About this print

Sacred Heart, 1 John 4:16

Jesus bows his head beside a shadowed stone column, his hand resting over a heart that gives off its own light.

What is painted

The painting is in warm sepia and umber tones, with the feel of an old oil study, and it fades out into rough brushed edges on cream paper. Jesus stands in three-quarter view in a pale robe with a rust brown mantle over his shoulders, long dark hair falling forward as he looks down. His hand is pressed to his chest over a small red heart crowned with a flame and a tiny cross, the traditional form of the Sacred Heart, and it glows like a lamp in a dim room. Behind him are a stone column and a leafy branch catching the light.

Below, in a flowing brown script: “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him”, with 1 John 4:16 underneath. The contrast between the dusky scene and that single point of warmth does most of the work.

“God is love” in the First Letter of John

The First Letter of John says it twice. Verse 8 puts it negatively, “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love”, and verse 16 repeats it as an invitation: love is not only something God does, it is where he can be found. The chapter grounds this in a single act, God sending his Son into the world (1 John 4:9).

“Dwelleth” is the same idea John uses in his Gospel when Jesus says “abide in me” (John 15:4). It describes a home, not a visit. To live in love, in John's sense, is to stay close to the one who loved first; verse 19 says it simply: “We love him, because he first loved us.”

Devotion to the Sacred Heart makes the same point with an image. It spread widely in the Catholic Church after the visions of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in seventeenth-century France, and the heart shown outside the chest, burning with love, became one of the best known pictures of Christ in Catholic homes.

For a home altar or a confirmation

This piece of Catholic and Christian wall art belongs where a family prays: above a small home altar, in a hallway by the front door, or in a bedroom where it will be seen at night. Many households enthrone an image of the Sacred Heart and place it at the heart of the home. It is also a meaningful confirmation or first communion present, or a gift for a godparent.

As a Christian poster it is quiet enough for a living room, with its muted browns and single point of warmth. The print is made on thick archival matte paper, printed to order in the United States and shipped free across the US, from 5x7 to 24x36 with metric and A sizes available. It is sent unframed with a paper margin, and a digital file is offered as well.

The collection holds other Sacred Heart images, each paired with a different verse on the love of Christ. Read 1 John 4 and what it means