As St. Benedict notes in The Rule, “Beauty and order are contagious; so are ugliness and disorder. Make time in your day, each day, for beauty.”
At this part of the site, we offer a brief oasis of beauty, in the form of images, videos, songs, poems and prayers that are meant to re-kindle your flame.
Spiritual Oases From The Saint John’s Bible
Need a pause to catch your breath as the semester’s deadlines hurl themselves toward you? Want to incorporate a bit of beauty into the anticipation of this Advent? Here are two opportunities fashioned from The Saint John’s Bible, the first fully hand-calligraphed and illuminated Bible manuscript crafted since the invention of the printing press:
- A 15-minute Visio Divina (“sacred seeing”) experience in which you are guided through a silent contemplation of the story of The Calming of the Sea.
- A 2-minute quiet beholding of the frontispiece of the Book of Psalms at Psalms Frontispiece.
Spiritual Oasis Musing
2024 Collegium alum Joane Moceri, Dean of the School of Nursing and Health Innovations at University of Portland, offers this poem she wrote in the weeks following this summer’s colloquy. It captures the tension so many of us can feel between the joy and beauty of the sacramental lens and the gravity and darkness of the prophetic lens.
Now, bear with me for just a moment.
I know, I know, I know!
I see it;
The swallows returning sooner in the Spring
And delaying their flight back further into Fall.
The lettuce bolts more quickly in early summer heat
And the frost comes later (and less deep).
But can I
Just, just, just for one more season
Hold tight to my sacramental vision
Before the certain, hot winds of prophecy carry it away?
A Moment of Spritual Refreshment
End of semester coming at you like an out of control train? Enjoy this ethereal 5-minute choral rendition of Dan Forrest’s poem “The Sun Never Says.”
Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe Me.”
Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.
A Moment of Spiritual Balm
Whether it’s headlines bombarding you during doom-scrolling, piles of papers to grade or just the frenetic pace of a very full life, these 2½ minutes of The Unveiled singing their acapella version of the Zimbabwean Tungamira may offer you a gratifying moment to stop, breathe, and know that you are beloved. The spirit of the Shona words is “Do not cry because I am with you and I will guide you.” Amen!
Treasures from The Saint John’s Bible
Find portals to 90-second Moments of Beauty featuring illuminations from this masterpiece that require only your presence. Got 15 minutes? Then follow the link for guided scriptural meditations that accompany illuminations.