(Quotes from Pope John Paul II's Letter to Artists)

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Gn 1:31)

THE ARTIST, IMAGE OF GOD THE CREATOR

None can sense more deeply than you artists, ingenious creators of beauty that you are, something of the pathos with which God at the dawn of creation looked upon the work of his hands.

In producing a work, artists express themselves to the point where their work becomes a unique disclosure of their own being, of what they are and of how they are what they are.

 Through his works, the artist speaks to others and communicates with them. The history of art, therefore, is not only a story of works produced but also a story of men and women. Works of art speak of their authors; they enable us to know their inner life, and they reveal the original contribution which artists offer to the history of culture.

There is therefore an ethic, even a "spirituality" of artistic service, which contributes in its way to the life and renewal of a people.

…what they manage to express in their painting, their sculpting, their creating is no more than a glimmer of the splendour which flared for a moment before the eyes of their spirit.

The Church has not ceased to nurture great appreciation for the value of art...Even when they explore the darkest depths of the soul or the most unsettling aspects of evil, artists give voice in a way to the universal desire for redemption.

It is with this in mind that I appeal to you, artists of…the plastic arts and the most recent technologies in the field of communication.  I appeal especially to you, Christian artists…you are invited to use your creative intuition to enter into the heart of the mystery of the Incarnate God and at the same time into the mystery of man.

On the threshold of the Third Millennium, my hope for all of you who are artists is that you will have an especially intense experience of creative inspiration. May the beauty which you pass on to generations still to come be such that it will stir them to wonder!

Faced with the sacredness of life and of the human person, and before the marvels of the universe, wonder is the only appropriate attitude.

…may your art help to affirm that true beauty which, as a glimmer of the Spirit of God, will transfigure matter, opening the human soul to the sense of the eternal.

With my heartfelt good wishes!           From the Vatican, 4 April 1999, Easter Sunday.