The Art (and Music) of Dying Well

It’s Holy Week for the world’s 2.4 billion Christians. As such, it’s a great time for us to meditate on how sacred music and sacred art accompany us on the road to Calvary to the foot of Christ’s Cross and beyond. The life, Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus have provided rich and provoking subject matter for composers and artists for many hundreds of years, so for this joint Catholic News/Art of Dying Well podcast we’re joined by priest and art afficionado Father Patrick van der Vorst. Where do we start with the ebullient Fr Patrick? Three years a priest, but in a former life he was a head auctioneer, entrepreneur, Belgian TV personality, and an investment-securing Dragons’ Den contestant! He is also the founder of the bewilderingly good Christian.art. On this episode, we cover four main areas. Sacred music and how it serves as a soundtrack to life, death and everything in between, the auction room and mortality – an extraordinary segment that includes the extraordinary valuation of a painting that was found in a convent dining room – beauty, faith and art and how it links to a life beyond this one, and finally what us Catholics call that solemn and holy period – the Sacred Triduum, the incredible drama of Christ’s journey to the Cross, his Passion, death, and Resurrection. ______________ The art and music mentioned on this podcast. Music Stabat Mater Sir James Macmillan St Matthew Passion Johann Sebastian BachArtwork La Pietà Michelangelo St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City Massacre of the Innocents Peter Paul Rubens Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Scenes from the Passion of Christ Hans Memling Galleria Sabauda, Turin The Descent from the Cross Rogier van der Weyden Museo del Prado, Madrid The Stations of the Cross Pray with us – Fourteen ‘Tableaux Vivants’