Ave Explores Series | Art and Architecture Series

Have you ever wondered why grocery stores are designed like boxes and cathedrals shaped like a cross? How do these spaces influence how we feel, what we learn, and how we behave? This week, our experts examine how church buildings reflect the sacredness and beauty of our faith.

PODCASTS

 

Art Draws Us In with Elizabeth Lev

On the Ave Explores podcast, Elizabeth Lev—an art historian and professor living in Rome—explains how art ultimately invites us to be drawn into its beauty and to contemplation of the divine.

The Soul of the Artist with Christine Valters Paintner

On the Ave Explores podcast, Christine Paintner, online abbess at Abbey of the Arts and a Catholic author living in Galway, Ireland, shares her unique perspective on how art influences her faith.

ARTICLES

 

St. Peter's Bones and the Beauty of the Catholic Faith

Deacon Andrew DeRouen, a seminarian in the Diocese of Lake Charles, writes about his desire to find whether he could design a building with meaning as an architecture student led him deeper into his Catholic faith. He will soon be ordained a priest.

The Church Building as a Sacred Place

Duncan Stroik, architect and professor at the University of Notre Dame, writes about church buildings as sacred places that share three universal themes: transcendence, directionality, and beauty.

Books to Consider

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