Beauty creates a longing for transcendent realities. As poet Dana Gioia wrote in the essay quoted in this post of mine at Dappled Things Deep Down things blog, "art is mysterious. It reaches us in ways we don’t fully understand.”

This ability of sacred art to call our hearts and prepare our minds to receive truth is something we need to bring into the discussion as the Church ponders how to help the appallingly large number of Catholics who either were never taught or never believed or lost belief—for whatever reason—in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.