- Hitda-Evangeliar - Storm on the Sea  (picture meditation)

Suggestions for meditation on this picture:

In this picture the four sided frame makes it clear that there is a limited dimension in earthly existence.  And yet at one point the frame is broken through.

The center of the picture without a doubt is the sleeping Jesus encircled by his halo.  This picture is thereby a form of "Mandala", a common form of picture in the Middle Ages in which the rectangular, representing the world, and the circle, representing the divine perfection are bound together in one picture.  The reality of God has entered the midst of this world.  The very format of these pictures radiate peace.

The content of this picture is also filled with deep symbolism.  Whoever opens their heart in meditation to this picture open's themselves to an inner journey.  This picture shows "people in a storm" visualized by the boat that is shaped almost like a monster and which instead of carrying its load over the depths appears to be piloted into the abyss... .visualized by the rudder pointed into the air instead of performing its task in the water...(depicting how in many life situations human efforts no longer "grab hold")..., visualized by the sail which is threatened to be torn at any moment by the power of the storm...visualized by the expressions on the disciples faces who are looking in panic at the storm as though there was nothing else but the storm ( thereby delivering themselves even more into its forces, giving up without a struggle)...The other disciples in the back of the boat are cowering together in fear, doubt and resignation as though nothing matters anymore...

One, only one, looks at the sleeping Christ.  His hand touches him, "Save us, Lord, we are perishing"...

Let us take what the picture offers with us on this journey beginning with those who stare at the storm to those who have become resigned, to the one (who is not the center of the picture) who would awaken the Lord. Finally, the journey leads us to the sleeping Lord himself who is the center and object of this picture and also the center and object of our inner journey.

Jesus sleeps in the midst of a storm of unfettered forces.  Here we witness what trust means.  Here lies the deepest "miracle" of this story.  In the midst of the storm the Lord sleeps.  (Later the disciples recollected this story when they were threatened by various storms of life.)  From this inner calm and trust, Christ's power grows by which he silences also the external forces. . Even while he sleeps a tip of his pillow extends into the threatening deep as a pointing finger.  In trusting sleep the way is paved for victory over the powers of the abyss...

We linger quietly before the picture of the sleeping Lord in order that something of this trust becomes "imprinted"  (see "typos") on us in order that our fear, doubt, need and our resignation can "grow through" (see A.Louf p.146 ff.), and be transformed from within.  This trust must take shape more and more in our deepest being ...

We keep this picture in our memory in order that we can trust again when unexpected "storms" break out  suddenly and threaten to draw us into the valley...

- Psalm 78:2-22 ("That they should set their hope in God")