Lenten battle. We are invited to say sure to the concord of a artistic and holy life. Let us battle via to turn out to be who God created us to be: fonts of goodness, fact and wonder ordained for this time and place.  If we select to take action, Easter will discover us remaining with Christ like Blessed John, and we will likely be on the way in which to leaving our personal legacy for generations to come back.

Blessed John of Fiesole, pray for us to turn out to be, via lives of harmonized holiness and creativity, for the glory of God, the blessing of His world, and for our personal everlasting good.

Photo by Nghia Le on Unsplash