Mass for Artists in NYC

Just passing this on....

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Dear friends and fellow artists,

It's a great pleasure to invite you to the inaugural event of the Catholic Artists Society on Sunday, May 15th at 5pm at the Church of Our Saviour in Manhattan.

A Solemn High Mass of the Holy Spirit will be celebrated for members of our growing Catholic arts and media community. All artists, their families and friends of the arts are invited to attend. Following the mass, Fr. Joseph Koterski, SJ, from Fordham University, will give a talk on "Ignatian Prayer and the Work of the Artist". A reception will follow.

You can sign up for updates on this and future events at http://catholicartistssociety.posterous.com/

The Solemn extraordinary form Mass will be celebrated by Fr. George Rutler, pastor of Our Saviour’s. Fr. Michael Barone will be deacon and Fr. Joseph Koterski, SJ will act as sub-deacon. Sacred music will be provided by the Schola Cantorum of St. Mary Church (Norwalk, CT), under the direction of David J. Hughes. Guest organist Herve Duteil will provide additional music.

The Catholic Artists Society was initiated in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s Address to Artists at the Sistine Chapel in November, 2009. Following the Holy Father’s call for artists to be “custodians of Beauty” and “heralds and witnesses of Hope for humanity” the society seeks to foster solidarity and fellowship amongst the faithful engaged in the creative professions, encouraging the ongoing artistic and spiritual development of all artists and media professionals, so that their work may more perfectly reflect God’s glory, enriching and ennobling men and women, our society and our culture.

We look forward to seeing you on the 15th. Please let me know if you plan to attend so we can get an idea of numbers for the reception. An invitation with details is attached.

Yours in Christ,

Kevin Collins

What Happened to the Good Stories?

Here's a snippet from an interview I just did with a Christian magazine called Aletheia. It will be coming out later in the summer.

Q: Where would you say our culture stands in regards to good storytellers and stories?

BN: My opinion is that we have nearly lost the ability to tell a good story. Part of this is the loss we are seeing in all the art forms, which I think has something to do with the loss of rigor and discipline that is the doorway to the beautiful. Also, I think a lot of the artistic impulses in our time have been drowned in Ritalin and Prozac. Finally, I think the urge to make something beautiful comes from a sense of gratitude and immortality. In our culture, both those values are ever more quaint.

When we consider the Church, nothing is clearer than that we seem to have proudly cast off the beautiful as an elitist throwback to a less enlightened time. In the Church, we spurn the beautiful in favor of egalitarianism, politics and utility. I have had priests tell me that they can’t afford to ensure beautiful music for the liturgy, or else that beautiful music is relative, or that beautiful music is less important than in making Doris and Stan, the untalented but warm-hearted music ministry folks, feel appreciated. After the terrible music, the next most egregiously bad practiced art from in the Church today is oratory. Too many of our pastors seem to take it as a point of pride that their homilies have nothing of the basics of a good speech about them. Far from making our hearts burn within us, most homilies today leave the faithful’s brains burning with indignation. I’m waiting for people to finally crest with all the banality and start shouting back at the pulpit.

In Hollywood, storytelling has been lost mainly due to the fact that movies are seen first as commercial products and second as whole, harmonious and radiant stories. There is no change to any part of a story that today’s studio wont make to please an egomaniacal actor or director. There is no part of a movie too sacred not to be cheapened by product placement. There is no overarching theme that can survive the endless tinkering of producers trying desperately to bring the project in on time and under budget. The only real future for good storytelling seems to be outside the studio system. It’s sad, but I think Hollywood’s days of having access to the imagination of the world are gone.

The Grand Inquisitor and Lent

Here is a talk that I will be giving to our Hollywood RCIA folks this coming Thursday, April 7th, at Family Theater in Hollywood. It's a good talk. Feel free to attend if you are in the area.

Thursday, April 7, 2011 – 7:30pm – 9:30pm

TEMPTATION AND PENITENTIAL ACTS / THE SACRAMENTS OF HEALING: PENANCE AND ANOINTING OF THE SICK

Instructor: Barbara Nicolosi Harrington

Reading: CCC 1434-1439; CCC 1422-1424, 1440-1470, 1499, 1511-1525; “The Grand Inquisitor” from The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky

To learn: The Act of Contrition (see p. 191 in the Compendium)

For journal: What is it that tempts you? How do you respond to temptation? How do I understand the sacrament of reconciliation?