St. Luke's Attic

Pen and ink. This is an illustration for an essay about the book of Ruth. In the book, Boaz provides for a destitute Ruth and Naomi by leaving extra grain in his fields for them to glean and also by giving six measures of barley directly to Ruth. Her gleaning of grain from the fields is strongly reminiscent of the Israelites collecting the manna that God provided for them in their wanderings. The association of manna with the bread in communion and the even stronger association of grain with bread make this scene in Ruth a foreshadowing of Jesus giving bread and wine to his Church in the form of the elements in communion.