I expect the Christmas catalogues are falling through your letter box like snow just at this moment. Turn to any of them that feature interior decoration and you will no doubt find the designs of William Morris, an artist, poet, novelist, and interior designer who inspired the ‘Arts and Crafts movement’ and still decorates our homes today. He was a man consumed with a vision of beauty and social well-being that he explored in poetry, painting, interior design, typology, and radical politics.

A saint is ‘A man, a woman, or a child of the eight Beatitudes’. So said Pope John Paul 11, If so, a saint is someone who has an all-consuming vision that drives whatever it is they do be it at work or at home, at prayer, or in politics. Every dimension and every aspect of their life will reflect the vision that first inspired them to pick up a paintbrush, write a poem or weave a tapestry.

You may be surprised at my choice of saintly occupations. William Morris was not a man who we might conventionally call a saint, but a man consumed with a vision of beauty and social well-being that he explored in his poetry, painting, interior design, and radical politics.

His vision was not of a world to come, but a world in an imaginary medieval past where there was community, craftsmanship, and a courtly code that dictated relationships between rich and poor, men and women, employer and employed. This was the world that Morris attempted to establish in his workshops and wrote about in his poems and novels. Morris preached in the streets and in his old Oxford college, from the soapbox to society lectures he proclaimed his faith in this vision of idealised medieval England.

Today William Morris is remembered for his glorious designs for wallpaper, tapestries, typefaces, fabrics, furniture, and stained glass windows. His company, Morris & co covered every decorative art form and profoundly influenced interior decoration throughout the Victorian period. He was the archetypal medieval artist craftsman setting out to master his craft before any new project so that he could instruct the apprentices personally.

We may want, or may not want to call William Morris a secular saint. He certainly would not welcome the idea, but in pursuit of his vision, he embraced a whole world of art and architecture and left a legacy of great design and decoration that is still with us today. In this sense, he is a saint, in that he is driven by a vision of beauty that expresses itself in a multitude of art forms. In the same way, the saints, whose vision is of Christ, express and live out their lives in pursuit of expressing his beauty.

‘ Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,

Be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;

Be thou my best thought in the day and the night,

Both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.’

A couple of examples of saints who lived out their lives and expressed their faith in different ways illustrate the different ways we can express our vision of Christ’s beauty. One of my favourites is Saint Don Bosco, the patron saint of conjurors, who taught by love and magic. After Mass in his village church, Don Bosco would gather the children of the poor around him and tell them Bible stories, illustrating them by juggling and sleight of hand. St. Don Bosco is important because he shows us that a vision of holiness, can still be expressed without wearing a hair shirt. A saint is someone who makes goodness attractive.

The Anglican tradition, following St Paul, who addresses his congregation as saints, encourages us to pursue the same vision of holiness. Some of these saints are famous, even if we know next to nothing about them, but the vast majority of the saints remain unsung. In a society that fawns on celebrities, in which merely to be known matters much more than being known for anything, in particular, it is important that we give thanks for those hidden and forgotten saints. The saints who sustain our local communities and churches. This includes all of us in whatever way we choose to serve God, inspired by a vision of service as we see it Christ Jesus.

Saints come to mind as we read the Beatitudes and the beatitudes come to mind as we think of the saints. Pier Giorgio Frassati was a wealthy young man from Turin who was dedicated to social action on behalf of the poor and marginalised. He was often heard to say, ‘charity is not enough; we need social reform’. He died of polio at the age of 24. The story of his life and death influenced the young Karol Wojtyla, who as Pope John Paul 11, described Frassati as ‘A man of the eight beatitudes'.

All the Beatitudes are contained in each one of them and each of them embraces the rest. Soren Kierkegaard’s exposition of the sixth Beatitude, Purity of Heart is to will one thing, is a commentary on them all. The saints – though this is not to explain them – are those who ‘will one thing’, who are undivided in their intentions. This single-minded quest in pursuit of a vision of beauty is no easier for monks and nuns than for those of us ‘in the world’. It’s hard to ‘will one thing’ when you are struggling, or ill or even alone you’re your thoughts, but the lives of those who even in the struggles of life and indeed often through the struggles remind us that in pursuit of a vision of beauty we make goodness attractive.

Rev. Simon Brignall

We continue in prayer for healing:

At every moment of our existence, You are present to us, God, in gentle compassion. Help us to be present to one another so that our presence may be a strength that heals the wounds of time and gives hope that is for all persons through you God.

We pray for all who have undergone a stroke, or cancer (especially for those who have recently been diagnosed and are struggling with this heavy load) and all those we know and love in our communities that are in need of general health being restored.

We thank you for the recovery of so many and into God's loving hands in faith we bring for God's continued healing:

“The power of our prayer is not in our praying but in the One to whom we pray. God is the perfect Father who loves to give good things. Prayer is a precious privilege.”

I heard the voice of Jesus say,

‘I am this dark world’s light.

look unto me, thy morn shall rise,

and all thy day be bright:’

I looked to Jesus, and I found

in him my star, my sun;

and in that light of life I’ll walk

‘till travelling days are done.

Words Horatius Bonar (1808–89)

Rev Simon Brignall

I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.