“Receiving the Beauty” – Sursum Corda News April 2023
Dear Sursum Corda Mamas–
It was so good to see so many of you this morning! Sitting in the sunshine, surrounded by flowers and warm faces, talking about education and ideas, and eating delicious food–it was a perfect celebration of who we are as Sursum Corda! Several of you asked for the full transcript of my talk, so I will get that cleaned up and available soon, but in the meantime here is the beginning.
—
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
Psalm 90:17 (KJV)
This is the end of Psalm 90, the “Prayer of Moses the man of God.” It’s a Psalm that zooms way out to look at time: “…before the mountains were formed…from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God…” It pictures our whole lives as grass that grows and then dies, and asks God to “teach us to number our days.”So this psalm seems appropriate today, when we are stepping back from the work for a moment to look at the whole span of our homeschooling journeys and talk about “Toddler to Teen.” That final verse, verse 17, is used in a little noontime prayer service I know, and it seems right for a pause in the middle of the work. It ends by asking God to establish the work of our hands–to make our work lasting, make it worth something. I think that is our prayer, when we stop to consider the scope of our work in homeschooling. But notice what comes before the work of our hands. “Let the Beauty of the LORD our God be upon us.” Receiving the beauty of the Lord comes first. And that’s the theme of my whole talk today: receiving the beauty of the Lord comes first, before all other work, for toddlers, for teens, and for mamas.
Beauty is one of the words I hear most often, when people talk about what is special about Sursum Corda. From the moment our visitors last year saw the Family Book, they were aware that this community is unusual in valuing beauty. From the moment we start our Opening Gatherings, we are all reminded once again that we take time for beauty. We stop, we look or listen closely, we expect to enjoy and to be drawn into praise of God. Our vision statement begins “to cultivate the pursuit of wonder that awakens our souls to God.”
Why? Why do we care so much about this receiving stance that takes in beauty and wonder? We do enjoy it, of course. Is this just one more option for pleasure, in a world full of options for pleasure? Is it just that we happen to be the kind of people who enjoy that kind of thing? No. This is key to what we think education is. This observing, receiving, and enjoying what is good is woven all through Charlotte Mason philosophy. Mason insists on students knowing the best of good books, and historical characters, and great art of all kinds…before they analyze it or use it in any way. And of course this element in education goes back far beyond Charlotte Mason, and is to be seen again and again in the Classical tradition.
—
I wish you all a deeply restful Spring Break, and a Blessed Easter!
With love,
Heather (for the Board)
