“I have sometimes dreamt, at least,that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards – their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble- the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy in seeing us coming with our books under our arms,’Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading.'”
~Virginia Wolf

This quote made its way into the morning’s newspaper in the upper right hand corner of the editorial pages. I grinned as I read it. Thinking of the feisty, driven spirit of Virginia Wolf, these words have many layers, as most statements do. She seems to be getting some jabs in at the ruling class and at the ‘Almighty’ all at the same time. But her deep love of words and books lifts their art to heavenly status. It warmed my heart.

I was particularly taken with it because I spent Friday morning at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. This jewel of a place is dedicated to the creation of beautiful books, handmade paper and the book as art form. There are large books and miniature books. There are flip books and pop-up books, comic books and hand-sewn books. You can see the amazing, painstaking process of a book’s birth. In the books that are on display, the words are important. But equally so is the way in which the book itself is put together. Seeing the unique and beautiful creations is truly inspiring.

Since Friday I have had several moments in which I have thought about the creators of those lovely books. What does it feel like to have such a call put on your life? For that, I believe, is what it is…..a calling. In a world in which more and more of our communication is electronic,black and white and unadorned, it might seem as if such an art would be on its way to being obsolete. But somehow I do not think this is the case. Something is still moving within these artists. They are still feeling a pull that cannot be denied. This fact gives me such hope.

This morning I was reading about the times within the early Celtic church in which there was much movement by Rome to dominate and change the ways in which Christianity would express itself in the remote islands of Britain. There was a push by the well structured church in Rome to deny the Celts their ties to an understanding of the movement of God in the goodness of all Creation. Out of resistance to these forces that would dominate a culture, that would make everything uniform and black and white, the beautiful illuminated manuscripts of The Book of Kells and the Sacred Texts of Lindisfarne were born. It seems there will always be among us those who must create the inspired words and the equally inspired art that accompanies them.

It is a gray day in Minnesota. Winter has us in its clutches. But someplace in our city, a person sits hunched over a work table. They are folding colorful papers and using ink in the ways of the ancients. As they dip their brushes and pens into wells of brilliant reds and deep golds, they are answering the pull that unites them with monks and abbesses from long gone monasteries. Though words may fly off computer screens at dizzying speeds, these faithful ones are methodically and perhaps prayerfully creating. Page by page. Book by book. Building a stairway to paradise.