Each Saturday and Tuesday during Lent, the devotion will consist of visual or musical works of art for you to contemplate. There might be a brief quote or statement for you to consider as you view/listen to the material; there may be notes from or about the artist or work. We hope you will find meaning in these pieces during your lenten journey.
There is an ongoing tension in Christian faith between contemplation and activism, being and doing. It is similar to breathing in and breathing out. Both are essential; we can’t live without spiritual formation (breathing in) and Christian mission in the world (breathing out).
Title: Saint Jerome Date: c. 1482
Artist: Bosch, Hieronymus, d. 1516
Location: Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Netherlands
Notes: As one of the best know figures in early church history, Jerome (Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus) lived a long and productive life. He spent many years as a hermit, translating the Bible into Latin, a version called The Vulgate, which served the church for centuries. This painting of him in humble prayer includes symbols of his ministry. The owl (center background), with its hollow tree home, represents Jerome’s wisdom and scholarship. The book represents the Vulgate, and the red hat recalls his position as Cardinal.
| Attribution: | Bosch, Hieronymus, d. 1516. Saint Jerome, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54241 [retrieved March 5, 2014]. Original source: Wikimedia Commons. |