Aprentis Conference Notes - Part 2

"Grace and Beauty" - James Bryan Smith"Every experience of beauty points to infinity." (Hans Urs Von Balthasar)

The beautiful is that which has unity, harmony, simplicity, proportion, wholeness, and radiance.

Beauty invites us to come and be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Beauty is filled with grace because, for instance, music is totally unnecessary to human life and yet it is so incredibly life-giving. It is completely gratuitous.

We must cultivate the ability to see and experience God's grace in beauty.

Sin is the distortion of beauty, and we often settle for it. Ugliness brings out our basest desires until Jesus reminds us of beauty.

On Holy Saturday, Jesus brings beauty out of the depths of human brokenness.

Beauty is holiness at the center.

"One is inclined to suspect that the great movements and reforms in the Church in the present and the future, will not be initiated by panels and boards but by saints, the ever unique and solitary ones who, struck by God's lighting, ignite a blaze all around them. The process is totally different from skillful organizations. Saints have no time to worry about their identity." (Hans Urs Von Balthasar)

"Beauty is goodness made manifest to the senses." (Dallas Willard)

Next: "Grace and Fear" - Nancy Ortberg