The Poeisis of the Ordinary Being; a Cosmic Liturgy

Abstract

Marie Noël, a 20th century poetess from Auxerre in the Burgundy region of France, said “The Saint offers sacrifice. The Artist furnishes the victim.” The quest to understand the far-reaching root system of the liturgy inevitably brings us into contact with the artist, and with all the words, colors and heavy stuff of the world that shape the artist’s work. It is the artist who harvests from deep within the human person the wheat, the dew and the lees of the world, to bring them in offering. Whether or not humanity is conscious of this ascensional mission of the liturgy, human beings must remain open above all to what the ministry of the artist reveals about their universal mission. It is in the words of the poet and in the flesh-encrusted canvases that the ascent begins, that the momentum builds, and so makes possible the eminently human activity which is liturgy.