Sculptures that Enhance Your Experience at Mass

Derek Rotty

Before every Mass, it is appropriate, even necessary, for me to spend time preparing to approach God. In these moments, I need to examine the state of my soul in relation to the Divine. During every Mass, there are several opportunities for me to ponder the ways the Lord is moving close to me, beckoning me closer to Him, and asking me to make room for the grace He desires to give. While examining my soul and preparing for the movements of grace, art can be a powerful tool that opens up deeper and richer encounters with the Lord.

Two memorable statues serve as iconic examples of this phenomenon because they invite me to consider the state of my soul as I approach the throne of grace and make my offering to the Almighty. The first is Winter, by Jean Antoine Houdon, which resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This sculpture depicts a young woman with a thin shawl draped over her shoulders, contracting her body tightly to hold onto the last vestiges of warmth. This is a spiritual posture that I sometimes, even often, bring to the worship of God in the Mass: I feel cold and distant; I have very little capacity to hold in the warmth that is there. And yet, God invites me, beckons me. He is ready still to meet me there, despite my huddled and shivering spirit.

Steve Auth, a Catholic author known for his reflections on art, uses this statue to put a visual image on the secular culture that surrounds us. The culture is often cold and ruthless, forgetting the basic human need for love and warmth. Economic “security” or popular entertainment provide a very thin shawl against physical deterioration, psychological discouragement, and spiritual despair. When we feel as though we live in this spiritual winter, we need to find sources of light and warmth and love that fill our spirits. We need a way to “come in out of the cold,” Auth says. “In a culture increasingly devoid of faith, the Mass is our cure, our nourishment, our lifeline to the Divine.”

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