A Flaming Heart

The Saviour Seated On A Heart

I went to the AGO this week with my daughters to take in the exhibition Making Her Mark, celebrating women artists from 1400-1800. It is an amazing show featuring all kinds of artistic endeavours ranging from classical painting, ceramics, illuminated manuscripts, furniture design, to quilling (which was new to me—art creations constructed from paper-rolling!).

Here is a description of quilling from the exhibition and an example of an art piece featuring a butterfly landing on a flower:

However, the art piece that grabbed my attention (beyond the quilling) was an engraving on paper by Diana Mantuana, an Italian artist from around 1547-1612. She presented a devotional image of a young Jesus seated on a flaming heart caught up in a contemplative vision—a halo of holiness, a wounded heart of compassion—enflamed by the fires of the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps I am drawn to this piece because we are approaching Pentecost Sunday this coming week? Or, is it because I long for an enflamed heart of love which Jesus knew even as a young lad? Here I am starting my seventh decade and an enflamed heart of compassion still seems like a distant dream…

I remember Merton’s line from the cloister “But oh! How far I have to go to find You…”—ending serenely with the affirmation “in whom I have already arrived”.

Alas, I am not always so certain.