CMP Review 2026-05-17

Charlotte Mason wrote, “The main object of the Gospels is to hold up for our regard a presentation of the image of Christ, therein we may see him as he walked among men, as he looked upon men, as he spake, as he worked, as he died.”

There are other reasons we could go to the Gospels. We could look for proof-texts and doctrines. We could try to “find words of comfort and admonition for ourselves.” But Mason says that the better way is “to perceive with our minds and receive upon our hearts the impress of Christ.”

Jesus Himself said something like this when he called out, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” And what is life? “That they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

As we meditate on the Gospels, something wondrous happens. “Just as, from the apparently casual touches of the painter,” wrote Charlotte Mason, “the living likeness grows, so, by laying upon the canvas of our hearts every apparently casual and insignificant detail about our Master, we shall by degrees gather a living vision of the Son of Man.”

Mason wrote six volumes of poetry for the express purpose of helping people to cultivate this living vision of Christ Himself. In today’s poem she reflects on His glory. Open the canvas of your heart and read or listen here.

@artmiddlekauff

🖼️: Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine by Correggio