When a collection of essays, Neglected Wells: Spirituality And The Arts, came out recently, it was welcomed by Archbishop Desmond Connell. John MacKenna asks, however, if it doesn't take both art and spirituality beyond the reach of ordinary people

By JOHN MACKENNA

As part of my work [for RTE] I attend Masses all over the country, and the thing which regularly disturbs me is the singing by a choir of the "Our Father". This, one of the most eloquent, simple, all-embracing poem-prayers ever composed, was made to be a part of life, not merely liturgy. To remove it from the congregation and put it into the "specialist" realm of the choir is to make a large and mistaken assumption - the assumption that beauty (the beauty of the music and singing) is more important than the soulfulness of the prayer.

But what's most worrying is the way in which this assumption goes unchallenged. And there's the heart of the problem - the assumption and acceptance that art is the preserve of the few. But the art in the "Our Father" is not in the musical setting, it's in the universality of the words - the hopes and need and trust and beauty. All of these things are within the experience of the people in the pews.

Similarly, my concern in reading Neglected Wells: Spirituality And The Arts edited by Anne M. Murphy and Eoin G. Cassidy, was that the wells were being deepened rather than made more accessible. The introduction warned of this, though warning may not be what was intended: "The concerns of the contributors go beyond those of aesthetics and beyond historical, or empirical analysis of specialist data. Areas of expertise on art, literature, history and music interface with philosophical and theological disciplines

Later in the same preface, the editors write: "The creative artist has always been at the forefront of the search for meaning and significance .. . Through his or her giftedness, the artist becomes the prophet or visionary whose art proclaims and posits meaning."

I wonder whether essays such as these don't, in attempting to examine the role of the artist, overload the search with the need for an answer? That search, the asking of questions, is surely what art is about? Similarly, I have often thought that while religion concerns itself with the answer, spirituality concerns itself with the stumbling search for some kind of question.

Art, to me, tells a story that echoes in the stories of those who experience it. It seems to me that enthusiasm is often missing from the philosophic - an enthusiasm which is present, for instance, in Giraldus Cambrensis, quoted in Michael Maher's essay on "Saints and Scholars".

Cambrensis; writer; painter; composer; Joe or Josephine Bloggs; all have a feel for the thing which echoes their story. They do not necessarily have to philosophise a thing. Experience can be enough. Analysis can destroy.

Una Agnew, in her essay, discusses Spirituality in the work of Patrick Kavanagh". I've often wondered at the element of surprise expressed by critics at Kavanagh's ability to find the Holy Ghost in the corner of a ditch, or the foot of a dyke. John Clare did it. Farm workers, travellers, fishermen do it all the time. They don't express it in the way Kavanagh did, but the awareness of and susceptibility to the spirit are not the preserve of artists - and we should remember that, day in day out.

Anne Murphy discusses "Sounds Sacred: Immanence and Transcendence in Music" in her essay. She quotes Leibnitz: "Music is a secret arithmetic of the soul, unknowing of the fact" that it is counting." And yet this book sets out, it seems to me to count that very unknowing.

For some reason, Eileen Kane and Gesa Thiessen's essays on the visual arts seem less analytic and so, more challenging. As Thiessen writes: "Precisely because of the lack of dogmatic certainties in modern art, because interpretations must remain open rather than definite.. they can truly enrich, challenge and broaden contemporary theology."

To quote from Leonard Cohen, who might have been quoting Kavanagh: "There is a crack in everything/ That's how the light gets in.

Sometimes, philosophers and critics push and push the crack until it gets too wide and sometimes they stuff the crack with theory, locking themselves inside, mistakenly believing the rest of us have a lesser appreciation of the spiritual. Not so - simply a different one, but every bit as valid and exciting.