The Eyes of Faith

The Eyes of Faith

On a grassy slope in Lithuania, beside a majestic river, stands a motley collection of wooden crosses, statuettes, devotional images, and rosaries. This “Hill of Crosses” has been a pilgrimage site since the 14th century. Like the cathedral at Chartres, it rises amidst a stretch of countryside, a silent witness to the faith.

A modern Golgotha of sorts, it survived the onslaught of Soviet repression and continues to flourish in our times. On certain days, the wind blows across the hill, gently swaying the rosaries and medals, whispering a song of healing.

The mystery of that distant shrine was brought home to my family in May, while at an art exhibition in College Station. There we saw a mosaic image of the Hill of Crosses, one of many works by Lithuanian artist, Lucija Tijunelis. She looks at nature through the eyes of faith, a bit like the poet William Blake who wished to “see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower.”

In fact, Lucija (now a great-grandma at 87) cannot bear to see flowers die and go to waste. For decades she has been collecting and pressing botanical materials that eventually form part of her floral collages and mosaics. You might say that she wants her flowers to live forever in her artwork, no less than her sweet memories of her native land.

Her themes are simple and nostalgic: innocence, wonder, awe, beauty, and gratitude for God’s bounty. As she painstakingly glues petals, shoots, or wood filaments into an image of a child, a waterfall, or a rustic scene, Lucija is recreating and preserving something pristine in her own past. Not a scrap of artificial material enters into her collages. Hers is truly a unique skill.



I see many parables hidden in Lucija’s work. For instance, I like to think of how
Divine Providence draws value out of everything we do, even those things in our past that are failed or somehow gone dead. Nobody’s life is wasted.

When I have gone to God with my disappointments or defeats, He never fails to turn them into new realizations or fresh opportunities. I take heart from seeing how Lucija’s faith has helped her remain a sweet and whole person, despite a harsh life behind the Iron Curtain and years of hard work as a post-war immigrant

Another lesson we learn from Lucija’s work is her perseverance and positive attitude. In an age of disposable products, glitzy media hype, and self-promotion, Lucija shows us the importance of contemplating God’s creation through imagination linked with faith. In her own special way, she saves and renews, and in this way teaches us to be re-enchanted by everyday things.

What brings all this even closer home is that Lucija is related to us by marriage. In 2003, our daughter Julia married Lucija’s youngest grandson, Bronius, and they are expecting their first child in early July.

Like them, our entire family feels blest by the shining example of faith and the spirit of renewal in Lucija’s life. (Visit: http://mmt.fingertrips.com)

Reflecting on the eyes of faith, the words of C. S. Lewis come to mind: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
Stephen Mendonca