Art Gallery
Welcome to the Radiant Light online Art Gallery of religious paintings by Elizabeth Wang.
Title:
One of the horrors of war is that it can corrupt the innocent victims as well as the aggressors. Just as a 'good' soldier can become careless of life's virtue, and even cruel, so an 'innocent' victim is in danger of hating those who made her suffer, and therefore being 'innocent' no more.
Code: T-00040-BW-X3
Larger image »
Associated images »
Title:
A dense cloud seems to cover those parts of the earth where there is war, which cuts off many people from God. Wherever there is conflict there is danger for souls as well as bodies. Except amongst those who stay close to God, there is immorality or hatred or revenge or other evils being worked bodily or within souls.
Code: T-06590A-BW
Title:
A person who acts in hatred towards his fellow-creatures is as if shouting out to Christ on the Cross: "No, I won't serve You. I refuse to love my neighbour". In his hatred he is more disfigured than the bleeding figure of Christ, because the man becomes less than a man, and very undignified, through his hatred. Christ was perfect man, and God, in His charity, even when He was almost unrecognisable through His many wounds.
Code: T-10525-CW
Title:
Someone who refuses to forgive, and who hates and despises someone else, is as if piling up furniture against the inside of the door of her soul. God and His Light cannot shine in. She freely chooses to make a tomb of her own soul, and will find herself in Hell, if she perseveres in sin.
Code: T-03638-BW
Title:
God is Truth, and when we speak truth to Him in prayer, it pleases Him, and we draw closer to Him, even as we say, perhaps, "I can't cope", or "Nobody loves me", or "I'm addicted", or "I hate those people", or "I'm afraid", or "I'm ashamed to look at you".
Code: T-05021A-BW
Title:
It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love, Who carries souls to Heaven when we die. A person who hates others is plainly not full of the Holy Spirit; and if he dies in that state, he will not be able to rise up to Eternal Life.
Code: T-06984-BW
Title:
War can endanger or corrupt the fighters. It can even endanger the souls of the injured innocent by making them bitter or full of hate. What sort of preparation for Heaven is armed struggle and all the evils that cause war to flourish?
Code: T-06590-BW
Title:
The Church hands on the message of Jesus Christ. People who ignore God, and hate the Church or her teachings are seen by Christ as living in a degree of spiritual darkness, even if they were not told good things about the Catholic Faith when they were young. And no-one can enter Heaven without having shown some degree of humility and penitence before God. That is why we, today, should proclaim the message of St. Peter: "Repent - that your sins may be blotted out". Unbelievers, and proud people, cannot enter.
Code: T-14345-CW
Title:
When people who have never read a serious book about Catholicism complain about episodes of Catholic history and hate the Church, it is best not to argue about history but to say: 'Look at the Church, as she is': the unique unity in Faith, government and worship, unique in handing on the body of truths, in helping the sick and needy, defending lives, including the unborn, inspiring artists, architects, composers, promoting education, all with confidence in God. Outside the Catholic Church people do not have such clear teaching. It is the one Church founded by Jesus Christ, Who still guides her, in union with the Father, and the Holy Spirit.
Code: T-10574-CW
Title:
It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love, Who carries souls to Heaven when we die. A person who hates others is plainly not full of the Holy Spirit; and if he dies in that state, he will not be able to rise up to Eternal Life.
Code: T-06984-CW
Title:
Christ loves to come to loving hearts, in Holy Communion. Bitter and resentful hearts make Him feel as He felt in His Holy Passion.
Code: T-01697-BW
Title:
It is important not to 'cast pearls before swine': not to offer spiritual advice, too early, to those who despise spiritual things, nor to press information about the Church upon people who hate the mention of her name. This causes such people to be even more exasperated and confrontational. Our prayer for them is more important, for the moment.
Code: T-10214-CW
Title:
Just as God has gifts for the Church, such as the Holy Eucharist, for His friends, so he has gifts for the whole world, the greatest of which - given even to those who ignore or hate God - is the gift of life. But when people reject life, and destroy innocent babies in the womb in the horror of abortion, they reject God the Father, whether or not they realise it.
Code: T-13413-CW
Title:
The sin of rape is repulsive in God's sight, and rightly punished as a criminal act. Yet the victim can choose to hate or to love. She can hate the rapist, and, out of fear and panic, destroy a child conceived; or she can look with love upon the innocent child, and be merciful, and in sparing his life, support new life and not more violence and death.
Code: T-10523Y-CW
Title:
When an angry and uncharitable person pours a torrent of abuse upon an innocent person, the effect upon that soul is as if a torrent of filthy water had surged into a home. It is important to sweep out that flood-water, which is the venomous phrases and insinuations causing distress, or they might stick in the mind, to fester, and cause spiritual sickness or self-pity.
Code: T-11869-CW
Title:
A mother with a seriously-sick child keeps loving her. She would do nothing to harm her. She would not kill her, however - just as God does not kill the people He loves, even when they have freely chosen to abandon Him, hate Him, and then find themselves in Hell, suffering from the absence of light and love.
Code: T-08394-CW
Title:
Lapsed Catholics do not grow in the knowledge and love of God; and when they die, those who see God and are ashamed of their earlier indifference go to Purgatory, whilst those who hate God and are resolute in their rejection of Him hurl themselves away from Him and therefore into Hell, which is life without His light and peace.
Code: T-10227-CW
Title:
God is loving, pure and wise; therefore God chooses, for intimate friendship, a person who loves Him and is reverent, prayerful, humble and obedient. That obedience includes loving his neighbour, and the Church. God cannot bring into close union with Himself those who hate fellow creatures, or believe Jesus was a liar, or hide away in sin, or despise the Church, or are self-important, or pray with little reverence, or despise popular devotions that lead people closer to Heaven, including honour to the Blessed Sacrament, and to the Virgin Mary and other Saints.
Code: T-10365-CW
Title:
If we do wrong, we must not imagine that Christ begins to hate or despise us. He is always gazing upon us with love and compassion; but each of us can say: "When I sin, I distance myself from Him. I have failed to act like a child of God; but by repentance, I can become close to Him again.
Code: T-13191-CW
Title:
An unrepentant soul who had died and was about to fall down deep into Hell was shouting out in fury at the Holy God - the only God - Whom that soul despised and Whose laws it had ignored.
Code: T-08449-CW
Images and texts from this website can be downloaded for non-commercial uses, with full attribution, under these conditions.