SPRING 2019
...recognizing ...recognizingour ourgifts giftsofoftime, time,talent talent and and treasure
May we allow the Gospel to be
'leaven' for our souls
by James B. Janknegt, Columnist Parishioner, Sacred Heat Parish, Elgin
The painting above called “A Little Leaven,” which I painted in 2008, depicts a woman making bread. She sprinkles the yeast into a large quantity of flour, enough flour to make bread to feed about 100 people. The finished bread becomes the Body of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist that a priest distributes to the faithful.
with the widow. The widow did not withhold the last of her flour and oil from Elijah, but upon Elijah’s blessing, it became an unending supply of bread. I like to interweave Old and New Testament stories in my paintings. As the Catechism states in a quote by St. Augustine: “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old. And the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.”
Along the border of this piece, the people go into the world and share Christ, with the sick, the poor, the prisoner, recalling Jesus’ words in Matthew 25, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
A couple of years ago I published a book of Lenten Meditations that contained 40 of my paintings based on Jesus’ parables. The passage on page two contains a Bible verse, a short meditation and a prayer pertaining to this particular piece of artwork.
Further along the border other Bible stories appear that have to do with the miraculous multiplication bread: Jesus feeding the 5,000, Elijah being fed by a raven, and Elijah sharing bread
DIOCESE OF AUSTIN
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REFLECTIONS | SPRING 2019