2025 EXHIBIT
A Life Rich with Music
Fr. Giussani, a Man Wounded by the Desire for Beauty
“Fr. Giussani grew up in a poor home [...] as far as bread was concerned but rich with music, and thus from the start he was touched, or rather, wounded, by the desire for beauty.” (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Homily at Fr. Giussani’s funeral)
“In music, in the panorama of nature, in dreams at night (as Leopardi himself wrote in his Canto Notturno...) it is to something else that man pays homage, from which he expects something: he awaits it. His enthusiasm is for something that music, or everything that is beautiful in the world, has awakened within him. When a person begins to feel this, his soul immediately harks to await the other thing: even in the presence of what he can grasp, he awaits another thing. He grasps what he can grasp, but he awaits another thing.” (The Life of Luigi Giussani, p. 991)
Fr. Luigi Giussani viewed music not just as an aesthetic experience but as a pathway to encounter the infinite, a means to touch the deepest desires of the human heart. This exhibit will expose visitors to recordings and live music guided by Fr. Giussani’s reflections on how music awakens our longing for beauty and truth, revealing the mystery of life and the divine.
