Franciscan Health staff and guests joined the Most Rev. Robert McClory, Bishop of the Diocese of Gary, on Wednesday, Oct. 18 for the Workplace Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at Franciscan Health Dyer and Franciscan Health Munster.
The event began at Franciscan Health Dyer with Holy Mass in the chapel, then continued to Franciscan Health Munster with a prayer service at the chapel. Vice President of Mission Integration Sister Mary Augustine Warrell, OSF, was pleased to see the chapels full at both locations.
The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus dedicated at both locations is a reproduction of the original image from Franciscan Health Michigan City.
The painting was created by artist Andrea Bojrab, an Indiana-based artist who provided the following account of her work:
“I humbly accepted an assignment from the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration to paint an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Sisters wanted an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the chapel in the hospital in Michigan City, IN. After much prayer, I felt that the image should be of Jesus on the cross with his Sacred Heart exposed. In any portrait the eyes have to be special. After all, they are the ‘windows to our soul.’ But the eyes needed to be exactly right on this image. I wanted them to tell everyone how much Jesus loves them. I wanted everyone to be able to look at the image and see Jesus’ love. They needed to speak to us. After much prayer and research and sketches, the painting was beginning to come together, but the eyes, I couldn't get them right. I spent hours painting and repainting but was still dissatisfied with how they looked. After hours and days of trying to paint Jesus' eyes, it became an unbearable task. I couldn't understand. Why wouldn't Jesus want this painting to be a success?
"One evening I began working on the eyes and worked very late into the night and still I seemed to make no progress whatsoever. I was finally so frustrated that I took my pallet knife and removed all the paint from the eyes and then I stuck my cloth into the paint thinner and I wiped out the eyes still further. I thought, ‘All these hours of work: gone - except a vague shadow of what used to be there. There! I did it. I wiped them out.’ And as I walked out of the room in tears I said a prayer, ‘If you want to grant a miracle, you can paint them while I sleep.’ I laid in bed crying since I was unable to accomplish such an important task. My prayers had been so desperate that I had no peace. I finally resigned myself with a sign of ‘Jesus, I trust in you’ and fell asleep.
"In the morning I told my husband about the painting and how I failed. He walked into my studio, looked at the painting and asked, ‘What's wrong with His eyes?’ When I walked into my studio, I couldn't believe it. The eyes were done. I spent a few minutes putting in a few small details and the painting was finished.
“There is no explanation for what happened except some divine intervention which finished what I was unable to do.”
Caption: The Most Rev. Robert McClory, Bishop of the Diocese of Gary, conducts the Workplace Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Oct. 18 at Franciscan Health Munster.