12 Muslim Artists From Kosovo Give Benedict XVI a Painting

By Antonio Gaspari 

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 21, 2012 (Zenit.org).- At the end of the Holy Father's General Audience on Wednesday, 12 young artists of the Muslim faith from Kosovo, gave Benedict XVI a painting and a message for the Holy Father’s official collaborators.

The painting, titled "Universal Face," was created by Fatos Kabashi. The painting also contained a message to the Pope from the 12 artists saying, "With affection, to his Holiness Benedict XVI."

The 12 Kosovar artists are in Rome as authors of paintings in a collective exhibition of the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The exhibition commemorates the 15th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

In a message sent to the organizers and authors of the exhibition, Michael L. Giffoni, the first Italian ambassador in Kosovo, wrote: "In presenting an exhibition of artists from Kosovo inspired in the extraordinary figure of Blessed Mother Teresa, one cannot but begin with a few, precise, touching and vibrant verses: 'I am like a little pencil in the hands of God, nothing else. It is He who thinks. It is He who writes. The pencil has nothing to do with all this. The pencil must only be able to be used.'"

Enclosed in these few words, Giffoni continued, "is an exemplary life, a model of perfection and absolute dedication at the service of the Lord to help those in need […]"

"Thinking of this teaching and trying to put it into practice […], I'm pleased to think that at a certain point in the painting of one of the authors, entitled 'Flight from Reality,' each one of us can see in the compact blue background a small luminous point: it’s the light of Mother Teresa, her example of life for the Lord and for all of you,” the ambassador concluded.