Viewing all items in Resource Category: God in the Arts

On 4th October we give thanks for one of the most loved saints in the church – Francis of Assisi. He died in 1226, but his example and witness have lived on to inspire Christians through the centuries. His was a life focused on the crib and the cross, Lady Poverty and the stigmata, suffering...

The weeks and months of lockdown have been difficult and testing times for many of us, but they have also provided the opportunity to look afresh at the world of nature. With less traffic on the roads, less air pollution, and less noise pollution, the sky has somehow seemed bluer and the bird song more...

TQ – Tingle Quotient – is the name given to those things that can produce a tingle down the spine or a frisson of excitement. It could be a piece of music or the sight of an evening sunset at sea.  We look, we hear, and our sense of wonder as something sublime unfolds before...

The calendar allows us to celebrate St Thomas the apostle in this month of July as well as traditionally in December. Thomas is mentioned with the other disciples in all the Gospels, but it is in the fourth Gospel that he moves into the centre of the stage in his own right. In chapter 14...

Jesus the Good Shepherd has been a popular inspiration for artists from the earliest days of Christianity. But this month we focus on another image that has been just as powerful and influential from the first centuries of the Church: Jesus the vine. We think of grapes and the vine as symbols of the Eucharist...

The prophet Jonah is mentioned three times in the Gospels when Jesus refers to ‘the sign of Jonah.’ In the Old Testament he was swallowed by a large fish, traditionally a whale, and in its belly for three days and three nights. It is easy to see in that sign a reference to the death...

The nursery rhymes we learnt as children often focused on lambs: Mary had a little lamb, Baa baa black sheep, Little Bo-Peep and Little Boy Blue. They come to mind in springtime when we see lambs in the field jumping for joy or bleating as they run to the ewes for warmth and safety. Murillo,...

The RSPCA was the first national animal welfare society in the world and was founded in 1824 by an Anglican priest, the Revd Arthur Broome. He asked the question, ‘Can the infliction of cruelty on any being which the Almighty has endued with feelings of pain and pleasure consist with genuine and true benevolence?’ This...

The canticle we call the Benedicite began its life as the Song of the Three Holy Children. In the midst of their terrifying ordeal in the burning fiery furnace, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego praise God. They call on the sky above, the seasons, and all that grows and moves on the earth to join them....

St Francis’ Canticle of the Sun invites all creatures to praise God the Creator. But we live in a world of climate change and global warming. A thousand species are at risk of extinction in the United Kingdom alone. The richness of creation St Francis knew in his day is no longer. We need to...

During this year we have been exploring the wealth of paintings in the National Gallery in London. Each year the Gallery has exhibitions highlighting the work of one particular artist, and until 26 January there is a major exhibition, ‘Gauguin Portraits.’ It celebrates in paintings and sculptures the life and work of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)....

The National Gallery in London is a remarkable treasure house of art, founded in 1824 and home to over 2,300 paintings. Much work goes on behind the scenes to maintain this collection, and in August after a seven-year restoration project, a particular painting went on display for the first time in over a hundred years....