What is Beauty? Pope Benedict Answers | Mother Natalia 

I wrote a poem a few weeks ago when inspired reading the Bible titled the same as this video! I'll share it with you all. "What is beauty? What is honesty, if not beauty in word, What is principle, if not beauty in thought, What is intimacy, if not beauty in touch, What is love, if not beauty in action, What is God, if not beauty itself?" - Austen Legel (2024)

So happy to see more of Mother Natalia 🙏🏽

"Beauty is something that causes suffering because it causes longing" - a longing for perfect, infinite beauty which can't be fulfilled this side of Heaven. ☘🕊💙

What a wonderful Sunday reflection. God bless Mthr. Natalia.

Wonderful analysis Mother, from the head and the heart.

Read C.S. Lewis' book, `Surprised by Joy'. Early in life he had a moment of infinite desire when he saw his brother's toy garden. He spent his whole life trying to manufacture that same feeling through the beautiful things of this life but failed. Only later did he realize the size of the desire is dependent on the thing desired. An infinite desire therefore could only have been placed into him by the infinite itself

Pints With Aquinas, This video is fantastic! I liked it a lot!

Thank you Mother Natalia!

A beautiful video, beautifully explaining beauty 😊

Speechless ❤

Everytime I start getting on my high horse, thinking I have it all figured out, people like Mthr. Natalia and Fr. Pine knock me down a few pegs. Thank you for this great video!

Thank you Mother. This gave me the gift of tears. This teaching has such depth. My God bless you and May Lord have Mercy.

God Bless Mother Natalia and the whole Pints With Aquinas crew

It is so refreshing hearing feminine wisdom. It makes me emotional. Thank you for the beautiful message

Pray for me, Mother.

another classic mother natlia W

brilliant thanks for sharing

Where can I find the quotes you used from then Cardinal Ratzinger? Thank you for the quote.

Amen. Thank you Mother Natalia, and thank you pope Benedict XVI, may you rest in peace.

Mother Natalia, Pope Benedict XVI had a few thoughts on beauty. They demonstrate his recognition of its importance in the realm of faith, art, and human experience. In his 2009 encyclical letter titled "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in Truth), Pope Benedict XVI discussed the relationship between truth, charity, and beauty. He stated, “To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity, in fact, ‘rejoices in the truth’ (1 Cor 13:6).” Here, the Pope emphasized the connection between truth and beauty as integral aspects of charity. In his address to artists at the Sistine Chapel in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his appreciation for the role of artists in society. He said, “Beauty, whether that of the natural universe or that expressed in art, precisely because it opens up and broadens the horizons of human awareness, pointing us beyond ourselves, bringing us face to face with the abyss of Infinity, can become a path towards the transcendent, towards the ultimate Mystery, towards God.” Pope Benedict XVI also highlighted the transformative power of beauty. In his book “The Spirit of the Liturgy,” published in 2000, he wrote, “The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints the Church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb. Better witness is borne to the Lord by the splendor of holiness and art which have arisen in the community of believers than by clever excuses which apologetics has come up with to justify the dark sides which, sadly, are so frequent in the Church’s human history.”

“When we sin, we’re not sinning because our desire is too great. We are sinning because our desire is too little. We are settling for that which is not going to fulfil us; Because we are so desperate to fulfil that longing now, that we don’t want to wait for what the actual fulfilment is going to be.” Every time I listen to mother Natalia I learn something new and beautiful that makes me a better Christian. Thank you Mother, You are beautiful.

Thanks be to God 😇😇😇💙🙏🏽🦋🌹🌷🌸🌹🌷🌸🦋🙏🏽

God bless you, Mother. Thanks for your insightful reflections, and for opening my eyes to the beauty of the Byzantine Rite. ❤🙏🏾

Thanks much for this video..

This is what I was looking for, I tried reading Balthasar but he seems a little to difficult for me. But that part with the wounding especially, exactly what I needed in my soul. Thank you so much for this! God bless

Beauty for me, is being 12 years old, sitting on a bench with three of my friends after a game of basketball. It's hot and sweating, but happy. Someone manages to come up with 50 cents for a bottle of coca-cola( its 1963). Barry, who bought the drink, gets the first sip, then passes it off to the rest of us. We finish off the bottle and head back to play.

Beautiful Message!!! “We’re not sinning because our desire is too great… we are sinning because our desire is too little… we are settling for that which is not going to fulfill us… we are so desperate to fulfill that longing NOW that we don’t want to wait for what that actual fulfillment will be… we are uncomfortable with desire… we are uncomfortable with longing… the BEAUTIFUL will save us… referring to the Redeeming Beauty of Christ… We must learn to see Him… If we know Him not only in words but if we are struck by the arrow of His paradoxical BEAUTY… then we will truly know Him… and know him not because we have only heard others speak about Him… then we will find the Beauty of TRUTH… of the TRUTH that Redeems… nothing can bring us into close contact other than the BEAUTY of CHRIST Himself… ❤❤❤❤❤

Hello sister ❤

The world cannot block TRITH! Thank you for sharing! God bless!

Oh Mother. I need help with this so much. I have always had an eye for the beautiful and a deep longing for it for as long as I can remember. That ache was always so deep. I also struggle with envy and I think that anyone with an eye for beauty does because we wanr all the beauty for ourselves. To possess it all. We are greedy for it. I have felt before that it would be better to be blind so that I couldn't see this beauty and long for it so much and ache for it so much and not be able to have it. To see a painting that is a reflection of something even more beautiful but not be able to turn around and see the true beauty that it is reflecting. I'm to the point now where I don't like beautiful things because they hurt too much. I'd rather have the mudane because it doesn't hurt. It just is. I don't look of there is something beautiful sometimes and I even sabotage the beauty in my own life because I would rather not experience beauty at all than feel the hurt it brings. I struggle with this so much and it affects my daily life and I don't know what to do.

The "beauty of a sunset." You know, I was expecting "Paradise Lost" by Milton to be much deeper and more poetic than it is in fact. Just by the title.

Benedict XVI, pray for us.

Yes, I watch that stuff. There's a "soothing" dimension to it, due to endorphins. If I filled my time better, I wouldn't. :))

During lent I attended a retreat given by an artist who paints sacred art images. The theme was beauty. I had never heard of the transcendentals. I’ve been pondering the subject. What a Godincidence you are talking about beauty.

Mother natalia, please pray for me. I suffer from porn addiction 🙏

We get one of those from time to time. Though most of them were in fact good. I forgot which one of them said "why do freemasons gather in secret, if what they do is normal?" And then he issued a Papal Bull that is in effect today. :))

No sound?

Philokalia

Pope Benedict, let's see

Whether it is love, friendship, or beauty, we must reclaim these terms from the distortions of the secular world. For it is the secular world that has made love synonymous with lust. It is the secular world that cheapened the word friendship, making it akin to a social media follower. It is the secular world which has sullied beauty to be tantamount to something sexually titillating. Thank you, Mother Natalia, for this impassioned speech, aimed at restoring beauty in the way God has envisioned it.

Is the sound missing?

Mother Natalia is so cool 😎 🤍

A blessed Sunday of the Myrrh Bearers. This echoes the homily said at Liturgy today, by Father Frantisek at St. Barbara the Great (Dayton & Cincinnati). What remarkable Providence working today!

First!

Christ is Risen! AMEN

Benedict XVI rest in peace

Look, I don't dwell into serious meditation about what satan is, what does he feel and why does he do what he's doing. What I deal with is regular people, that kind of enjoy a feeling of "adrenaline buzz" in their stomach once in a while... Yes. I spend my time trying to convince bungee jumpers that what they do is non-sense.

"Lord in Heaven, I thank you for the beauty of a sunset, and Mthr. Natalia does too. Amen"

They all look the same in the grave.

Beauty doesn't matter unless you are talking about the beauty of God's creation. Otherwise it's just ego and pride.

As per The Book of Heaven, in the writings of the servant of God Luisa Picarretta, Jesus talks about a new era of living in the Divine Will. The fulfillment of the Our Father prayer. On earth as it is in heaven.

I wouldn't take beauty advice from any pope, not even Saint Peter...