my whole being was
irradiated by a kind
of heavenly joy
I lived in solitude, surrounded by books on the history of religion, which have always been my favourite reading.
This may help to account for a curious episode that took place on one of my stays in the villino. I had a religious experience.
It took place in the Church of San Lorenzo, but did not seem to be connected with the harmonious beauty of the architecture.
I can only say that for a few minutes my whole being was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy, far more intense than anything I had known before.
This state of mind lasted for several months, and, wonderful though it was, it posed an awkward problem in terms of action.
My life was far from blameless: I would have to reform.
My family would think I was going mad, and perhaps after all, it was a delusion, for I was in every way unworthy of receiving such a flood of grace.
Gradually the effect wore off, and I made no effort to retain it.
I think I was right; I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course.
But that I had “felt the finger of God’ I am quite sure, and, although the memory of this experience has faded, it still helps me to understand the joys of the saints.
Kenneth Clark in (The Other Half: A Self Portrait).
I actually came across the quote in opinion piece, The Shock of Faith: It’s Nothing Like I Thought It Would Be by David Brooks (Dec. 19, 2024 – New York Times)
Mr. Brooks writes: When faith finally tiptoed into my life it didn’t come through information or persuasion but, at least at first, through numinous experiences. These are the scattered moments of awe and wonder that wash over most of us unexpectedly from time to time. Looking back over the decades, I remember rare transcendent moments at the foot of a mountain in New England at dawn, at Chartres Cathedral in France, looking at images of the distant universe or of a baby in the womb. In those moments, you have a sense that you are in the presence of something overwhelming, mysterious. Time is suspended or at least blurs. One is enveloped by an enormous bliss.
The art historian Kenneth Clark, who was not religious, had one of these experiences at an Italian church: “I can only say that for a few minutes my whole being was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy, far more intense than anything I had known before.”
I liked the quote so much I had to track it down in the original.
Maybe I have too many of these moments, listening to music or walking on the beach on along the road and I see things or hear things that are too much to be man made.
Maybe I go looking for them.
I walk the beach and think of God saying, ‘Just showing off.’
I think of another Kenneth Clark quote that went along the lines of, “… Man leaves his record in his words, his music and his art. Only the art doesn’t lie.”
No Haiku For You 