Come, Light of Our Hearts!
Giovanni di Benedetto (active c. 1350–1390) was a famous illuminator of manuscripts and painter of frescos. He was one of the masters of the studio attached to the court of the Visconti family which, during the Middle Ages, ruled over the Duchy of Milan (present-day Lombardy in northern Italy). The miniature that illustrates the cover of your May issue of Magnificat comes from a Missal-Book of Hours that he produced around 1385. It depicts the coming of the Spirit of Christ upon the world as a dove sending the rays of its light from the highest heaven.
Infunde amorem cordibus
This sort of image of the Holy Spirit, alone, flooding the world with its rays, was frequently used from the 13th century on, as a supplement to the depiction of Pentecost, especially in works of private devotion. Its purpose was to show that although the Holy Spirit was indeed sent to the apostles—on Pentecost—so that they and their successors might be the authentic witnesses of Jesus to the ends of the earth, the Communion of Divine Love comes as well to fill the innermost hearts of Christian believers, so as to dispense his gifts according to each one’s particular vocation.
Here Giovanni di Benedetto depicts the dove on a circle of gold, signifying that the Holy Spirit is true God proceeding from the Father and the Son. More surprisingly, he adorns his head with a Christic halo bearing the red cross which, in ancient art, is usually the mark of the risen Jesus. Far from being a mistake, this is a brilliant initiative by which the artist specifies the mission of the Holy Spirit inasmuch as he is sent to us by the Son: Just as Jesus was brought to earth in the womb of the Virgin Mary through the working of the Holy Spirit, so too through his working Jesus will remain present and active among us after he ascends to the Father. Thus, what the artist invites us to contemplate is precisely this unfolding of the mystery of the Incarnation in which, from the Ascension to the Parousia, the Spirit of Jesus imparts to us his communion of Love. Each golden ray he radiates is destined for one of us, to move us to love one another as Jesus loved us and, thus, to actualize the presence of Jesus Christ acting in the world, always, to the close of the age (cf. Mt 28:20).
Sine tuo nomine, nihil est in homine, nihil est innoxium
Saint Paul assures us that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us(Rom 5:5), enabling us to put into practice the Lord’s New Commandment: Isn’t it true that it would be impossible for us to love others as Jesus loved us apart from the communion of the Holy Spirit?
Isn’t it true that only a love for others that comes from a heart overflowing with the Spirit of Jesus can be magnanimous and generous to the end, and never be envious or pretentious or proud or wrongheaded? Isn’t it true that only a love that comes from a heart overflowing with the Spirit of Jesus harbors no grudge at all and does not rejoice in injustice, but finds its joy in the truth? Isn’t it true that only a love that comes from a heart overflowing with the Spirit of Jesus believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (cf. 1 Cor 13:1-8)?
The artist’s genius manages to show us the unity of action between Christ and the Holy Spirit in carrying out the Father’s plan for the salvation of the world. This unity was manifested as acting divinely in the person of Jesus during his earthly life. Since his return to the Father and until he comes again, this unity is meant to be manifested in the person of each Christian who by the Holy Spirit is made a participant in the mystery of the humanity of the Son of God. In this mystery, as Jesus himself revealed, the Eucharist and the New Commandment are all one: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (Jn 15:12-13).
From then on, moreover, in us who live it is Christ who lives in us (cf. Gal 2:20).
Pierre-Marie Dumont
The Holy Spirit, from The Franciscan Hours, Latin 757, fol. 241v, Giovanni di Benedetto da Como
(14th c., workshop), Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. © BnF, Paris.
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Come, Light of Our Hearts!
Le May 1, 2024
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Giovanni di Benedetto (active c. 1350–1390) was a famous illuminator of manuscripts and painter of frescos. He was one of the masters of the studio attached to the court of the Visconti family which, during the Middle Ages, ruled over the Duchy of Milan (present-day Lombardy in northern Italy). The miniature that illustrates the cover of your May issue of Magnificat comes from a Missal-Book of Hours that he produced around 1385. It depicts the coming of the Spirit of Christ upon the world as a dove sending the rays of its light from the highest heaven.
Infunde amorem cordibus
This sort of image of the Holy Spirit, alone, flooding the world with its rays, was frequently used from the 13th century on, as a supplement to the depiction of Pentecost, especially in works of private devotion. Its purpose was to show that although the Holy Spirit was indeed sent to the apostles—on Pentecost—so that they and their successors might be the authentic witnesses of Jesus to the ends of the earth, the Communion of Divine Love comes as well to fill the innermost hearts of Christian believers, so as to dispense his gifts according to each one’s particular vocation.
Here Giovanni di Benedetto depicts the dove on a circle of gold, signifying that the Holy Spirit is true God proceeding from the Father and the Son. More surprisingly, he adorns his head with a Christic halo bearing the red cross which, in ancient art, is usually the mark of the risen Jesus. Far from being a mistake, this is a brilliant initiative by which the artist specifies the mission of the Holy Spirit inasmuch as he is sent to us by the Son: Just as Jesus was brought to earth in the womb of the Virgin Mary through the working of the Holy Spirit, so too through his working Jesus will remain present and active among us after he ascends to the Father. Thus, what the artist invites us to contemplate is precisely this unfolding of the mystery of the Incarnation in which, from the Ascension to the Parousia, the Spirit of Jesus imparts to us his communion of Love. Each golden ray he radiates is destined for one of us, to move us to love one another as Jesus loved us and, thus, to actualize the presence of Jesus Christ acting in the world, always, to the close of the age (cf. Mt 28:20).
Sine tuo nomine, nihil est in homine, nihil est innoxium
Saint Paul assures us that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us(Rom 5:5), enabling us to put into practice the Lord’s New Commandment: Isn’t it true that it would be impossible for us to love others as Jesus loved us apart from the communion of the Holy Spirit?
Isn’t it true that only a love for others that comes from a heart overflowing with the Spirit of Jesus can be magnanimous and generous to the end, and never be envious or pretentious or proud or wrongheaded? Isn’t it true that only a love that comes from a heart overflowing with the Spirit of Jesus harbors no grudge at all and does not rejoice in injustice, but finds its joy in the truth? Isn’t it true that only a love that comes from a heart overflowing with the Spirit of Jesus believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (cf. 1 Cor 13:1-8)?
The artist’s genius manages to show us the unity of action between Christ and the Holy Spirit in carrying out the Father’s plan for the salvation of the world. This unity was manifested as acting divinely in the person of Jesus during his earthly life. Since his return to the Father and until he comes again, this unity is meant to be manifested in the person of each Christian who by the Holy Spirit is made a participant in the mystery of the humanity of the Son of God. In this mystery, as Jesus himself revealed, the Eucharist and the New Commandment are all one: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (Jn 15:12-13).
From then on, moreover, in us who live it is Christ who lives in us (cf. Gal 2:20).
Pierre-Marie Dumont
The Holy Spirit, from The Franciscan Hours, Latin 757, fol. 241v, Giovanni di Benedetto da Como
(14th c., workshop), Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. © BnF, Paris.
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