The Call of Beauty

Yesterday we relected on moments of awe and wonder.  I learned recently that the Greek root for the word "beauty" is related to the word for "calling." The words are kalon and kalein — beauty and calling, wound together at their root.

The Christian poet and philosopher John O'Donohue reflected on this connection and suggested that in the presence of beauty — in the presence of awe, wonder, kindness, and goodness — something happens in us that is not neutral. Beauty, he said, is not passive. It is actually calling you. Calling something out of you.

Think about the last time you were stopped by something beautiful. A piece of music that hit you unexpectedly. A landscape that took your breath away. A moment of kindness between two strangers. A child's laughter. Something in you responded — leaned toward it, opened a little. That response, O'Donohue would say, is not accidental. It is an invitation.

An invitation to go deeper in your faith. To heal something that has hardened or been wounded within you. To engage the world in some new way — to grow, to serve, to give in response to what God has quietly placed on your heart.

The ancient Greeks sensed it. The contemplatives have always known it. Beauty is one of the ways God speaks — not in thunder, but in the still small voice of a moment that catches us off guard and whispers: there is more. Come further in.

May you have eyes to see it today. And may your heart be open when it finds you.

Prayer: Loving God, open us to your healing, transforming grace. Attune our hearts to the beauty you have woven into the fabric of this world — and to the calling that beauty carries. May your Spirit touch our spirits. And may we ever be channels of the blessings we have received. Amen.

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