Invitation from Peadar O’Callaghan to Art Exhibition in Cobh Library, Co Cork
My paintings/images of the Earth are not framed but ‘boxed’. In this way I want to show that the Earth is a gift we receive, a ‘present’ from the Creator which we care-take of – steward, not possess, to pass on to the next generation.
Around the same time as Laudato Si’, 2015, Sussex Academic Press, issued a new edition and translation of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s Le phénomène humain – The Human Phenomenon by Sarah Appleton-Weber. Those familiar with Teilhard’s writings will know that in the Prologue, which he entitles Seeing, he says “One could say that the whole of life lies in seeing – if not ultimately, at least essentially. To be more is to be more united – and this sums up and is the very conclusion of the work to follow. But unity grows, and we will affirm this again, only if it is supported by an increase of consciousness, of vision.”
Many wonder how to respond to the Earth crisis. My invitation is to see and love the beauty of your own local place, to indulge in what the Australian ecophilosopher Glenn Albrecht calls ‘Solastalgia’ in his Earth Emotions – New Words for a New World (2019).
Kind regards to all
Peadar O’Callaghan
I am very grateful to those who accepted my invitation to “Come and see!” and found time to make their way to Cobh to visit my exhibition (above) in the library-gallery there. Also to those who were in contact re. the theme of the art. I think many of us were were pleased to see Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. referenced in Laudato Si’ (footnote 53) but in that footnote is also mentioned Pope Benedict’s XVI’s reference to de Chardin in his homily for the celebration of vespers in Aosta, 24 July, 2009. I think Benedict’s comment then can have great significance for those who celebrate the Eucharist when he said:
“The role of the priesthood is to consecrate the world so that it may become a living host, a liturgy: so that the liturgy may not be something alongside the reality of the world, but that the world itself shall become a living host, a liturgy. This is also the great vision of Teilhard de Chardin: in the end we shall achieve a true cosmic liturgy, where the cosmos becomes a living host. And let us pray the Lord to help us become priests in this sense, to aid in the transformation of the world, in adoration of God, beginning with ourselves.”
I like to believe I’m a ‘cosmological’ priest – especially when alone with no ‘visible’ congregation and only the sound of the rain on the window and the wind and the birds in the trees outside saying AMEN to this Divine Liturgy lit by a glow from beeswax.