Diocese to offer a meditation on art and Advent

Intermountain Catholic

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The ?Smiling Angel of the Annunciation? at Reims Cathedral will be one of the masterpieces discussed during the Diocesan Advent Day of Prayer and Retreat. Public domain photo

SALT LAKE CITY — Advent is meant to be a time of spiritual preparation, but the demands of the holiday season often sidetrack religious contemplation. Therefore, the Diocese of Salt Lake City is providing a day of prayer and reflection for Catholics to meditate on the mystery of Christ.

Last year, the diocese offered a day of retreat, and this year’s event on Dec. 5 is meant to build on that, said Timothy Johnston, the director of liturgy. "It’s at the beginning of Advent to set the tone, hopefully, for our parishes and to help them enter more deeply into the spirit of the season of Advent so that maybe the fruits that come from the retreat can then be reflected upon in the four weeks of Advent," he said.

Images reflecting Advent themes will be the focus of the presentation by Father James Neilson, a Norbertine priest, practicing artist and assistant professor at Saint Norbert College in De Pere, Wis.

"The Catholic has for centuries been a great patron of the visual arts," Fr. Neilson said. "I don’t think it’s possible to understand the complexity or the history the Church without having an appreciation of the role of the visual arts and celebrating that. It’s the visual articulation of the Word. Oftentimes, I think, people’s first introduction to the great tenets of the faith to dogma is through the visual arts, where we learn the stories literally in the Church by seeing them in sculpture, glass, paintings, tapestries, labyrinth, Stations of the Cross."

The themes of expectation, patience vigil and maternity will be addressed during Fr. Neilson’s presentation. He will present both secular and religious images that will examine some of the essential mysteries that the Church celebrates during Advent and Christmas, he said. "Hopefully it will surprise you to recognize how familiar these themes are in everyday life and how ancient they are and how we’ve had centuries and centuries of people responding to this, and interpreting this, believing this whole-heartedly, and trying to capture it and give to the next generation."

He also will focus on the role of Mary, the Virgin Mother. "The Church is the one that celebrates her role so magnificently in the world," Fr. Neilson said. "We have some stunning images, and what I’d like to do is introduce our viewers to some images perhaps that they haven’t yet seen. The secular, contemporary imagination is very much aware of Mary, is very much aware of the vigil, and what can we learn and affirm in our own faith by what it is that people are seeing outside of church."

The retreat will be an opportunity to ponder the incarnation and how we die and rise with Christ daily, Johnston said, and Fr. Neilson is "very good at facilitating that sort of discussion."

The day will be comprised of four short sessions followed by quiet time or group discussions that will be facilitated by Fr. Neilson, as well as lunch, Johnson said.