Investing the Imagination

But the ethos of the modern world is precisely synthetic and grounded in a false imitation. Ancient mimesis sought to emulate in the microcosmic world of man the “music of the spheres” and to align the human realm with the divine. But modern imitation is Titanistic insofar as it begins and ends with a repudiation of the normativity of the formal structures of existence and thus seeks to make everything plastic and fungible in the interests of “control and domination”. - Larry Chapp

The Church has relied on vivid imaginations nurtured by a continuous recollection of prior explorations in art, architecture and music, bound to the will of the Chief Architect, the Holy Ghost, so that contemporary expressions may become part of the language of worship, to infuse the imagination with authentic desire for holiness and to lead souls to God. We live in times, however, when cheap imitations abound, and Catholics are all too happy, it seems, to endorse the plastic and trivial. Church officials frequently choose architects who design feeble structures - condominiums, houses, churches - that rot and crumble after a couple of decades. How is that effective stewardship? Liturgical musicians - not all, mind you, but most - compose unsingable trite ditties that eat at the ear and fill spiritual veins with sonic cholesterol.

CCC1180 When the exercise of religious liberty is not thwarted, Christians construct buildings for divine worship. These visible churches are not simply gathering places but signify and make visible the Church living in this place, the dwelling of God with men reconciled and united in Christ.

CCC1181 A church, "a house of prayer in which the Eucharist is celebrated and reserved, where the faithful assemble, and where is worshipped the presence of the Son of God our Savior, offered for us on the sacrificial altar for the help and consolation of the faithful - this house ought to be in good taste and a worthy place for prayer and sacred ceremonial." In this "house of God" the truth and the harmony of the signs that make it up should show Christ to be present and active in this place.

https://www.sacredarchitecture.org/articles/environment_and_art_in_catholic_worship_a_critique

Modern churches, buildings that is, born of mediocre imaginations and fashioned using cardboard construction techniques, barely last a few decades instead of centuries like their noble predecessors. Is it any wonder that Catholics, especially those of the northern hemisphere, given the conditioning they experience in their liturgical surroundings, are more inclined to restrict themselves to their comfortable, cafeteria ways? Risk and resilience, essential attributes of the character of the saints, are reduced to safety and security.

We Catholics of the Personal Ordinariates established by the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus are blessed with a disposition toward things beautiful and good and true. We recognize that the heart tends to follow the imagination into the realm of the holy made visible. Thus, we surround ourselves with elements that command the imagination to be disposed to God in and through those gifts which He inspires and presents to us for our edification. Catholics are called to be good stewards of the resources given us, to employ skill graced by God and to invest our time in enterprises that point souls to God. As the saying goes - the Church proposes; God disposes. Our propositions must necessarily reflect the courage of the investor with ten talents (St Matthew 25:14-30). Burying our treasure yields no fruit.