More Baldacchino Progress for Holy Souls Hermitage – teams of painters, lots of singing!

L.T., famous baldacchino painter, has sent in this progress report. She says:

These may be the strokes of the youngest baldacchino painter ever. My three year old has been begging to paint too. He was very happy with making just these marks.

One of the songs L.T. has been listening to while painting away is Francesca Battistelli’s You’re Here. Have a listen. It’s from the perspective of the Immaculate Conception, the Virgin Mother of God, just after Jesus is born to us as our Savior. Hardly was a Christmas song more theological than this, and super joyful.

The lyrics:

Hold on now, gotta take a deep breath
I don’t know what to say when I look in your eyes
You made the world before I was born
But here I am holding You in my arms tonight
Noel, noel, Jesus our Emmanuel

You’re here, I’m holding you so near
I’m staring into the face of my Savior,
King and Creator
You could’ve left us on our own, but You’re here

I don’t know how long I’m gonna have you for
But I’ll be watching when You change the world
Look at your hands, they’re still so small
Someday You’re going to stretch them out and save us all
Noel, noel, God with us Emmanuel

You’re here, I’m holding you so near
I’m staring into the face of my Savior,
King and Creator
You could’ve left us on our own, but You’re here You’re here

Someday I’m gonna look back on this
The night that God became my baby boy
Someday You’re gonna go home again,
But You’ll leave your Spirit
and flood the world with joy

You’ll be here, I’m holding you so near
I’m staring into the face of my Savior,
King and Creator
You could’ve left me on my own, but You’re here You’re here
Hallelujah You’re here

L.T. says:

NB: My husband and I are RCIA Catholics – so some aspects of the faith I just didn’t “get” – including the whole “Mary thing” as I used to say…So three years ago when my youngest son was 5 months old, I was trying to sing him to sleep and was singing You’re Here having just listened to it – and not even paying attention to the words so much – and then boom!

Look at your hands, they’re still so small
Someday You’re going to stretch them out and save us all

That was the exact moment I started “got” the whole “Mary thing” because I was holding my little boy’s chubby soft hands in mine when I was singing – and I felt with a mother’s pain the realization of her seeing her little baby boy’s hands being nailed on the Cross.

This song always makes me smile now because of that connection
- and now the last lines make me smile -

Someday You’re gonna go home again,
But You’ll leave your Spirit and flood the world with joy

What if? asks L.T.:

“The Question: Have you ever looked at the artwork in a church and thought to yourself, “Wow, how incredibly neat would it be paint one blade of grass in that painting, or set one tile in that mosaic?” How much of a blessing would it be to have had part in something that you know is hung over where the Holy Sacrifice of Mass is offered? When I had thoughts like that, they were always followed by the realization that um, well, I’m not exactly a professional artist so I’m not going to hold my breath!”

Pictured here is M.J., friend of our artist. L.T. says:

Our conversation started with wonderful ideas and input on the painting to our children, grace filled times in our lives and sharing our conversion stories. She is vibrant in her faith – Master Catechist – someone who is very much a mentor to me.

L.T. shared an email with me that she had sent out to her local friends:

With God, anything is possible. Even the most unlikely things. About two years ago I started following Fr. Z’s blog, WDTPRS, and though his blog about a year ago, I found Fr. Byers blog, Holy Souls Hermitage. (start from the bottom of the posts and read up – I’ve got it linked to baldacchino). Fr. Byers is a hermit priest (really!). He built the hermitage himself (with help from seminarians and some friends), he writes scriptural treatises so complex it makes my head explode, and also posts pictures about his chickens and the day to day of life in a very austere hermitage.

In one of his posts, he asked his readers if anyone had a large format picture of Bernini’s Holy Spirit alabaster window above the cathedral of Saint Peter in Saint Peter’s Basilica – his intention was to blow it up 4ftx8ft and staple the picture onto some plywood and thus make a baldacchino (picture over the altar).

I volunteered to paint it. My little “yes” to the Holy Spirit – because I tell you, had I thought about it for a nanosecond, I assure you I could list 1,576 reasons why this would be a disastrous idea on my part and would never never never NEVER work. But here we are.

The Offer: Come, my friends, and share this grace, this gift that was given unbidden to me – come be a part of this if you are moved to. I want to assure you that you can’t “mess it up” – your part would be the a section of the alabaster – you will paint the undercoating of light yellow – I will mix the paint up for you – you just paint the little square – and its even okay if you go outside the line a bit!

I will be home all week. Let me know if you can come by. I am so excited to be able to share this with you – I KNEW from the very first that when the painting got to a certain point, I absolutely needed to open it up to everyone – please don’t be afraid to do this if you even a little bit called to it!

While she’s waiting for people to pick up this offer, L.T. continues painting. She explains the next picture:

“I’m testing level of detail – I have tape on the carpet 9ft away – I am discovering that what looks super close up is lost at 9ft or what looks overdone close up is just right at 9ft. And just for fun I look at it from the bathroom doorway at 30ish feet. If nothing else, Father, my admiration for the great masters is growing by leaps and bounds. To craft a masterpiece is amazing enough – but to also know how to have it “work” in situ – wow.

And then…

And then, in answer to her invitation to help paint…

And…

Slowly but surely…

Stern looking Sacred Heart of Jesus statue. What I call the 1968 style.

An all too saccharine Sacred Heart

My comment: L.T. is very good to let us witness the progress of the baldacchino. It’s one in a million artists who will let you know how it’s done. And this is just what we need in the U.S.A. and right around the world: artists who are in love with the Most Holy Trinity, and who want to share this greatest love in their lives with others. So much of the “art” of the past fifty years or so has been extremely sterile and stern.

Of course, there are those who have taken the sappy saccharine nicey-nice style to an extreme, which is worse, a total escape from reality, which will only let you down, hard, into a rather ferocious depression if not despair. We need reality! Gagghhh!

What I find so refreshing about L.T.’s style is that it is so apt in its depiction that people are taken off guard and don’t know quite what to say, as it doesn’t fit their categories. L.T. is a teacher. Here’s an email exchange we had about the detail above:

Me: He’s rather intent!

L.T.: Yes, and it’s both sobering and reassuring that He is one of the last things I see when I go to bed and among the first things when I wake up. My husband and I have talked about how empty the room is going to be when we bring it to you! It’s been interesting to me too, to hear the impressions my friends have had when they have come in person to paint or even just seen pictures I’ve shown. Some see very intent – even severe. Several others have used the words soft and gentle.

Me: Of course, intent is not severe, just deadly enthusiastic, as was Jesus on the Cross for us. Yikes! He loves us so much!