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

Flesh

As I ended last week, I just knew there was something special about marriage. In hindsight, I can see one of the reasons was because marriage is the clearest example of the integration of our bodies and souls. Marriage becomes marriage when love becomes a physical reality. I began to see that the connection between the body and soul permeated my understanding of all human existence.

Without getting too much into the theological arguments, much of what I had learned in my spiritual growth until then had pitted bodies and souls against each other in a body=bad and soul=good dichotomy. It seemed that the only thing holding us back from heaven was our bodies because it was the flesh that leads us to sin. But in marriage, it is the bride and groom’s bodies, fully given to each other, that makes the bond a very real image of God and thus, a revelation of the love God has for us.

“Man became the image of God not only through his own humanity, but also through the communion of persons, which man and woman form from the very beginning. ... Man becomes an image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion. He is, in fact, ‘from the beginning’ ... also and essentially the image of an inscrutable divine communion of Persons. The second creation narrative could also be a preparation for the understanding of the Trinitarian concept of the ‘image of God’” (Pope Saint John Paul II, Nov. 14, 1979)

I had discovered within fibers and textile processes that we are actually body-soul composites. Put another way, we are embodied souls. As I used my body to crochet each dome, pick clean and wash the raw wool filling, and stitch it all together, I was bringing a spiritual concept into a physical reality. The very act of creation was a connection between my body and soul. Through it, I was bringing the invisible to the visible. The integration of the spiritual to the physical was so united, so integrated, so completely, wholly one, that I couldn’t doubt the dignity or importance of our human body.

The body cannot be separated from the soul or vice versa (cf. Mark 10:9) and we are most fully alive when we engage both our minds and bodies at once. I honestly believe most of today’s hot button issues are centered around the attempt to separate our bodies from our souls.
What Rob Bell was saying had hints of the very real experience I was having in my relationships and in my tactile artwork. But more than just an external “display” for others to see God, I was realizing that I, myself, was growing closer to God through this integration of my whole person.
Now I could see a dynamic relationship between my body and soul. God was working through my body and my physical existence to bring me closer to Him. Even more, He redeemed my physical existence and even raised it up to a higher level when He became one of us and entered into our physical, tangible reality with a body of His very own.

“And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14
”She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.” Mark 5:27-29
”So extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.” Acts 19:11-12
Christ is baptized, not to be made holy by the water, but to make the water holy, and by his cleansing to purify the waters which he touched.” Saint Maximus of Turin

Not only did the King of the Universe come down to live a messy and dirty life just like us, but, by doing so, he lifted up our bodily existence to a higher level. By becoming flesh (John 1), He injected His supernatural essence into the natural world. The saving power Jesus gave to the woman from Mark 5 is the same power He gave to Paul in Acts 19. The very water that baptized Jesus became different by touching Him. All of this means that His flesh gives our flesh meaning. His flesh gives our flesh power. Sunrises, snow, flowers in bloom, handkerchiefs, aprons, hands, feet, dying on the cross, changing a baby’s diaper - all of it glows with the light of Jesus’s saving power.

And that, my friends, changes everything.

Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo, 1508-1512

Homework: Listen to “Closer” by Maverick City Music featuring Brandon Lane
Extra Credit: Watch Fly Away Home

From The Beginning

I’ve been making my crocheted artworks for a long time. I created my first piece of this kind (pictured above) in 2009 when I was still a junior Fibers major at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Honestly, it seems like almost a lifetime ago. I considered myself a non-denominational Christian and I was long-distance-dating my high school sweetheart (now husband). I have learned and grown a lot since that time and I want this blog to take you along the process with me. You’ll see how my upcoming collection is the culmination of more than 13 years of development.

Back in 2008, I was fascinated by the ideas of sustainability, dignity of labor, and relationships between men and women, particularly in marriage. I knew the three were linked - if the way we treated the earth around us matters, then the relationships we have with each other also matter - but I didn’t quite have the words to connect them. Everyone in the Fibers building could agree: the more handmade, the better, and if we could all get more connected with the source of our food/clothing/material goods, we’d have a better appreciation and respect for the world around us and the people within it.

Those thoughts were all swirling around my head when I worked with wool for the first time. Connecting people to wool - one of the most foundational and versatile textile materials - became my goal. I was spending so much time with textile processes. I could feel myself coming alive as I created objects by the power of my own hands. It was enriching and life-giving. I was learning more than just textile techniques as I engaged my mind and body at once in the creation of something new.

All the while, my community of friends was collectively diving deeper into our faith. Most of them gravitated toward Calvinist theology. As my friends discussed the role of (or lack thereof) prayer, work, art, and life in light of this theology, I was wrestling with several questions, why do we pray? What does it mean to have a body? Where does art belong in the spiritual life? Do any of my actions in this life matter? What does it mean to be human? The beautiful reality that I had found within the Fibers classroom seemed to contradict my spiritual life.

I didn’t realize that I was actually working out these philosophical and theological concepts through my hands while I created that first crocheted artwork. While I worked, I was reading Sex God by Rob Bell. (Back in the sweet window of time when Rob Bell was the trendiest Christian on the internet with his NOOMA videos and before the publication of his controversial book, Love Wins). Do I suggest Sex God for entertaining reading? Yes. Do I recommend it for solid, deep theology? Absolutely not (you’ll read why not in later posts). In any case, it triggered a very interesting concept for me.

“This marriage between a man and woman…is about something much bigger than the relationship itself. It points beyond them to somebody else - to God.
The point of marriage isn’t marriage.
It’s a picture.
A display.
A window that you look through to something else.
A marriage has a mission.
…A marriage is designed to counter all of [the division in our culture]. Not to add to the brokenness of the world but to add to the ‘oneness’ of the world. This man and this woman who have given themselves to each other are supposed to give the world a glimpse of hope, a display of what God is like, a bit of echad on earth.” (Sex God, p. 152-153)

“So when it’s written that Adam and Eve were one flesh, their ‘echad flesh’ is actually a celebration of a million other things. Things that ought to be celebrated: God. Life. Creativity. Potential. Shared partnership in caring for the world. Strength for weakness, weakness for strength. A new family. The ongoing creation of the world.” (Sex God, p. 154)

What Rob Bell is saying here is, at the very least, interesting.

These passages and the overall concept confirmed what I had suspected - spiritual truths are experienced through our bodies. There is a connection between our soul and body and our body can be seen as a gift rather than a curse. When we engage both our minds and bodies, we open ourselves to something bigger.

Marriage is more than just a contract. The unity in marriage is the clearest picture of how we live out all of our relationships through our bodies. There’s a reason why marriage is so special and why things are reserved only for marriage. But how to express the integration of it all was still a mystery to me.

For this week, I’ll leave you to contemplate this:

“For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it,
even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.
‘For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.’
This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.”
Ephesians 5:29-32 (emphasis mine)

“The Cathedral,” Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)