Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Brandon Vat, the host and the Senior

Publishing Director at Word on Fire. In this talk from the 2022 Good News

Conference, Father Paul Murray reminds us that the God whom we are seeking is

endlessly seeking us. It is through beauty that our hearts can be pierced with

the desire to know God more deeply and it is often by stories and poetry

that God communicates his message. Our God is a lover, a poet, and he goes

after the least of us. We invite you also to learn more about the Good News

Conference where this talk was given and perhaps consider attending this year's

Good News Conference. You can learn more and sign up at the website GoodNewsConference.com.

But for now, I turn you over to Father Paul Murray and his talk titled

Poetry, Beauty and the Shock of Grace. Enjoy.

Thank you John for those very generous words of introduction. And can I say a

special thanks to John Hale for having thought to invite me here in the first

place to this remarkable conference. I am at once both deeply honored and

truly humbled. I also, it has been a great joy for me in these days to have

been able to meet with so many of you. The title of my talk, What Is That Knocking,

Poetry, Beauty and the Shock of Grace?

Where to begin? The subject is so vast, so many cited, what will I be able to

include? What will I feel compelled to leave art? This dilemma of choice

reminds me of a rather humorous event a friend told me about a few years ago.

He had arrived at a tiny village in a remote part of Harland with a group of

friends. It was lunchtime and they were feeling very hungry. Only two restaurants

...