Every once in a while, you come across a person who shares your vision — and that’s a true joy. Rarer still, is finding someone who can express your vision better than you imagined possible — that’s real revelation. This was my experience in recently revisiting the art of Mary Southard, CSJ (a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph). She describes herself as “a life-adventurer whose fascination is the wonder and creativity of our Sacred Universe!”
In this follow up to my last post “The Deep Seeing of Frederick Franck” this video provides a virtual visit to his sculpture garden Pacem in Terris, in Warwick NY, 50 miles northwest of New York City. As Franck himself described it, Pacem is
“One man’s work of art that aspires to be an oasis of quiet and sanity, dedicated to what is human in each of us human”
My thanks to Roy Goodwin for permission to use photographs from his visit to Franck’s “oasis of quiet and sanity”. http://returntothecenter.typepad.com
Pacem in Terris is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday from May through October. Admission is free. Here are a few articles that provide more information on Pacem in Terris: www.riverreporter.com travel.nytimes.com
I have come to know and to value the depth perception of Frederick Franck through his books, such as The Zen of Seeing and Fingers Pointing Toward the Sacred. Through his art and writings he invited us who are “addicted to merely looking at things” to reawaken and to cherish “our inborn human gift of seeing.”
Frederick Franck (1909-2006) was a painter, sculptor, and author with a deep interest in spirituality. His sculptures are in the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Fogg Art Museum, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, as well as at Pacem in Terris, a small sculpture garden adjacent to his home in Warwick, NY.
“Merely looking-at the world around us is immensely different from seeing it. Any cat or crocodile can look-at things and beings, but only we humans have the capacity to see.”
“To see reveals the meaning, to see is to see the Sacred, to look-at is to miss it.
“To see is that specifically human capacity that opens one up to empathy, to compassion with all that lives and dies.”
“When I see – suddenly I am all eyes, I…dive into the reality of what confronts me, become part of it, participate in it.”
“…when seeing starts.…It is an awakening, a new openness for and insight into the livingness of living things, a reborn capacity for empathy, wonder, and reverence, for awe for the simplest things of nature…”
This poem by Bill Slon, a Seescapes visionary, captures the spirit of the Loveburst video series. Ongoing creation recognizes the Creator’s use of evolution to bring all levels of matter to higher realms of being and creativity.
Our Universe, and everything in it, began with what is commonly called the Big Bang. We can also call it the Loveburst — the eruption of overflowing love that could not be contained. The story of ongoing creation is a cosmic love story.
From the first helium atoms to the stars, the planets, and life — all creation has collaborated in the 14 billion year history of ongoing creation.
For a better perspective on the depths of time from which we emerged the Cosmic Calendar maps the 14 billion year story of ongoing creation into one calendar year. This is an extract from The Loveburst,a five-part video series, at http://www.seescapes.com/ Also available on DVD.
A New Story
Dance of Life
Compassion