146 Understanding the Mysterious Power of Beauty
The Art of Catholic with Matthew Leonard
Matthew Leonard
4.9 • 831 Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Matthew Leonard is joined by author and professor John Mark Miravalle to discuss what beauty is - and why it matters.
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Given the joyful peal of St. Peter's bells still echoing around the world marking the election of our new Holy Father, it's the perfect time to talk about beauty.
After all, beauty is at the heart of everything Catholic.
God is beautiful.
Our Lady is beautiful.
Our Church is beautiful.
I could go on...
But what is beauty? How can we define it? Do you know it when you see it? Is it even necessary for something to be beautiful if it is Catholic? Where does beauty fit into the everyday?
These are important questions deserving great answers...and we've got them in this episode of the Art of Catholic podcast.
Join Matthew and John Mark Miravalle, Professor at Mount St. Mary's Seminary and author of Beauty: What It Is and Why It Matters, as they discuss:
- Why beauty is essential to truth
- The crucial role of surprise in beauty
- The difference between beauty and manipulation
- Why beauty must be "felt"
- The moral DUTY of beauty for Christians
- Why "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is wrong
- And much more!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the art of Catholic. |
| 0:13.9 | Welcome to the art of Catholic, I'm Matthew Leonard. |
| 0:16.6 | Our topic of discussion today is one I think is perhaps the most underrated yet ridiculously |
| 0:21.9 | powerful in the world, particularly in discussions related to the faith. |
| 0:26.7 | That topic is beauty. Now beauty was not something that was at the forefront of my conversion |
| 0:32.4 | into the faith many years ago, but it's something from which I have grown in appreciation to put |
| 0:37.1 | it mildly. There's just no way around it. As Catholics, we have to emphasize beauty. In fact, |
| 0:44.4 | one of the things we're going to talk about in this show is that we have a duty have to emphasize beauty. In fact, one of the things we're gonna talk about |
| 0:45.8 | in this show is that we have a duty |
| 0:48.2 | with regard to beauty. |
| 0:50.0 | Yes, apologetics, scripture study, |
| 0:52.2 | things like that are certainly important, obviously, right? |
| 0:55.4 | But beauty is a different animal. |
| 0:57.4 | It's got a mysterious power that not even the most powerful |
| 1:00.6 | or well thought out argument can withstand. |
| 1:02.8 | And while a lot of people and culture in general |
| 1:06.5 | have done their best to manglet over the past few decades, |
| 1:09.9 | beauty is thankfully making a comeback. |
| 1:13.5 | Now as I said, it has this unmistakable attraction |
| 1:15.9 | and irresistible power to penetrate |
| 1:18.6 | even the most hardened of souls |
| 1:20.6 | and turn their eyes toward God. |
... |
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