From the Lamb to the Bread from Heaven           

“This is my body given for you; this is the cup of my blood, of the new and eternal Covenant… Do this in remembrance of me”. This is how Jesus referred to the unleavened bread and to the wine of the Passover meal. In the new Passover, the Lamb was Him; and that would become the last sacrifice. Throughout the two following millennia, every morning the priests of Christ fulfilled it on the many altars that fill the old churches. And soon, a Reserve of that Bread was kept next to the altar of the sacrifice to answer to the needs of those absent. To shelter it, precious chests, which soon took the shape of a temple, were drawn. The Bread from Heaven had become the new Presence of God in the human city. And, should there be any doubts, the immune system of faith gave rise to new shapes of cult and affection. One felt the need to display it to the fruition of sight. The “Monstrance” used to display it is the attribute that identifies Saint Clara. And the vocation of the order of nuns that Saint Clara founded rests precisely in the continuous adoration of that Presence.

The set of biblical scenes displayed here was commissioned by the Clarissas, the nuns of Saint Clara, to serve as inspiration in that daily function. In each one of them, one not only seeks some allusion to Christ and to the Bread in which he decided to be present but also the fulfilment of one of the most ancient desires of religion: the Presence of Divinity. In the Tabernacles of the churches, particles of that consecrated bread are kept, and are nowadays called the “Communion wafers”. The “Communion wafer” was initially the designation of the offering of the sacrificial lamb on the altar. And Jesus, in the tradition of old sacrifices, had identified himself as God’s Lamb. Thus, the Bread became the Lamb and the Lamb became the Bread. It is not the symbol. It is real Presence.

This Imagined Bible was the daily inspiration of the Worshippers of the Presence of the Convent of Santa Clara of Guimarães, where this series of 14 paintings from the 17th century comes from.