Displaying religious art in your home is a wonderful way to find inspiration throughout the day, and it can even help inspire others with such visible evidence of your faith. While there are many contemporary artists creating wonderful works of spiritual art today, many people are drawn to the great masters whose work resides in the magnificent Catholic churches and museums of the world.
The Catholic Catechism (no. 2502) defines “sacred art” as that which “is true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God—the surpassing invisible beauty of truth and love visible in Christ, who ‘reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature,’ in whom ‘the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.’ This spiritual beauty of God is reflected in the most holy Virgin Mother of God, the angels, and saints.”
It continues, “Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and to the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier.”
So when thinking about what painting or sculpture to display in your home, many turn to reproductions from great artists such as Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and DaVinci. These works of “genuine sacred art” bring beauty to your interior spaces while bringing you and your family closer to God.
Many of these reproductions are available at church gift shops and online. We’ve selected a few examples here from the Vatican Museums, the National Shrine in Washington, DC, New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art gift shops:
And today we celebrate...