Each time I re-read the Holy Father’s message to Catholic artists which he delivered in Rome last May I experience the excitement that I felt the first time I read it. I am wondering if readers of this column share my views about the importance of art in our lives and also whether they think of art in relation to their faith in the way that Pope Francis relates art to religious faith. 

For the past few weeks I have been thinking about the wonderful talk that Pope Francis gave to Catholic artists last May in Rome. I keep returning to it, and each time I re-read it I feel renewed. 

In his wonderful talk to artists at a special conference in Rome last May, Pope Francis said the following: “Artists are those who with their eyes both see and dream. They see in greater depth, they prophesy, they show us a different way of seeing and understanding what is before our eyes. 

There was an important meeting last May in Rome at which Pope Francis gave a marvelous talk on art. How I wish I had been there. There are several ideas in the Holy Father’s talk that I find both beautiful and exciting. 

I have just finished a book by Jon Hassler, who is one of my favorite novelists. I have referred to his novels in the course on the Catholic novel that I give at St. John’s University and also in the series of 50 lectures that I did on the Catholic novel and that are available on YouTube.

I read Charles Dickens’ novel “A Tale of Two Cities” as part of a requirement in an English course I took in high school. I recall liking the novel very much. Though I do not recall many details of the plot, I do recall that reading the book was an assignment I enjoyed. 

I cannot guess how many hours I have delayed before writing this week’s column. Actually it has been not only a matter of hours but a matter of days. Three or four times I sat down to start the column but gave up rather quickly. 

In last week’s column I tried to explain what I mean by my belief that every person is magnetized by God. The belief has become more important to me in recent years. 

I often have the impression that all the news about the contemporary world is bad. Of course this is not true, and I find that in trying to offset the bad news it is helpful for me to remind myself of some basic truths about the human person that I have learned from philosophy.

I have come to believe that every person has what I call a philosophy of life. By that I mean every person has some view of what being a human person means. For some this philosophy is relatively clear even though they may agree that the meaning involves some mysteries.