Normally on the blog I highlight online content for the Culture section, which might otherwise escape the view of the print audience, but today I wanted to call your attention to a terrific piece now on our site, and which will appear in this week's issue: Fr. Robert Lauder's interview with Liv Ullmann, the Norwegian actress, author and director. You may have read other profiles of the fabulous Ms. Ullmann before; I doubt you've read one in which she talks so openly about her faith. A sample:
Would you say that your own experience of God is tied up with your creativity as an actress, author and director?
Yes, in my work I have found God. It is a help that I am an artist because it is all so real—because God is bigger in life and in death than I would have ever been aware of. Doing art, reading other people, connecting to the audience, I know that we live in a higher dimension, and not just at the best of moments. Absolutely.
Has being a goodwill ambassador for Unicef and visiting developing countries for the International Rescue Committee made you a more spiritual person?
When I met people who had nothing, but who still had more to give me than I could give them, then I felt that the human being is so much greater than we realize. They were adequate; I was inadequate. As I was giving, I learned what it meant to give, and I learned how to receive too. I felt serenity with God when I stopped asking God for things I needed or that my fear would go away. It was only when I said, “Thy will happen,” that I felt peaceful, because there is a higher power, and his will will happen. And I always know that his will is for the best.
Fr. Lauder has rapidly become one of our "go-to" writers when it comes to Culture. Read the rest of his interview with Liv Ullmann here.
