Our Holy Family Picture

In case you didn’t know, the reason our farm is called “Three Hearts Farm” is because we are under the patronage of the Holy Family. The Three Hearts represent Jesus, Mary and Joseph. There are many reasons that we chose them as our patrons, but the most obvious is that it is fruitful for us to meditate on the fact that when the God who created the universe chose to become a human, He did so in the context of a family.

Not just any family, but a family at the bottom of the social context of their time. He lived out 90% of His life in a backwater village in the middle of nowhere, sustained first by His dad’s income and then His own, earned day in and day out at a family-owned business. From reading Rory Groves, New Polity, and others in the post-liberal economic space, I have been drawn more and more to the idea of the family as an economic unit, one which produces goods for society as part of its mission as a family. Mary and Joseph truly did that more than any other family in history, earning (and baking) their bread for Jesus and with Jesus, in a way that is both absolutely unique and special, and at the same time normative and meant to be imitated.

Almost a year ago, we had an idea for a painting to hang on the wall in the shop. The idea came to me after a day when I was able to get some woodworking done, while Seppi was playing on the floor, hammering away at some scrap wood. It was quite a happy day, one of the rare days when I actually have time for that sort of thing.

We took the idea to my uncle, Chris Pelicano, the artist who designed the farm logo for us. He loved the idea, and as is his way, mulled it over for a few months, before emailing back a proposal for the painting.

Then in January of this year he finished the painting, and we received it in February.

It went into the workshop, carefully wrapped and protected. I always meant to get around to making a frame for it “sometime” but around here, “sometime” has a way of not actually happening.

Then over the last few weeks I had been reminded of the passages in Haggai where God chides the Israelites for getting so busy with their own affairs that they forgot to honor Him by building His temple.

Not that a picture is a temple, but the reminder spurred me to shift it from the “someday” list to the “Today” list.

I used to try to get gardening or pasture work done on school days when we homeschool in the shop, but this has not been working well this school year. Ellie is getting into more complicated math and requires more help than she did last year.

Seppi is easily distractable and would rather do wood working than school (which is totally understandable.

Observe his solution to the problem of wandering school books.

It was not a long project, and made easier by my new table saw miter guide. Cutting and gluing the frame to the backing only took a couple of hours (that works out to a couple of days in homeschooling time).

Then a little meditative trimming and fitting after workout one morning.

We got the painting blessed by Deacon George (our favorite deacon, he baptized all four of the kids) last Sunday.

Then on Monday we had a busy day of home schooling, and not much time at the farm, but Evie and I still made time to put the hangar on it.

And get it hung above the work bench.

And we still made it to violin with a minute to spare!

Part of the reason why this painting is so special to us is that Uncle Chris modeled St. Joseph in part off of my dad, Papa Doug. The way he is standing holding his wrist, the shape of the hands, the beard, the jaw and nose, all very much like Papa Doug, who had a tremendous devotion to St. Joseph his whole life.

So now the workshop is also under the patronage of the Holy Family, and we have a constant reminder to do everything we do there for Jesus and with Jesus, just like Mary and Joseph did.

Of course, there is only one of these paintings in the world, but you can also check it out and order your own print at https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/christopher-pelicano/shop.