By Staff, February 28, 2026
Visio Divina, a project of the Obsculta Preaching Series, seeks to disrupt the eternal scroll with an invitation to pray with sacred imagery. The videos in this series range in length from 2 and a half to 4 minutes long. We aim to use images related to the day’s scripture reading.
Today’s Gospel is Matthew 5:43-48, where Jesus encourages us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. These are hard words to digest. But, we thought, there’s something a bit gentler and yet still profound about hearing them while gazing upon an image of Christ, our teacher and friend.
The artwork in today’s Visio is an icon attributed to Tatiana Ronskaya, titled, “Jesus Pantocrator”. It is part of the permanent collection of the College of Saint Benedict, our sister school in nearby St Joseph, MN. This and many other incredible works of art in theirs and our own collection can be found here:
We encourage to view this video in full-screen mode.
Image: Copyright 2010 College of Saint Benedict. All rights reserved.
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers and sisters only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Visio is a production of Saint John’s School of Theology and the Obsculta Preaching Initiative. They are produced, written, edited and narrated by JP Misheff, a 1st-year Mdiv candidate at the SoT.
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