Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
SATURDAY, August 27
Mark 14:43-52. [Judas] went up to [Jesus] at once and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. Then they laid hands on him and arrested him.
Two paintings come to mind when I read these words. One is from Italy, painted in 1602-3 by Caravaggio and now in the National Museum in Dublin. It depicts a powerful drama. Christ faces a thrust of figures crowding in from the right, including Judas and the arresting soldiers in glistening black armor. On the far left, a figure identified as Mark, his back to Jesus, faces left out of the canvas, mouth wide open in a scream.
The other is by Pietro Lorenzetti, painted about 1320, a fresco of the same scene in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. Western artists had only recently learned to paint profiles and realistic emotion in faces, but this fresco is full of all the drama that these new skills permitted.
These images and thousands of others of Christian art are available freely through the Internet. Search for one and download it. Perhaps set it as your screen background. Take your time, look at it and let it speak to you slowly. It will allow you to enter a Bible story at a deeper level, revealing its truth and meaning to you.
PRAY for the Diocese of San Diego (Province VIII, USA)
Ps 20, 21:1-7(8-14) * 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117; 1 Kings 7:51—8:21; Acts 28:17-31
View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com or Oremus Bible browser.
A Meditation for Pentecost
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