Lenten campaign 2026
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“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful. Beauty is God’s hand-writing — a way-side sacrament; welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank for it Him, the fountain of all loveliness, and drink it in, simply and earnestly, with all your eyes; it is a charmed draught, a cup of blessing." - Charles Kingsley, 1848
Though Kingsley was a Protestant pastor in the 1800s, his quote reflects a line of thought long held in Christianity. The idea that beauty provides a pathway to encounter God goes back to at least the Book of Wisdom, where it exclaims, “For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.”
Expounding on this notion, the 2006 Vatican document titled The Via Pulchritudinis suggests there are three avenues through which beauty can lead one to God; these are the beauty of Christ, the beauty of creation, and the beauty of the arts. It’s this last avenue that is the primary focus of EWTN Studios' new documentary series Seeking Beauty.
At heart, a travelogue
Hosted by actor, writer, and director David Henrie, best known for his longtime role on the Disney series Wizards of Waverly Place, Seeking Beauty is at heart a travelogue, but one with a specific purpose.
By traversing Italy and visiting places where the Church has provided or inspired great works of beauty, be it in the visual arts, architecture, music, or even the cuisine of the places they visit, Henrie and his crew hope to illustrate how such beauty leads the heart toward the divine.
The series begins in the same location in which one of the Church’s largest and most recognized religious orders originated, the Monastery of St. Benedict in Subiaco. What started as a simple cave in which the young monk Benedict withdrew to contemplate his calling has grown over the centuries into a stunning 50-acre complex with multiple churches, chapels, grottoes, and frescoed meditation spaces.
What makes the monastery extremely unique is that it is built into the cliffs of the Simbruinis, with every room having at least one wall carved from the bare rock of the mountains. It is nature and human achievement come together to offer a space to reflect on God. It is beauty as a doorway to conversion.
Subsequent episodes take viewers on journeys to Venice, where faith is reflected in folk art and mosaics; to Milan, where sacred music infuses life with the rhythms of the spirit; and to Rome. where even the preparation of food becomes a thing of beauty which can turn the mind to God.
From experts to locals
At each stop there are interviews with the usual experts one expects to find in a series of this sort, but also talks with local artists and craftspeople for whom their particular pursuits have become an integral part of their spiritual journey -- be it a restorer of paintings in the Vatican or a winemaker in Florence.
The tone of the series is lighthearted and the way it imparts information on its subject matter is conversational rather than professorial, yet the show succeeds in communicating the weightier point it hopes to pass on. True beauty is not just a superficial aesthetic that changes at the whim of the eye of the beholder, but an objective property of being that reflects God's splendor and draws the human heart toward transcendence.
And it is important. As the philosopher Roger Scruton wrote, “Beauty matters. It is not just a subjective thing but a universal need of human beings. If we ignore this need we find ourselves in a spiritual desert.” Seeking Beauty does show us pretty things, but it hopes to help us leave the desert as well.
Seeking Beauty has begun on EWTN+ this week.
