The Liturgy of the Hours (Office of Readings), the Seventh Week of Easter contains the following excerpt from a sermon by a sixth century African bishop:
The disciples spoke in the language of every nation. At Pentecost God chose this means to indicate the presence of the Holy Spirit; whoever had received the Spirit spoke in every kind of tongue….It was love that was to bring the Church of God together all over the world. And as individual men who received the Holy Spirit in those days could speak in all kinds of tongues, so today the Church, united by the Holy Spirit, speaks in the language of every people….
This was the way in which the Lord’s promise was fulfilled: No one puts new wine into old wineskins. New wine is put into fresh skins, and so both are preserved. So when the disciples were heard speaking in all kinds of languages, some people were not far wrong in saying, They have been drinking too much new wine. The truth is that the disciples had now become fresh wineskins, renewed and made holy by grace. The new wine of the Holy Spirit filled them, so that their fervor brimmed over and they spoke in manifold tongues. By this spectacular miracle they became a sign of the Catholic Church, which embraces the language of every nation.
I quote this passage at length because it expresses something of our purpose in founding Idylls Press, as well as our broader hopes for a new Catholic literary renaissance—a revival befitting our age; one that both treasures and explores the riches of historical Christian cultures and encourages new expressions—expressions that radiate the Church’s eternal vision in “manifold tongues” of genre, media and style. A renaissance that embraces “the language of every nation”.
But the historical and cultural conditions required to bring off cultural revolutions are mysterious and complex. To that end, we’re asking our readers to join with us in praying this prayer to the Divine Word, Eternal Beauty, to beg God for a new springtime in the Catholic arts, particularly literature.
Pray for a Catholic Literary Revival
O, Jesus, Who said, “heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass,” You are the Living and Eternal Word through Whom all that exists was made and is sustained. You delighted in proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom by means of stories.
Through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, St. Joseph (Your guardian , Mary’s chaste spouse and protector of Christ’s faithful), St. Francis de Sales (patron of Catholic writers), Cardinal John Henry Newman (patron of Catholic novelists), Pope John Paul the Great (patron of Catholic poets and playwrights), and all the holy men and women throughout the ages who have spread the Kingdom of Goodness, Truth and Beauty by means of words and stories, we ask You humbly but confidently for the graces we need to contribute to a renewed culture of beauty in service of love and life, including a Catholic literary revival appropriate for our times.
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Our Father
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Hail Mary
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Glory Be
Jesus, Eternal Beauty, we trust in You.
Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Amen.
