The bread we break, the cup we bless
The year of 2020 is a very special year for Hungary as the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress will be organized here. The Congress is a worldwide gathering of the Catholic Church organized in every four years in different places. Hungary has already organized a Congress in the year of 1938. The aim of the Congress is to bear witness to the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, which is an important Roman Catholic doctrine. The theme of this year’s Congress “All my springs are in you” echoes this doctrine.
Having heard much about the coming Congress a read also the call issued by The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary to contemporary artists to create new pieces of different forms of art for the Congress. This call initiated a motion in me the result of which is incorporated in this poicture.
Size: 39 x 47 cms
Status: in private property (Apostolic Nunciature, Budapest, Hungary)
Every piece of this picture does really have a meaning. The faces in the background represent Christian people of the past and the present while the cross in the middle is a reminiscence to Christ’s sacrifice. To figure the cross I chose a unique Hungarian stamp issued in 1999. I have learnt only later that the stamp was designed by Ferenc Svindt by using the motives of the Shroud of Turin and also a Christ-icon painted by Andrei Rublev.
I painted twelve cups and twelve pieces of bread underneath the cross remembering to the last supper of the evening prior to Christ’s arresting and crucifixion. My pieces of bread and my cups represent “the bread we break and the cup we bless”.
My cups are featured by the beautiful Hungarian stamps showing the Eucharist cup of George Rakoczi the 1st while the pieces of bread were painted using the stamps featuring Christ himself on the picture.
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