DAVIDSONVILLE – Elizabeth Brownlee had just completed leading a class on women of the Old Testament at Holy Family Church in Davidsonville when a participant approached her with a sketchbook.
“’Can I show you something I did? I was inspired by the Holy Spirit,’” Brownlee recalled Shana McDonough telling her. Inside, there were pastel sketches of Hannah, Miriam and other Old Testament women the class had discussed.
“I saw them and – holey moley,” said Brownlee, who presented the work to the parish council and urged them to find a permanent home in the church building. The 13 sketches are now framed and awaiting installation on a wall next to a Knights of Columbus display.
“The Holy Spirit must really want this to work,” Brownlee said, noting that the class just ended in November and the project is coming together easily. “He wants this wall to go up soon.”
For McDonough, the sketches were “quite a surprise.” While she has taken art classes over the years, she was surprised how moved she was to sketch each historical woman after class.
“It is so funny how God works,” McDonough said. “It’s all him, not me. He’s moving in his own way.”
McDonough wasn’t raised with religion, she said. Her family moved often, especially in Asia to be near Thailand, her mother’s home country, as her father was in the military. When she married an Army officer, McDonough found herself on the move again, mostly in Europe.
It was while living in Italy that she found the Catholic Church after attending RCIA, the RITE of Christian Initiation for Adults classes with friends. She and her infant daughter were baptized together.
“The more I heard, the more I liked,” McDonough said.
The mother of four also started taking art classes while living in Europe.
“I was learning Hungarian and noticed my teacher had her art all over the place,” McDonough said, so she asked about art lessons.
“The first class she said, ‘Your mind is going to be very critical of your work,’” McDonough said. “I looked down and thought ‘that is the best circle I’ve ever made.’”
Another teacher suggested she sit down with a blank canvas, pray and create whatever the Holy Spirit showed her.
“That was the beginning of me listening to the Holy Spirit and creating. I love partnering with the Holy Spirit.”
She vividly remembers being in eucharistic adoration when she believes Jesus gave her an image of a relative who had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was told to paint a picture of her and Jesus together.
“She ended up getting healed,” McDonough said. “Maybe with my artwork, she could see God was with her in the midst of her journey with cancer. “
When her husband retired from the Army, they moved to Maryland to be near family. After attending one Mass at Holy Family, McDonough joined. She now is co-leading a Wild Goose 14- part video series by Father Dave Vivonka on the Holy Spirit at Brownlee’s suggestion.
“I always have to be pushed by the Spirit,” McDonough said. “On my own, I wouldn’t do it.”
She never expected all the fuss over her sketches, which she did quickly with oil pastels and with little thought other than Googling each woman for basic research.
“For those of us who went through (the class, it helps) to envision what they look like,” said Cyndi Zajic, Holy Family’s coordinator of family and fellowship ministry. “She is such a humble person. Who even does women of the Old Testament? That’s why the study is so awesome.”
Zajic said the parish council plans to create calendars and note cards featuring the sketches for future fundraisers.
“I would never have thought about going in that direction,” McDonough said. She admitted that she was at first uncomfortable with the thought of her sketches on display, but realized it “was all for his glory, not my own.”
“Yes, it is my artwork, but it really is a collaboration with everyone,” McDonough said, crediting the participants in the women of the Old Testament class as well as the parish council for their roles in the project.
“When I try to do it on my own, there are so many frustrations,” McDonough said. “Partnering with the Holy Spirit, it seems to fly, even through the ugly, and there is always an ugly stage.”
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