Saint Anna 12×12 Print

Saint Anna the Prophet by Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS 12x12 Print

This image was inspired by the scene in Luke 4 when Jesus returns to the synagogue in Nazareth and opens the scroll to read. The writings on the blackboard behind Jesus are the opening words of the text from Isaiah which Jesus proclaimed that day. They are at the very heart of the Christian teacher's vocation.

"THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, freedom to the oppressed, and sight to the blind."

Jesus is depicted holding symbols of the means by which teachers have taught the Word over the centuries since His time on earth. The scrolls in His right arm show the word "teacher" written in Aramaic and Greek, the two languages He would have spoken. Behind them is a Torah, with the Hebrew word for teacher, or rabbi. In His left arm are a medieval manuscript with "magister", the Irish word for teacher, and a laptop computer, glowing with the blue light of heaven. On the sheet of loose-leaf paper, the word "teacher" is written in many different languages.

Jesus is dressed in white and gold, the symbolic colors of the Transfiguration. The pattern on His robe and the lid of the computer consists of squares, the symbol of earth and humanity, and circles, the symbolic shape of the Divine.

Saint Katharine Drexel gave up a vast fortune and founded the sisters of the Blessed Sacrament dedicated to the education of Native and African American children.

Her feast day is July 26th.