Experience of Love, Truth & Beauty

This is an intervention given at the Plenary by Fr Tony Percy, Vicar General Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

Over the last 30 to 40 years, there has been an enormous amount of research into what makes for renewal in Christian, not just Catholic, communities.

Three things are always highlighted:

Good Community
Good Teaching and Preaching
Good Music.

In other words:

An experience of love
An experience of truth
An experience of beauty.

A questioned is aroused:

In our parishes, schools, religious and lay communities, educational, health and social service agencies, how can we help facilitate these experiences from womb to tomb?

This is a paradigm that is clear, yet not prescriptive, allowing each community to offer a response, given their historical and cultural background.

We have moved from a deductive era, to an inductive era, where experience is essential. To quote St. John of the Cross:

The language of God is the experience God writes into our lives.

Offering people an experience of the love, truth and beauty of Christ is desirable.

With the grace and gift of the Holy Spirit, it is not beyond our reach.