Searching from Within

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. The human name of the Incarnate Word becomes in the mouths of the faithful a powerful sacramental, a means of not just recalling but also summoning our Savior and his grace at any moment, in any place, for any reason.

The gentle light hangs in the ephemeral stillness And slips through the fingers in it’s kind and silken embrace

Mary Mediatrix of All Grace by Theophilia

“God the Father gathered…all His grace together and called it Mary… The great God has a treasury or storehouse full of riches in which He has enclosed all that is beautiful, resplendent, rare, and precious, even his own Son. This great treasury is none other than Mary.” ~ St. Louis de Montfort

“There is but one Mediator as we know from the words of the apostle, “for there is one God and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a redemption for all”. (1 Tim. 2:5-6) The maternal duty of Mary toward men in no wise obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows His power. For all the salvific influence of the Blessed Virgin on men originates, not from some inner necessity, but from the divine pleasure. It flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on His mediation, depends entirely on it and draws all its power from it. In no way does it impede, but rather does it foster the immediate union of the faithful with Christ.” - Lumen Gentium 

The same client who commissioned “Amas Me? Sequere Me?” wanted to commission me for another image (slightly larger, in a 11x14 inch size) of the same subject. I did make some minor changes to this second version (I changed the stars in the background, raised Jesus’ arms and changed the figures of Saints Peter and Paul slightly). He wanted to give this painting to his parish as a gift after his priestly ordination. The words “Amas Me? Sequere Me” are Latin for “Do you love Me? Follow Me.” which references the passage from John 21 in which the resurrected Christ tells St. Peter to feed His sheep. The client wanted the central image of Christ to be in a pose similar to that of depictions of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre, with His arms spread out wide in cross-shaped gesture of invitation and love. I added a priestly stole embroidered with the Latin IHS monogram (which stands for “Jesus Savior of Mankind”) since he also wanted this image to depict Christ as the High Priest. The stars in the background and the stained glass window patterns on the border echo some of the motifs from the parish where he’ll be stationed. In the roundels at the corners are Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Thomas More at the top and at the bottom are Saints Peter and Paul. I had a lot of fun with all the gold.

“The martyrdom is beginning. Let us go into the arena together.”