When Jesus was born into this world, he took on the entirety of the human experience. He also took on what many might consider a less than glorious human experience - being born into comparable poverty and in a stable no less! Yet God is Beauty itself. Everything we behold as beautiful was created by Him and He delights in it. Throughout the Sacred Scripture we read many descriptions of the beauty, glory, and majesty of the created world, as well as beautiful things bestowed on the men and women he has exalted, especially through the priesthood and the throne of David. He has a desire to "raise up the lowly" as Mary points out in her fiat. We might be asked to love poverty but it isn't because poverty is a good in and of itself, but it is because the Lord loves humility and littleness. 

In Cora Evans' Letter Lessons, she writes a weekly letter to her spiritual director, Father Frank Parrish. In each letter she meditates on a variety of topics for spiritual development, ponders passages from the sacred scripture, and gives directives on small mortifications to take on each week. In Letter 29, she writes of a vision of Mother Mary, poised as a teacher gently instructing children in the ways of her Son. She speaks of holy and unholy attachments - the things to which we ought not be attached and the things which do deserve our time and attention. She says, 

" 'Jesus had special attachments to both nature and friends. In His Humanity, He was deeply attached to the beauty and wonder of the sunrise. And He loved the twilight, especially at sundown when earth's ball of firerose and fell as a playful ball on the darkening waves of the sea. And He smiled at the stars in their apparent littleness from this earth. He found especial delight in the copyings of man making drawings of the heavens which would form the bear, warrior, and snake in the lanterned sky.' " (Letter Lessons, 199) 

The One who made the stars and the sun found great joy in them as He walked upon the earth. We, too, ought to delight in the rich beauty of created things. It does not have to be as complicated as going to a mountain or a beach (if you live far from them!) but even the dew on the grass, the sunlight creeping through your windows throughout the day, the smell in the air after it rains - there are so many little joys and delights to be had in the created order. God wants us to delight in them. He made them because He loves order and beauty, but He also made them for us to enjoy. He made them so that we might give Him glory and priase when we are awestruck by windswept rolling hills in the midst of fall, or the simplicity of fields full of crops before harvest. These things are beautiful things, and are designed to be delighted in and to bring God greater glory. 

However, it is not only the beauties of creation that are meant to be loved and cherished. Mother Mary continues in Letter Lesson 29, 

" 'My children, even that which we know as pomp and pageantry is a good and holy attachment. Fear not using beautiful things for the service of God as well as in your homes when they lift your mind to God in thanksgiving. And allow yourself the beauty of thinking majestic thoughts, for it is like classical music rising to Heaven in contrast to the beat of calloused fingers on tom-toms. And in contemplation, allow yourselves the freedom of enjoying the pageantry of the ancient past. The birth of my Son was announced by the pageantry of angels in assumed human forms, dressed in colors pleasing to the human eye.' " (Letter Lessons, 200-201)

There is an instruction here that the beauty and pomp and pageantry of the Church is a good thing. For many years, there have been people within the Church who seem to disparage the past beautiful vestments, altars, paintings, and churches constructed for the greater glory of God. The primary thing to recall here is "using beautiful things for the service of God." Beautiful things are the most fitting for the worship of God. We ought to give what is best and most glorious to Him. Of course, He accepts what we give even if we are not able to give very much. But the impoverished masses of the past gave what little they had to construct and fill those beautiful cathedrals and churches because they knew it was fitting for the service of God. The priest should wear beautiful vestments not because he is of great personal worth but because he acts in personae Christi - in the person of Christ himself! The altar should be beautiful because on it is offered the One and Perfect Sacrifice - the Lamb of God who is enthroned in Heaven but deigns to come to us Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity at every Mass! The church building should be beautiful and not look like an auditorium because in it is rendered right worship to God who in His infinite love and mercy offers us salvation if only we should take up our cross and follow Him wherever He leads. 

What is most interesting to me in the above passage is that Mother Mary does not stop at saying that pageantry and beauty is appropriate to the Church, but also in the domestic church, that is, the home of the Christian family. In the home, beautiful things ought to "lift your mind to God in thanksgiving." There is something peaceful and joyful about a beautiful, well-ordered home. Not a home that is covered in the most luxurious things that money can buy for the sake of buying them, but in a home that is kept in a tidy fashion and has some well placed beautiful things that draw the soul upward: a beautiful painting of a landscape or of the Holy Family, a dusted mantel where a crucifix and candles stand, a piano where beautiful music is played that lifts the soul to God, a kitchen where nourishing food is made to feed the family gathered in prayer at the dining table. There is a need to lose the idea that beautiful objects that "serve no purpose" are to be disposed of. Some people in the Christian world see these objects as impediments to living a life of prayer and contemplation. Accumulating beautiful things for social status, out of fear of missing out on the latest trend, or out of greediness can indeed be a great impediment to spiritual development. However, it is all a matter of the spirit in which you own your things - is it a holy attachment (one which directs you to God and without the object you would be perfectly fine) or is it an unholy attachment (one which directs you to self and without which you would be envious of others or unreasonably sad?) 

In my family, we treasure beautiful things. We don't have a lot of money, but my husband and I are old souls who happen to really enjoy the vintage pieces from other family members that no one else seems to want. We have two heirloom china sets in a china cabinet we were given as a wedding present. We use our china regularly, usually on Sundays and special feast days, unlike most millenial couples. We do not have a proper mantel in our house but my husband built an altar in our living room which we loving decorate according to the liturgical season or feast days with thrifted candle sticks, candles my husand makes from candle scraps, flowers from our yard, and holy images either gifted or thrifted or personally homemade. We delight in these things because they draw us out of ourselves and draw us up to Our Father in Heaven who created everything that is beautiful and has inspired every beautiful thought of man's mind and every beautiful work of man's hands. 

Let us be inspired to the holy attachment of beautiful things whether they be in the natural world of God's creation or through the work of man's heart and hands.