If you google “Good Shepherd” the results will be flooded with soothing watercolor paintings and light skinned European men gazing affectionately at a sheep or off into the distance. The sentimentality surprises me. I imagine it would be even more striking to someone who knows of the difficulties and diligence involved in the life of a shepherd. A shepherd’s work was about feeding the lambs and the sheep, bringing them to good pasture lands and water, grooming and clipping them, delivering new lambs, leading them and teaching them to stay together, going off after the wandering lost ones, and protecting the sheep in the field and in the fold.  In this season of Lent and through Eastertide until Good Shepherd Sunday, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is hosting an art exhibit. This exhibit is entitled “Jesus the Good Shepherd.” In the narthex, you will see a collection of artwork that reflects the many facets of the teaching of Jesus who said “I am the Good Shepherd.” It is particularly appropriate during this penitential season to consider the work of the Shepherd in tending his flock.

“With the Shepherd who feeds us in the Eucharist, who speaks to us in the scriptures, and who sustains us along the path of justice and communion, our fears are diminished, our responsibilities become clearer, and we realize the truth as total light. And the Shepherd is not an object of study or research; he is love to love, nourishment to eat, blood to receive into circulation of our very existence, beauty to contemplate, word to be listened to, life to be shared, body to give us growth (1 John 1:1-5).

In the signs through which the Shepherd enters into contact with us, he transforms us, he makes us become the Church, sacrament capable of cultivating and fostering the mysterious koinonia, which makes of the human creature a child in the home of the Father.

Faith is life, and life generates.”

Fr. Dalmazio Mongillo, OP

May your observation of Lent be one in which you find fullness of faith, and generation of life. I hope that time spent with this artwork will fuel this effort and I trust that the Holy Spirit will speak to your hearts through the power of this experience.
In the narthex, you will find meditation guides and Bibles available to help you observe, wonder about and pray through the art. Additionally, there is a playlist that you can access to dwell on the themes lifted up in this installation and throughout Scripture. It is my hope, as a Catechist, that you will begin to understand the depth and richness of this image that Christ gives of Himself: Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

Leah Wall, Lead Catechist