Msgr Moroney's Blog: Heaven on Earth: Fra Angelico at the Gardner Museum

04 April 2018

Heaven on Earth: Fra Angelico at the Gardner Museum

There is a wonderful exhibit of four reliquaries (painted for use in the sacristy of Santa Maria Novella in Florence) at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on the Fenway.

I encourage you to see these reliquaries and to reflect on the mysteries of the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary which they depict in such stunning detail.

Here are a few of my random reflections on the four reliquaries, their liturgical and devotional use and how the other pieces in the exhibit help us to understand these unparalleled works of art!

Monsignor James P. Moroney, a priest of the Diocese of Worcester for forty four years, is Pastor of Saint Cecilia Parish in Leominster. He served for many years as Executive Director of the USCCB Secretariat for Divine Worship in Washington D.C., as Rector of Saint John's Seminary in Boston, and as Pastor of Mary Queen of the Rosary Parish in Spencer and as Rector of Saint Paul's Cathedral in Worcester. Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict both appointed him as a Consultor to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome and as Executive Director of the Vox Clara Committee. He is author of THE MASS EXPLAINED (Catholic Book Publishing) which is being published in its third edition this Spring.