Monthly Archives: February 2023

Today’s Gospel reading tells of Christ Cleansing the Temple from the Gospel of Matthew and coming immediately upon his Entry into Jerusalem, followed by his Healing of the blind and the lame in the Temple. As pictured above at the Monastery of Saint John, it appears a few panels after Christ’s Baptism and thus atContinue reading “Tuesday in the First Week of Lent”

Today’s Gospel tells of the Last Judgment, as the separation of the sheep from the goats followed by Jesus enumerating the first six works of mercy. Here the parable of the welcoming of the sheep and the rejection of the goats appears on what was once the lid of a sarcophagus. Matthew 25.31-46 The LiturgicalContinue reading “Monday in the First Week of Lent”

In today’s Gospel reading, we read about the Temptation of Christ. A rather dramatic story that nevertheless did not receive visual representation until well into the Middle Ages. Among the earliest, this illumination from the Stuttgart Psalter (folio 107v) illustrates Psalm 90, coming between verses 11 and 12. [11] For he hath given his angels chargeContinue reading “Quadragesima Sunday”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus instructs us not to make a show of our fasting and to lay up our treasures in heaven, not on earth. These words form part of the Sermon on the Mount. Christ teaching is among one of the earliest motifs of Christian art, but mostly without a specific narrative context, andContinue reading “Ash Wednesday”

This week the Gospel begins with Jesus prophesying his Passion, but continues with the healing of the blind man as Jesus comes to Jericho. The Gospels recount several healings from blindness – the man born blind in John 9, whom Jesus heals with clay and instructs to wash in the pool at Siloe; two blindContinue reading “Quinquagesima Sunday”

This week we read the Parable of the Sower. This subject for representation, although possible intended by the 4th century engraving above, did not become common theme until the 16th century, when its bucolic potential was first realized. Images of the sower would culminate in the 19th century, first with paintings by Millet, then byContinue reading “Sexagesima Sunday”

Matthew 20.1-16 This Sunday’s Gospel reading is the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. Parables are rarely represented in medieval art. This manuscript illumination comes from the Codex aureus Epternacensis (ca. 1030-1045, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, digital facsimile not currently functional). The Liturgical Year by Dom Guéranger Sermons Homilies Of Feasts And Sundays By CatholicContinue reading “Septuagesima Sunday”