Brownsberger on Silence

From the current issue on Silence and Prayer:

William L. Brownsberger, Silence (pdf).

From the article:

Silence is not an empty space to be filled but is full of meaning for him who has ears to hear it. The person draws himself toward silence by collecting himself—his faculty, attentions, and intentions—and yet it is silence itself, with its Word beyond all human significance, that finally draws the person. When the person refrains from the distraction of chatter and the fabrication of (often banal) meaning, it is in the abyss to which he has entrusted himself that he finds himself. This person lives no longer outside himself on the unstable foundation of insignificant meaning but in recollection, with its unitive, luminescent silence.

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About Communio

What is Communio? Here are a few articles explaining the history and mission of the journal.

Hans Urs von Balthasar. Communio: A Programme (pdf) (1972, reprinted 2006) | Communio: International Catholic Review (1992) | The Mission of Communio (1992)

Nicholas J. Healy. Communio: A Theological Journey (pdf) (2006)

James Hitchcock. Why Communio? (1972)

John Paul II. Address to the Group Representing the Journal Communio. (1992) |  Telegram Upon the Death of Hans Urs von Balthasar (pdf)  (1988)

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger – Benedict XVI. Communio: A Program. (1992) |  Homily at the Funeral Liturgy for Hans Urs von Balthasar (pdf)  (1988) |  On the Centenary of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Birth (2005).

John R. Sheets, S.J. Communio and Controversy. (1974)

German Editors. Tenth Anniversary of Communio (1982)

Wendell Berry in Washington, DC

Local Communio editors and readers had the chance to hear Wendell Berry speak on the economy, farming, and his book, The Memory of Old Jack, last week in Arlington, Virginia. We’ve been gratified by the response to Berry’s article in our Money Issue:  “Inverting the Economic Order,” and would like to make his earlier article, Life is a Miracle (pdf, 2000) available here as well.

Here is a link to the Arlington County website, where you can read about the evening’s activities and watch the video of the discussion.

The Communio World

A quick look at news from some of the other Communio editions.  The Italian edition is preparing to host the May 2010 international editorial meeting in Venice, including a daylong seminar on the new series on the Church that you’ll be seeing in our pages next year. The editor of the Portuguese Communio, Henrique Noronha Galvão, has published a book on the thought of Benedict XVI. Also see their recent issue on Paternity and Maternity. At the French Communio, editor Jean-Luc Marion was elected to the Académie Française and delivered there a tribute to Cardinal Lustiger, his predecessor at the Academy. The Belgian-Dutch Communio published an issue on women and are preparing the international theme of “Democracy” for 2011. The German Communio recently published an issue on Natural Law. Read Rémi Brague’s editorial here. German Communio member Holger Zaborowski published  Robert Spaemann’s Philosophy of the Human Person (Oxford, 2010), the first book-length study of Spaemann in English.  The entire archives of Communio Spain are available for download.

Finally, all the editions joined the Polish Communio in sorrow at the death of the Polish edition’s founder and editor, Fr. Lucjan Balter, SAC (1936-2010), who died on February 16. A beautiful tribute to Fr. Balter appears in the current edition of the Polish Communio, which also published an interview with him in 2009.  The American editors are grateful for the memory of a wonderful dinner in conversation with Fr. Balter at the meeting last May in the mountains of Switzerland.

Study Circle Update

The recent Winter, 2009 edition of Communio included our annual newsletter about the previous year’s Study Circle activities. The newsletter can also be found here (pdf). For a list of local groups and contact information, please see our Study Circle page. We’re very grateful to all who participate, and delighted to read of your activities! Thanks to all.  If you’d like to start a new Study Circle, please contact us to let us know if we can help.

William Congdon and Action Painting

The current issue on Silence and Prayer (36, no. 4) features a wonderful article by Rodolfo Balzarotti on the work of the American artist William Congdon (1912-1998). Here is the issue’s editorial on the article:

Rodolfo Balzarotti, in “William Congdon: Action Painting and the Impossible Iconography of the Christian Mystery,” traces the hidden connections between William Congdon, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman. It is surprising to see how each of these three representatives of Abstract Expression was drawn, albeit for different reasons, to “religious” themes. Congdon was able to go further than his colleagues because in his paintings the tension between art and religion is taken up and sustained by the higher union of humanity and divinity in Christ, and thus the mystery of Christ’s “ultimate desolation and his greatest glory.”

Subscribe to Communio to begin with the Winter issue on Silence here.  The previous issue on Money is here.

Related Communio articles:

Rodolfo Balzarotti. Art and Forgiveness (1997)
Massimo Cacciari. The Centrality of the Crucified Christ in the Work of William Congdon (1997)
William Congdon. The Birth of the Image (1997)