Created: 2010

Psalm 19
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.

Psalm 104
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendour and majesty.
He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind.

Background:

This piece is about the heavens declaring the Glory of the Lord and it is about being clothed in the Light of the Son. Each theme is deserving of it’s own piece of art but combined they tell such a powerful story of the relationship between God the Creator and His Creation.

I chose the title ‘Lumen Gloriae’, which means ‘The Light of Glory’ because it’s meaning, summed up below, was there within the image without any deliberate intention.

‘The light of glory, by which a created mind is enabled to experience for eternity the immediate vision of God. It is a supernatural ability bestowed on the intellect to replace and perfect the virtue of faith. Thus, it confers in heaven the power of seeing God even as faith on earth gives the power of believing in God.’ (based on Fr. John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary © Eternal Life).

Our faith on earth is also like being bathed in light, the ‘Light of Truth’, the ‘Light of Salvation’, ‘The Light that shines in the darkness’. We are invited as believers, to walk in the light and although that light may not be as radiant as the unimaginable light of heaven it is still a light of immense power and glory.