Is beauty important in liturgy?

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Is beauty important in liturgy? Should we make a conscious effort to incorportate beauty into our liturgies? Should we care if our liturgies are beautiful or not?
 
Beauty is extremely important. After all, the Mass or Divine Liturgies are indeed Heaven on Earth.
 
Beauty and truth are interchangeable. The liturgy of any rite, when done reverently according to the rubrics, shows the beauty of God’s revelation of Himself to mankind. Anything which detracts from this, be it art, music(ians), egos, or even constrictive time schedules (i.e. Mass must be less than an hour) becomes an obstacle to prayer. External opportunities for beauty, such as architecture, music, and materials necessary for Mass (i.e. vestments, vessels, etc.) should represent the artisan’s greatest effort at glorifying God through the talents He gave him. Hence, pastoral ad-libbing, poorly-written hymns, pottery chalices, and chausibles made from a green bedsheet with cartoon grapes should be absented from the liturgy. In the Eastern Church, for example, a period of fasting and prayer is done before someone writes an icon. Small details do matter, because God filled the world with small details which all point toward His truth. Everything in the liturgy and in the church building should remind one of where they are and to Whom their thoughts should be directed.
 
There can be beauty in simplicity, but no one should think that a paring back of music or of religious art or vestments automatically creates simplicity. Like any other virtue, simplicity and beauty cannot be forced, but they can be properly cultivated when they spring from hearts based in truth.

For instance, a plain brick or stone wall within the sanctuary doesn’t create simplicity and it certainly isn’t of itself beautiful unless it is all that can be built/afforded. But for well-to-do parishes to build what is essentially homages to brick/stone smacks of niggardliness not of simplicity or economy.
 
Della said:
There can be beauty in simplicity, but no one should think that a paring back of music or of religious art or vestments automatically creates simplicity. Like any other virtue, simplicity and beauty cannot be forced, but they can be properly cultivated when they spring from hearts based in truth.

For instance, a plain brick or stone wall within the sanctuary doesn’t create simplicity and it certainly isn’t of itself beautiful unless it is all that can be built/afforded. But for well-to-do parishes to build what is essentially homages to brick/stone smacks of niggardliness not of simplicity or economy.
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Amen to that.

St. Thomas Aquinas, as quoted by James Joyce, comes to mind: " Ad pulchritudinem tria requiruntur: integritas, consonantia, claritas. " “Three things are needed for beauty: Wholeness, harmony and radiance.” All three can be found in simplicity, and truth is implicit in “integritas.”
 
Cavaille-Coll said:
The liturgy of any rite, when done reverently according to the rubrics, shows the beauty of God’s revelation of Himself to mankind. Anything which detracts from this, be it art, music(ians), egos, or even constrictive time schedules (i.e. Mass must be less than an hour) becomes an obstacle to prayer. External opportunities for beauty, such as architecture, music, and materials necessary for Mass (i.e. vestments, vessels, etc.) should represent the artisan’s greatest effort at glorifying God through the talents He gave him. Hence, pastoral ad-libbing, poorly-written hymns, pottery chalices, and chausibles made from a green bedsheet with cartoon grapes should be absented from the liturgy. In the Eastern Church, for example, a period of fasting and prayer is done before someone writes an icon. Small details do matter, because God filled the world with small details which all point toward His truth. Everything in the liturgy and in the church building should remind one of where they are and to Whom their thoughts should be directed.
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Wow, very well worded. These words are beautiful. 👍

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are some things that are universally accepted as beautiful, and other things that are a matter of personal taste. We just dedicated our new church building in my parish. I think it’s beautiful inside, but my wife thinks the colors are horendous. It’s just personal taste.
 
Beauty, Goodness and Truth are the three Transcendentals. They complement each other but are not interchangeable.

Fr Benedict Groeschel, of the Fransiscan Friars of the Renewal, argues that it is part of the spiritual make-up of people that they have a primary attraction or aptitude for one of the transcendentals, and that the role of a spiritual director is to lead individual souls to a deeper appreciation of the others.

Beauty is a a divine gift, as is goodness and truth. All three are corrupted and devalued in a society that turns further and further away from God.
 
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