Nameless legacies and prayerful art

September 11, 2024

MANILA – A few weeks ago, Fr. Sigmund “Munching” de Guzman, SJ, asked me to collaborate with him on his exhibit.

I’ve already featured Father Munching in this column. He’s a watercolor artist who infuses his paintings with prayer, and he was my facilitator last year at our silent retreat in Mirador House, Baguio.

Back then, Father Munching had merely been toying with the idea of an exhibit. This year, he received an invitation from the John J. Carroll, SJ, Institute on Church and Social Issues (ICSI), which is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

ICSI works to empower local leaders to develop communities. For its anniversary, ICSI would exhibit Father Munching’s paintings and sell them, with proceeds going to ICSI’s projects.

His idea was to have me write reflections for each of his 15 paintings that were up for sale. Father Munching’s work is pretty and bright; but when he explains his process, the light watercolors gain profundity and depth.

He talked about his paintings and the breadth of concepts that they represented. He reminded me to write about issues that people might forget in their daily rush: social justice, helping the poor, our temporary sufferings, our eternal happiness.

I wrote the reflections, and they became part of the pre-exhibit catalog sent to prospective buyers.

The very last painting to be sold was called “The Mortality of All Things.”

It shows a rusty truck, on a field of pumpkins spilling across green grass, standing against a misty blue sky. It represented the desired, impermanent things of the world, Father Munching had told me.

I wrote a reflection on our material desires becoming less beautiful, our wishes changing when our things grew old, our priceless legacies of family,