Celebrating Pentecost Sunday

In Pope Francis’s homily for Pentecost Sunday, he called for more men and women to be filled with the Holy Spirit. One way to invite a “soul on fire,” as today’s song calls for: inspire your spirit through great art. Aim to have a faith (and an approach to life) that is not lukewarm, but filled with fiery zeal. That kind of passion can be invited through greater awareness of wonder and awe, in other words, through contact with the genuinely beautiful.

The great William Blake is today’s poet, and he puts it perfectly, “Unless the eye catch fire, The God will not be seen.” The ambivalence of society and desensitized media and pop culture do not make it easy to feel deeply. But the pursuit of fiery faith can be stoked through opening ourselves to the excitement we can find in great art, music and poetry.