Startled three deer this morning which set me thinking about the use of the deer image in Christian Tradition. I thought first of the deer carved or painted on early Christian monuments, frozen for ever in an attitude of grace; deer stooping to drink on embroidered vestments thick with gold thread and precious jewels; sentimentalised deer on pious little prayer cards printed in slightly wonky colour, with bad typography and uncertain margins; but I was soon thinking about the references to deer in the scriptures. Thirteen in the Old Testament had occurred to me before the end of the walk. I began with the psalms and Isaiah but when I got back I checked them and arranged them in order. It is interesting to see how the bible begins with the deer as food before going on to a consideration of the deer as symbol of one protected and upheld by the love of God. There is a parallel there with the Rule of St Benedict. His practical arrangements school us in holiness just as much as any other aspect of monastic life. That is why we can say that the whole life of the monk or nun or oblate or associate must be an opus dei, a work of God.

1. Deuteronomy 12:15
However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer.
Deuteronomy 12:14-16 (in Context) Deuteronomy 12 (Whole Chapter)

2. Deuteronomy 12:22
Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it.
Deuteronomy 12:21-23 (in Context) Deuteronomy 12 (Whole Chapter)

3. Deuteronomy 14:5
the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.
Deuteronomy 14:4-6 (in Context) Deuteronomy 14 (Whole Chapter)

4. Deuteronomy 15:22
You shall eat it within your towns. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as though it were a gazelle or a deer.
Deuteronomy 15:21-23 (in Context) Deuteronomy 15 (Whole Chapter)

5. 2 Samuel 22:34
He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.
2 Samuel 22:33-35 (in Context) 2 Samuel 22 (Whole Chapter)

6. 1 Kings 4:23
ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.
1 Kings 4:22-24 (in Context) 1 Kings 4 (Whole Chapter)

7. Psalm 18:33 (liturgical psalter 17:34 you made my feet swift as the deer)
He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.
Psalm 18:32-34 (in Context) Psalm 18 (Whole Chapter)

8. Psalm 29:9 (liturgical psalter 28:9, though some translations refer to trees not deer!)
The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, "Glory!"
Psalm 29:8-10 (in Context) Psalm 29 (Whole Chapter)

9. Psalm 42:1(liturgical psalter 41:2 lots of musical settings, some of them awful)
[ BOOK TWO ] [ Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul? ] To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so longs my soul for you, O God.
Psalm 42:1-3 (in Context) Psalm 42 (Whole Chapter)

10. Proverbs 5:19
. . . a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.
Proverbs 5:18-20 (in Context) Proverbs 5 (Whole Chapter)

11. Isaiah 35:6
then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
Isaiah 35:5-7 (in Context) Isaiah 35 (Whole Chapter)

12. Lamentations 1:6
From the daughter of Zion all her majesty has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.
Lamentations 1:5-7 (in Context) Lamentations 1 (Whole Chapter)

13. Habakkuk 3:19
GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on the high places.
Habakkuk 3:18-19