Scriptures for Visio Divina with The Kerygma Series

This Triduum, prayerfully contemplate Christ’s Paschal Mystery with the Kerygma Series. I’ve listed some recommended Scriptures to dwell on during your meditation. Here is a short how-to on Viso Divina from Behold Visio Divina. Theirs is geared for women, but the format remains the same for anyone.

“Our Very Nature”

Scripture:

All like sheep had gone astray, all following their own way. Isaiah 53:6

At the sight of the crowds, [Jesus’s] heart was moved for pity for them, because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:36

“Redeemed”

Scripture:

Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. John 1:29

[H]e emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance. Philippians 2:7

“The Intimacy”

Scripture:

Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Revelation 19:9

Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. Matthew 20:20

Have a blessed Triduum, everyone.

Introducing the Kerygma Series

I ask you to consider all of the philosophical realities that I’ve explored in these articles through the lens of the sheep and shepherd relationship. Psalm 23 says “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” John the Baptist sees Jesus in John 1 and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” In John 10, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.”  And, last one for now, St. John the Beloved heard an angel tell him in Revelation, “Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” 

Sheep are mentioned more than 500 times in the Bible and are THE most referenced animal in the Bible. This was a language everyone understood, because wool was a major fiber for creating most, if not all, of the fabrics in their civilization, but today, we are so removed from the creation of fabric that this language is almost lost on us.

Shepherds have an intimate relationship with their sheep. They share their life with their sheep. So much so, that a shepherd can recognize individual sheep based solely on their fleece, which is a sheep’s entire wool coat. Sheep are shorn - their entire wool fleece is cut off their body - at least once a year, usually in the springtime, to relieve them of their heavy and hot wool and to provide us with material for fabric. After the sheep is shorn, the shearer will lay the fleece out on the skirting table for the first step in fiber processing. This is where a shepherd could see the fleece and recognize, oh this is the sheep who loves to rub his back on the tree in the yard, or ooh this is the sheep who loves to snack on berries every morning for breakfast. Jesus’s words, “I know mine and mine know me,” come to mind. 

Plus, wool is antimicrobial, fire retardant, mold resistant, wards off wear and tear, holds heat in and keeps heat out, and is an excellent insulator and natural humidifier. Honestly, wool is a miracle in itself.

The fleece is the sheep’s offering to the shepherd. It is created merely by its nature as a sheep. It’s freely given by the sheep and freely accepted by the shepherd. It is good for the sheep to give its fleece. So, what does it mean that the Shepherd became one of the sheep?

This is the Kerygma Series. Kerygma means “proclamation” in Greek and is a shorthand way of saying the proclamation of the gospel. This is the gospel, where the Shepherd became the sheep and laid it all out on the skirting table. This is “Our Very Nature,” and “Redeemed,” and the finale, “The Intimacy.” 

Each of them have domes that I crocheted, stitched together, filled with wool fiber, and stitched to a cotton fabric base. They are designed to resemble a sheep’s fleece after shearing, when it’s laid on the skirting table. In all of my stitching, I use quilting techniques. If you’ll see, “Our Very Nature” is crocheted with a variety of colors of naturally-toned wool yarn. “Redeemed” uses a variety of wool yarn types, but are all natural white-tones. “The Intimacy” has a variety of the same wool yarn from “Redeemed,” but with gold within every crochet stitch. The gold yarn is Kevlar! Kevlar is the fiber used in armor and bulletproof vests.  

I have loved creating these artworks. I hope you enjoy them as well! If you have any questions or would like more information about acquiring this series, email me at hifriend@ernieandirene.com.

Sheep

Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared some major concepts that significantly changed my perspective. I was so relieved when I discovered that I could participate in Christ’s sacrifice, because this realization gave dignity and worth to labor and the body. If you haven’t guessed yet, I became Catholic because of these revelations. Then, a few years after my conversion, I discovered John Paul II’s Theology of the Body - a series of 129 lectures between 1979 and 1984 that discuss the integration of the human person as embodied souls - which perfectly affirmed and deepened what I had discovered in my spiritual life and in my textile work. JPII gave a rich language to define human relationships in a way I’d never heard before. It’s like Rob Bell’s Sex God was a rain puddle and JPII’s Theology of the Body is the ocean.

All the while, my fiber artworks were exploring, developing, and solidifying these same concepts in an expression without words. Not only was I experiencing firsthand the dignity of my handiwork while creating artwork, but my artworks themselves were speaking to the sacramental worldview and theology of the body. My artwork relates to these philosophies through the sheep, the relationship between the sheep and their shepherd, and the work of the sheep.

Working with sheep’s wool for the first time was a revelation. The sheer breadth of applications for sheep’s wool is incredible and every new facet of wool that I’ve discovered has deepened my understanding of the many sheep references in the Bible. Here are just a few of my favorite verses that mention sheep and shepherd:

The Lord is my shepherd;

there is nothing I lack.

In green pastures he makes me lie down;

to still waters he leads me;

he restores my soul.

He guides me along right paths

for the sake of his name.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

your rod and your staff comfort me.

You set a table before me

in front of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Indeed, goodness and mercy will pursue me

all the days of my life;

I will dwell in the house of the Lord

for endless days.

Psalm 23

We had all gone astray like sheep,

all following our own way…

Isaiah 53:6a

I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.

This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me,

just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.”

John 10:11-15

What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray?

And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.

Matthew 18:13-14

Clearly, there’s something significant about sheep that the Lord wants to share with us. Once again, God is using a tangible, real experience within our humanity to show us His love in that top-down perspective I discussed last week. However, in this day and age, the vast majority of us are pretty far removed from a shepherding lifestyle or the creation of woolen textiles.

Sheep are not ordinary animals. When I learned how to felt - the process of creating fabric by agitating wool fiber under warm water and soap - I became enraptured by sheep’s wool and its seemingly miraculous abilities. During the felting process, wool fibers bond together on a microscopic level to create a single piece of unwoven, strong fabric. It is said that the process came about as shepherds would pull tufts of wool off their sheep and stuff them into their shoes for comfort.

Domesticating sheep around 5000 BC and using their wool for textiles was a substantial turning point in human history, most especially because wool can accept dyes, whereas the plant fibers that societies had been using until then could not as easily. Fabric makers, predominantly women in most societies, were able to decorate their fabrics like never before thanks to natural dyes. Wool is also much more comfortable and versatile than plant fibers. Wool is naturally antimicrobial, antifungal, humidifying, water-wicking, durable, and can keep wearers warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It’s no wonder brands like Smartwool, Allbirds, and Woolrich have had such great success. Not to mention societies like the Mongolian nomadic tribes who have been building wool felt yurts for thousands of years.

Needless to say, sheep wool is really cool. Here is this week’s homework and extra credit:

Homework: Listen to this talk series on the Theology of the Body from Christendom College - Episode 1, 2, and 3

Extra Credit: if you have the Hallow app, listen to the bedtime story, Lost and Found

The Good Shepherd, fresco, Priscilla catacombs,, circa 250-350 AD

Participation

Last week I left you with the concept that all of our human experience glows with the light of Christ’s sacrifice. But why? And how?

My husband, Daniel, can create analogies like nobody’s business. Honestly, it’s such a gift. He and I were deep in conversation about salvation years ago when he came up with an analogy that has forever changed the way I know salvation. For most of my Christian life, I’d thought of the Cross much like the Hunger Games (psst! spoilers ahead). In this analogy, humanity is Prim and we’re all headed to death - in this case, death by Hunger Games - thanks to Adam & Eve’s first sin (cf Romans 5:12) and then boom! Katniss (Jesus) goes in Prim’s place and Prim is saved. All of which is, of course, absolutely wonderful because Prim is saved. However, Daniel put salvation better in this way: Instead of merely stepping in, salvation is more like Katniss going in Prim’s place, but then carrying Prim piggyback through the entire Hunger Games (cf Romans 5:10) and Prim gets to be a part of the same victory in the end as Katniss (cf Romans 8:17).

Along the same vein, I recently watched Fly Away Home (more spoilers ahead!) and thought it had similar symbolism. Amy didn’t just teach her geese to fly, but she became one with them in her plane and flew with them on the journey, because they couldn’t do it themselves.

Like in last week’s article, this changes everything. When I realized we can participate in the same Cross and victory as Christ, it opened up a new perspective that really rocked my world. Saint Paul writes of this participation theology often throughout his letters, anytime he says “in Him,” “through Him,” or “with Him.” I love the prepositions here, because they express a very real intimacy that Christ has with us throughout our life.

“Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.
For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.”

Romans 6:3-5

When we miscarried our baby Ren in 2017, a line from the Anima Christi prayer consoled me through the grief, “In Your wounds, hide me.” Time and time again, I came back to an image of me, curled up, resting inside of Christ’s wound in His side. The pain and grief I felt was so great, but the suffering brought me so much closer to Jesus, because He has united our sufferings to His (cf. Colossians 1:24). The intimacy of being “in Him” in this extraordinary circumstance is the same as in our ordinary moments as well.

Until this point, I’d been looking at our human experience in a bottom-up outlook, i.e. families have fathers and God is like a father, but actually, life is a top-down reality, i.e. fathers are put into families to be like God the Father. Or, put another way, we don’t have marriage because God is like marriage, but really, marriage is given to us so that we can be like God in our marriages.

This is how our whole being glows with the light of Jesus’s saving power. The answer to the question of why is a good one. It’s because He loves us. All of life is a revelation of God’s love to us and an invitation to be closer to Him. Not just our souls, but our bodies, too. This is what I felt under my hands as I worked in textile processes for the first time. I was becoming one with Jesus.

Next week, I’ll get into how any of this relates to my artwork. I’ve been itching to share this with you all and I can’t wait! For now, some homework and extra credit to help you think and pray about these ideas.

Homework: Listen to “What Does the Holy Spirit Actually Do? (Superhero Analogy) by Father Mike Schmitz (youtube link here) - this is our 4 year old’s favorite podcast episode that we listen to almost every day on the way to school

Extra Credit: Listen to “Used to This” by Maverick City Music

detail of Caravaggio’s The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, 1603