March 30, 2025 - Fourth Sunday of Lent

Artist Sister Mary of the Compassion, OP (1908-1977)

The artwork for the Fourth Week of Lent is a landscape piece from Sr. Mary of the Compassion, O.P. It is an untitled piece, and it was painted by Sr. Compassion in a series of landscape pieces she composed during the 1930’s and 1940’s.  

The inspiration for this piece is based on the Hudson River School of Art, a 19th Century American art movement that depicted the natural beauty of the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area. Artists such as Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Cole, and George Inness, from Montclair, New Jersey, are contributors to this school of art. Sr. Mary of the Compassion was very much influenced by their work.  

This piece was chosen to reflect on this week with our meditations for several reasons. First, the painting demonstrates how versatile Sr. Compassion was with her subject matter. It was not just religious subjects that she painted, but also nature and natural beauty influenced her artwork; there are many non-religious paintings in Sr. Compassion’s catalogue of artworks. 

Second, the lush greenery of this painting represents the Fourth Week of Lent so well, as moving from desert scenes and feelings of isolation and desolation to the beginning of Spring with its green foliage emerging and flowers coming up from the ground. Hints of rebirth and resurrection begin to be felt. 

Finally, this painting portrays so well for me the themes from today’s Gospel of the Prodigal Son. A vast open territory, as depicted in this painting, reminds me of the wandering away of the Prodigal Son who took his inheritance and left his father to go out into the vast world in front of him, only to squander it all away in a short period of time, leaving himself destitute and in need of assistance. The Prodigal Son returns to his father seeking love, mercy, and an embrace so that all will be well. This is exactly what he receives. 

The Lenten season reminds us that we have wandered away from God our Father through sin only to return seeking His love, mercy, and embrace. This we know we will receive for the one who has a contrite heart. Can we drink from this cup of love, mercy, and forgiveness? What do we see in this painting in relation to the story of the Prodigal Son and our own story?  

O God, who through your Word reconcile the human race to yourself in a wonderful way, grant, we pray, that with prompt devotion and eager faith the Christian people may hasten toward the solemn celebrations to come. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. (Roman Missal)

Rev. Dominic Ciriaco, Director of Preaching as Hospitality Formation Program

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