By Turner L.
Father Stephen’s new litany prayer book, Litany Prayers Before Francisco Zurbaran’s Childhood of the Virgin and Christ Child, focuses on the work of original Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbaran, who has painted a large number of religious pictures for various monasteries and churches.
While searching the Art Resource website for religious works, Father stumbled across one of Zurbaran’s paintings; it really caught his eye. It was an image of the child Christ. He immediately showed it to Yuri Kuchukov, art teacher at the school, who told him that Zurbaran had also painted the young Mary. Father Stephen got in touch with Kria, a researcher at Art Resource who claimed that they did not have the picture in their collection. Father Stephen did his own investigation and found that the painting was done in St. Petersburg, Russia.
When he attempted to contact the hermitage there, he prompted Kria to do a second search for the painting. This time she found the picture and gave him permission to download it directly from Art Resource that afternoon. Father Stephen took the pictures on a three-day private retreat to a monastery, and used them as the focus of his prayer. The fruit of his experience was the two litanies found in his new book. The prayers focus on the infancy of Jesus and Mary.
One distinct aspect of this book is that it is dedicated to staff member Nanci Newcomb’s deceased husband, Patrick Newcomb. Nanci, who read the book, said it was easy to get into because it is intimate, tender, and personal, and helped her obtain a better picture of God’s will. “I really like to utilize litanies for my devotional time, and this particular book was extra special to me, not only because Father wrote it, but because he dedicated it in memory of my husband who recently passed away,” she said.
