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Using Sacred Art to Bring the Faith Alive
How to Use
Because sacred art is a proven way to infuse your classroom with beauty while encouraging fruitful discussions, we have included several images below, along with ways to bring the painting to life.
Art featured in Beatitudes: Living the Life of Christ
Religious Icons
Help your students see the wide and rich variety of the saints of the Church, and that they too are called to be saints!
The Anastasis
Reflecting on this dramatic fresco helps your students understand the Harrowing of Hell, which took place on Holy Saturday when Jesus freed the just who had gone before Him.
Apse fresco of the Anastasis, Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora.
The Last Judgement
This image provides a rich and detailed backdrop for discussing how Jesus will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
c. 1536-1541, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
The Transfiguration
This image is a great lead-in to class discussion on Jesus' human and divine natures, Old Testament Prophets, and other topics.
c. 1395–1455, Bl. Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Museo di San Marco, Florence
Pieta
Reflect on Jesus' sacrifice by gazing at Michelangelo's Pieta.
c. 1498, Michelangelo Buonarroti, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
The Agony in the Garden
Jesus was like us in all things but sin. Use this image to help your students understand how Jesus can be a model for moderating the passions in the Christian life.
c. 1610-1612, El Greco, Budapest Museum of Fine Arts
The Calling of St. Matthew
Sainthood is a universal vocation! This image helps your students understand how each and every person is called to holiness.
c. 1599-1600, Caravaggio, Contarelli Chapel, Church of San Luigi dei Francesi.
Annunciation and Visitation
Help your students understand the Incarnation, and reflect more deeply on two joyful mysteries of the Rosary.
Reims Cathedral, Reims, France, c. 1230-1255
The Creation of Adam
This image helps you teach your students what it means that God breathed life into Adam.
c. 1493, Hartmann Schede, Schedelsche Weltchronik or Nuremberg Chronicle
The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo
Use this image to help your students understand that to be made in God's image and likeness means that we have abilities similar to God's: intellect, will, and the capacity to love.
c. 1511, Michelangelo Buonaroti, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City