Since I recently finished John O’Donohue’s book Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, I’ve been trying to actively bring more beauty into my life, and to recognize the beauty that already surrounds me. The first place I went to was my digital music collection, where I tried to put together a playlist of beautiful music. As I scanned through my collection looking for songs and pieces of music to include in the list, I was struck by how many of them dealt with sadness or longing. Songs like:

• “Everybody Hurts” by REM
• “One Day I’ll Fly Away” by Nicole Kidman from the film Moulin Rouge
• “The September of My Years” by Frank Sinatra
• “Pie Jesu” arranged by Andrew Lloyd Weber
• “Sail On” by the Commodores
• “Abraham, Martin and John” by Dion
• “Into the West” by Annie Lennox from the film The Return of the King

As I continued putting the list together, I was reminded of a quote by Edgar Allan Poe in an essay he wrote about composing his haunting poem, “The Raven.” He said, “Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.”

So that became my chief criteria for choosing songs for this list of beautiful music. These are songs that nearly bring me to tears. I call the list “Achingly Beautiful Music.”

I’ve also been experimenting with the Spotify music service, so I thought I’d embed the playlist below so you could hear what I mean. The iTunes playlist this is based on has 292 songs, but Spotify didn’t recognize all of them, so there are only 152 songs on the list below. Not all the songs fit the criteria, and I’m still tweaking the list; but as I’ve been listening to this music over the past few weeks, I’ve found myself more attuned to the beauty that surrounds me in other areas of my life.

O’Donohue writes, “All holiness is about learning to hear the voice of your own soul.” In these songs, I hear echoes of my own soul. Perhaps you, too, will hear something of yourself in this music. Let me know if any of the songs on the list touch you as they touch me. And I would love to hear about other music that speaks to your soul in an achingly beautiful way. Please feel free to share your musical inspirations in the comment box.

(Update: apparently you can only listen to the playlist below if you have the Spotify desktop app installed and running on your computer.)

…whenever we awaken beauty, we are helping to make God present in the world. Consequently the rituals and liturgy of religion can be occasions where beauty truly comes alive….Thomas Aquinas and and the medieval thinkers wisely recognized that beauty was at the heart of reality; it was where truth, unity, goodness and presence came together. Without beauty they would be separated and inclined towards destructive conflict with each other. Accompanied by beauty, truth gains graciousness and compassion. Beauty holds harmony at the heart of unity and prevents its collapse into the most haunted chaos. In the presence of beauty, goodness attracts desire and beauty makes presence luminous and evokes its mystery.

Today is Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you), so here are Darth Vader and Yoda recording their voices to be used with Tom Tom GPS devices:

“Being a loving parent is work that guarantees the transformation of the ego for in the work of rearing children the limits of your selfishness, need and smallness are continually challenged. Somehow you find within your heart a love that is willing to stretch further and further. In this sense, the work of parenting is profoundly blessed work. Some people pray in words; in the work of raising children, parents pray every day with every fibre of their being.”

John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, page 164

How long before this turns into a meme?

The quiet, hidden life of St. Joseph stands in contrast to our culture’s obsession with celebrity. Fr. Jim Martin comments on the life of this humble model of faith from his DVD Who Cares about the Saints?:

Each morning I wake up and check Facebook to see what I can share with the 8th graders  during Religion class. After morning prayer and attendance, I bring up the diocesan Facebook page on the screen and we see what’s new from Rome. Bishop Cupich’s reflections and pictures have led to some great teachable moments:

• We’ve discussed what an ad limina visit is;
• we’ve seen pictures of the tomb of St. Paul;
• and we’ve learned about seminarians from Spokane and how some of them study at the Pontifical North American College.

Because of a generous gift from Pope Benedict to Bishop Cupich, we’ve also had the opportunity to learn more about pectoral crosses:

Bishop Cupich receives a gift from Pope Benedict

A new pectoral cross

I wonder what’s in store for the rest of the week…

Traditionally, journey was a rhythm of three forces: time, self and space. Now the digital virus has truncated time and space. Marooned on each instant, we have forfeited the practice of patience, the attention to emergence and delight in the Eros of discovery. The self has become anxious for what the next instant might bring. This greed for destination obliterates the journey. The digital desire for the single instant schools the mind in false priority. Each instant proclaims its own authority and the present image demands the complete attention of the eye. There is no sense of natural sequence where an image is allowed to emerge from its background and context when the time is right, the eye is worthy and the heart is appropriate. The mechanics of electronic imaging reverses the incarnation of real encounter. But a great journey needs plenty of time. It should not be rushed; if it is, your life becomes a kind of abstract package tour devoid of beauty and meaning. There is such a constant whirr of movement that you never know where you are. You have no time to give yourself to the present experience. When you accumulate experiences at such a tempo, everything becomes thin. Consequently, you become ever more absent from your life and this fosters emptiness that haunts the heart.

John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, page 27

Jill’s classroom was the Kool-Aid house of our school. Day after day, students stopped in to chat, surrounding her desk as she sat in her motorized scooter. Whenever I saw an All Saints graduate return for a visit, I knew exactly where they were heading: last door on the right, 5 North.

But it wasn’t just the classroom. Jill herself was a moving Kool-Aid house, a water cooler on wheels, the place where teachers would gather to laugh, complain, or comment on the latest news. If Jill was in the office, that’s where the teachers would hang out. If Jill motored outside to each lunch in the sunshine, that’s where the teachers ate lunch.

There are people in this world who, by the sheer force of their magnetic personality, draw people continually to them. Jill was such a force, and such a personality.

Where will we gather now that she is gone?

Jesus tells us:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.”

Jesus has come back to take Jill to the place he has prepared for her. There are dwelling places for each of us in heaven, and when I get there I know where everyone is going to be. They’ll be hanging out at the Kool-Aid house. They’ll all be at Jill’s place.

“For when we talk about confirmation our conversation is really about baptism; when we are dealing with baptism we are discoursing about Christian initiation; when we are into initiation we are face to face with conversion in Jesus Christ dead and rising; and when we are into conversion in Jesus Christ dead and rising we are at the storm center of the universe.”

- Aidan Kavanagh, OSB