“Come See Something Beautiful…”: a Beginning

The quotation that we use as the title for our Substack is one that I first ran across in the early 1990’s.

At that time, I was serving as an ordained pastor in a Protestant denomination called United Methodism. I was reading widely throughout the history of Christianity, and what I was looking for, without really knowing it, was models of sanctity. Methodists have historically placed a big emphasis on what they call holiness, but, oddly enough, they don’t really see the need for living examples of that reality. They don’t have what the Church has historically called saints. But I needed to see what a lived holiness looks like.

So one of the books I ended up reading was The Cure D’Ars, an account of the life of St Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney, who was a Roman Catholic priest in France in the early nineteenth century. The book was written by the Abbe Francis Trochu in 1927, and it was based on the research documents that were gathered during the canonization process for St Jean. I remember that it was just under 600 pages, but there was an incident early in the book that has stuck with me all these years.

Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney. Image credit: Wikipedia

St Jean served a parish in the rural community of Ars. The church building in that community was very old, and it was in desperate need of repair and refurbishing, but the village itself was poor, and so there simply wasn’t any money to put toward the building. However, in the village, there was a woman named Anne Marie Garnier de Garets; she was the sister of the Viscount Francoise de Garets, who lived in Paris. And Anne Marie prevailed on her brother to help with the project; the Viscount visited Ars, and he was so impressed with the priest and his work in the parish that, over the next several years, he underwrote the cost of all the work.

But in the research documents for St Jean’s canonization, there are a number of testimonies to how the priest reacted to this assistance. The villagers of Ars recalled that when new altar cloths or new banners or other new liturgical items would arrive, St Jean would get visibly excited while the shipment was being uncrated, and then, after admiring the gifts the parish had received, he would suddenly run out into the street, find the first person who was passing by, and say, with great joy, “Come see something beautiful…”

That story has stayed with me all these years, and, when we started this substack, I knew we had to use that quotation for the title—because it just perfectly captures what we’re doing with this platform: St Jean would run out into the street; we’re out here in the digital byways, but our message is the same—“Come see something beautiful”.

And, sure, I was a Protestant when I first read that story; in fact, back then, I thought that holiness was primarily a matter of personal righteousness. But beauty is an inextricable aspect of holiness because both are an expression of the glory of the Most Holy Trinity.

And, yes, St Jean was Roman Catholic. But, honestly, the reason I was received into Holy Orthodoxy as opposed to Roman Catholicism is not primarily because of papal claims or doctrinal differences; it’s because beauty is just a more integral part of Holy Orthodoxy. So, when we say, as Mr. Dostoevsky writes, “I believe that beauty will save the world,” we really do mean that—the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will heal and transform all creation.

Fyodor Dostoevsky. Image credit: Wikipedia

And what we’re doing with our temple project is participating in that transformation. What we’re doing with this substack is, hopefully, providing you with an opportunity to participate, as well. By purchasing a subscription, you’re helping to fund a fully adorned temple that is going to last for centuries on a piece of property that is being loving cared for and nurtured.

So, do we realistically believe that we’re going to raise all the necessary funds through our online efforts?

Well, in that regard, this substack is kind of like a digital garage sale or car wash or lemonade stand; practically speaking, it falls into the category of ‘every little bit helps’.

But we’re also hopeful that, out there among you readers, there is a Viscount who is impressed with this project and who will get in touch with us and offer to fund the whole effort.

Hey, it could happen.

Because, as the Counting Crows used to sing, “we all want something beautiful…”

And since we also want something beautiful, just like The Temptations, we “ain’t too proud to beg”: Donate to help us build our new temple.