The Art of Holy Week and Easter: Meditations on the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus

By Wendy Beckett

Brimming with Sister Wendy Beckett's irrepressible wisdom and enthusiasm, The Art of Holy Week and Easter is a beautiful Lent book for 2021 exploring the spiritual riches of some of the world's greatest paintings of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus.

Illustrated in stunning full colour with thirty famous and lesser-known Western masterpieces and presented in a small, easily portable format, this little book is ideal Lent reading for all art lovers.

The Art of Holy Week and Easter offers a chance to hear again the voice of Sister Wendy as she gently leads you into a deeper appreciation of all that these paintings convey to the discerning eye. You'll gain a fuller and more spiritual understanding of Christian art, and see Holy Week and Easter as never before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SPCK Publishing
• Release date: Jan 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9780281085804

Wendy Beckett

Sister Wendy became a nun at the age of 16, went on to live for nearly 20 years as a hermit, and then was exposed to the world in a successful television career as the 'art nun'. She was the author of over 20 books with art as the main theme. In her later years she led a cloistered life, devoted to prayer. She died in December 2018.

Book preview

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First published in Great Britain in 2021

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

36 Causton Street

London SW1P 4ST

www.spck.org.uk

Copyright © the Estate of Sister Wendy Beckett 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

SPCK does not necessarily endorse the individual views contained in its publications.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Scripture quotation marked neb is from the New English Bible, copyright © The Delegates of the Oxford University Press and The Syndics of Cambridge University Press, 1961, 1970. Used by permission.

The Scripture quotation marked reb is from the Revised English Bible, copyright © Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press 1989.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978–0–281–08525–5

eBook ISBN 978–0–281–08580–4

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Typeset by The Book Guild Ltd, Leicester, UK

eBook by The Book Guild Ltd, Leicester, UK

Contents

Foreword

Copyright acknowledgements

1     ‘This is My Body’

2     ‘Behold the man!’

3     ‘Father, forgive them’

4     ‘He is risen!’

Notes

Foreword

Sister Wendy Beckett dedicated her life to meditation, contemplation and prayer. Whether examining an age-old painting or gazing upon the natural world around her, she looked for beauty and through it found God. Notoriously self-deprecating, she would surely flinch at the praise I want to heap on her. But she deserves celebrating. A fiercely intelligent woman with a singular ability to communicate, she was full of the joy she found in everything around her. Indeed, she was dedicated to joy as