MARYS for May #31 – The Joy of Bringing Jesus to Others

The Visitation, James B. Janknegt, 2007, oil on canvas

In his homily this morning for the Feast of the Visitation, Pope Francis preached about joy and praise. The Holy Spirit is the "author" of Christian joy, he said, and to proclaim the Gospel we need to have joy in our hearts gifted us by the Spirit of God. The model of this praise, and this joy, is the Mother of Jesus "The Church – recalled Pope Francis – calls her the" cause of our joy, "Cause Nostrae Letitiae. Why? Because she brings the greatest joy that is Jesus ":

"We need to pray to Our Lady, so that bringing Jesus give us the grace of joy, the joy of freedom. That it give us the grace to praise, to praise with a prayer of gratuitous praise, because He is worthy of praise, always. Pray to Our Lady and say to her what the Church says:Veni, Precelsa Domina, Maria, tu nos visita, Lady, thou who art so great, visit us and give us joy. "

MARYS for May #30 – "I am with you always"

The Ascension

Giotto, Fresco from the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, 1305

". . . and the Mother of Jesus was there."

St. John Paul II:

Be imbued with the hope that is so much a part of the mystery of the Ascension of Jesus. Be deeply conscious of Christ’s victory and triumph over sin and death. Realize that the strength of Christ is greater than our weakness, greater than the weakness of the whole world. Try to understand and share the joy that Mary experienced in knowing that her Son had taken his place with his Father, whom he loved infinitely. And renew your faith today in the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has gone to prepare a place for us, so that he can come back again and take us to himself.  – Homily, May 24, 1979

MARYS for May #29 – “Why are you standing there looking up to the sky?”

The Ascension

Mikhail Nesterov, Oil Painting, 1895

Nesterov was a deeply devout member of the Orthodox Church whose work combines traditional Russian iconography with post-impressionist symbolism of the late 19th century.  Even after the Russian Revolution, he continued to paint religious subjects despite the hostility of both the government and critics.

In Nesterov’s version of the Ascension, Mary is the strong center of his composition. As Christ ascends in the oval “mandorla” which signifies heavenly glory, Mary remains firmly rooted on the ground at the center of the gaping apostles.  As the woman of faith, she already understands what it means for Jesus to return to his Father. As the woman already “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit, she knows that Jesus is not abandoning them but inviting them into an even deeper relationship with God. And as the woman of prayer, she sustains the bewildered community as they await the outpouring of the Spirit which will transform them. As the confused apostles look anxiously to the skies, a centered and certain Mary looks out towards us who glimpse the scene from below.

A commentator on traditional Russian iconography comments on the centrality of Mary in Ascension icons, a significance that Nesterov emphasizes by the solidity of Mary’s form and color compared to all the other figures in the painting:

Amid the confusion of the Church before Pentecost there is the Mother of God, prayerfully and peacefully entreating God, and hoping upon His promised return. Gazing out, she exhorts us, whilst still amid the confusion and disorder of the world, to do the same: spiritually gazing to the heavens in prayer, awaiting the return of Our Lord.

MARYS for May #28 – Mary Ponders

The Virgin Enthroned with a Book

Panel from the Ghent Altarpiece 

Jan van Eyck, Oil and Tempera on Wood, 1426-29

St. Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium

Could Mary read? Ancient traditions attest that she was sent to the Temple in Jerusalem as a young girl where she learned to read and write. Certainly, she is often depicted with a book, as in this glorious panel from the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, most often referred to as the Ghent Altarpiece. A large and complex composition by the Flemish artist Jan van Eyck and his brother, the altarpiece, commissioned for the Cathedral of St. Bavo, is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of European art.

Why do artists so often paint Mary with a book? She reads at the feet of her mother Anne. She is absorbed in her book as the angel Gabriel alights with his message. She lays her book aside to tend to her playful young son and his cousin John. In van Eyck’s painting, she reads even while enthroned as queen of heaven. (Does anyone else think it’s wonderful to think that there will be reading in heaven?)

I think the book is an emblem for Mary’s prayer and her pondering. When Mary is reading, she is at prayer. She “reads” in the fullest sense: she searches, she understands, she opens her mind and heart completely to whatever message the Word of God wishes to speak to her. As she ponders the word, it penetrates every part of her being. She becomes the word she reads and the Word takes flesh in her flesh. Her attentiveness leads her to “read” the signs of the times. She anticipates her son’s first miracle when she tells the stewards at Cana: “Do whatever he tells you.”

The book is also a symbol for Mary. The Blessed Virgin is the book in which the Church reads what it means to live with faith. She is "the sacred book of the divine precepts, in which what pleases God is made known to us.” (St. Theodore of Studion, d. 826). The Virgin Mary with her book teaches us to pray better and to ponder more attentively. In her we study the most faithful and fruitful illustration of the Word made flesh.

MARYS for May 27: The Abiding Presence of Mary

Pentecost in the Upper Room

Unknown Portuguese artist, 1540-50

Museu de Alberto Sampaio, Portugal

The upper room, called the Cenacle, is the birthplace of the Church. This room is the setting of the Last Supper and the First Eucharist, a place of service, sacrifice and betrayal, of farewell and forgiveness. The Acts of the Apostles records that the apostles gathered there after the Ascension and “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” (Acts 1:14)

Mary’s presence is significant. She is the “woman” who was present at Cana, at the beginning of Jesus’ mission, and the one who prompted his first miracle, the first sign of the coming Kingdom.  She is present throughout Jesus’ ministry even to the foot of the cross. And now she is present as the community awaits a new sign and begins a new mission. How appropriate that artists often place at the center of the gathered disciples.

At the conclusion his pilgrimage to the Holy Land this weekend, Pope Francis gathered the bishops of the Holy Land together in that same upper room and reminded them of the significance of this room to the whole Christian family:

The Upper Room reminds us of sharing, fraternity, harmony and peace among ourselves. How much love and goodness has flowed from the Upper Room! How much charity has gone forth from here, like a river from its source, beginning as a stream and then expanding and becoming a great torrent.  All the saints drew from this source; and hence the great river of the Church’s holiness continues to flow: from the Heart of Christ, from the Eucharist and from the Holy Spirit.

Lastly, the Upper Room reminds us of the birth of the new family,the Church, our holy Mother the hierarchical Church established by the risen Jesus; a family that has a Mother, the Virgin Mary. Christian families belong to this great family, and in it they find the light and strength to press on and be renewed, amid the challenges and difficulties of life. All God’s children, of every people and language, are invited and called to be part of this great family, as brothers and sisters and sons and daughters of the one Father in heaven.

These horizons are opened up by the Upper Room, the horizons of the Risen Lord and his Church.

From here the Church goes forth, impelled by the life-giving breath of the Spirit. Gathered in prayer with the Mother of Jesus, the Church lives in constant expectation of a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Send forth your Spirit, Lord, and renew the face of the earth (cf. Ps 104:30)!

Read his whole homily here: http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2014/05/from-here-church-set-out-from-here-she.html

MARYS for May #26 – No Greater Love

Lamentation over the Dead Christ

Fra Angelico, Tempera on Panel, 1436-1441, 

Museo de San Marco, Florence

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13

Pope Francis in Bethlehem: "The child is the sign"

"The Bethlehemitissa” Wonderworking Icon of Our Lady of Bethlehem in the south transept of the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

Pope Francis visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem this morning and celebrated Mass in Manger Square. In his homily he reflected on Luke 2:12: “This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” 

"The Child Jesus, born in Bethlehem," Pope Francis preached, ""is the sign given by God to those who awaited salvation, and he remains forever the sign of God’s tenderness and presence in our world: 'This will be a sign for you: you will find a child…'.Today too, children are a sign. They are a sign of hope, a sign of life, but also a “diagnostic” sign, a marker indicating the health of families, society and the entire world. Wherever children are accepted, loved, cared for and protected, the family is healthy, society is more healthy and the world is more human."
Read the whole homily here:http://popefrancisholyland2014.lpj.org/blog/2014/05/25/manger-square-holy-mass-bethlehem-25-05-2014/ 

MARYS for May #25 – Our Lady of Hope

Our Lady of Holy Hope

Beloved:
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence,
keeping your conscience clear,
so that, when you are maligned,
those who defame your good conduct in Christ
may themselves be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.

1Peter 3:15-18

Devotion to this image of Our Lady of Hope has long been associated with the Passionists, whose founder, St. Paul of the Cross, taught that “the whole life of Jesus was a cross” and the life of a disciple of Jesus means remaining on the cross with him. Paul’s successor, Father John Baptist Gorresio, had copies made and it became the custom for each religious to have one of these prints in his room.

Our own founder, Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, teaches us that Jesus associates Mary in the fruitfulness of his sufferings: "It was the will of the Savior of souls that her entire fruitfulness would consist in suffering."

"'Never forget the birthpangs of your mother' (Sirach 7:29). Mary is, after Jesus, the firm basis of our hope."

MARYS for May #24 – Praying for All the World

Contemporary Icon of the Protecting Veil of the Theotokus (Agia Skepi)

Paint and gold leaf on panel, commissioned by St. Innocent Press, Indiana

This traditional icon recalls one of the great feasts of the Orthodox Church, the appearance of the Mother of God (Theotokus) at Constantinople in the early tenth century:

"On Sunday, October 1, during the All Night Vigil, when the church was overflowing with those at prayer, St Andrew, the Fool-for-Christ, at the fourth hour, lifted up his eyes towards the heavens and beheld our most Holy Lady Theotokos coming through the air, resplendent with heavenly light and surrounded by an assembly of the Saints. St John the Baptist and the holy Apostle John the Theologian accompanied the Queen of Heaven. On bended knees the Most Holy Virgin tearfully prayed for Christians for a long time. Then, coming near the Bishop's Throne, she continued her prayer.

After completing her prayer she took her veil and spread it over the people praying in church, protecting them from enemies both visible and invisible. The Most Holy Lady Theotokos was resplendent with heavenly glory, and the protecting veil in her hands gleamed 'more than the rays of the sun.' St Andrew gazed trembling at the miraculous vision and he asked his disciple, the blessed Epiphanius standing beside him, 'Do you see, brother, the Holy Theotokos, praying for all the world?' Epiphanius answered, 'I do see, holy Father, and I am in awe.'" (Primary Chronicle of St. Nestor)

Here is the beautiful prayer (troparion) for the feast:

Today the faithful celebrate the feast with joy

illumined by your coming, O Mother of God.

Beholding your pure image we fervently cry to you:

"Encompass us beneath the precious veil of your protection;

deliver us from every form of evil by entreating Christ

your Son and our God that He may save our souls."

MARYS for May #23 – The "Splendor of an Entirely Unique Holiness"

The Immaculate Conception

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Oil on Canvas, 1767-69

Museo del Prado, Madrid

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo is the undisputed master of the sumptuous 18^th century style known as Rococo. In the hands of lesser artists these works are simply too much for our modern eyes: too many colors, too many clouds, and certainly too many little angels.  Tiepolo paints in a way that is simultaneously exuberant and restrained; his subdued color palette and the elegance of his composition achieve a majesty suitable for his exalted subject. The grandeur of Mary’s figure derives from his use of a low viewpoint combined with a vertical emphasis, and the great size of the canvas (nearly 6’x8’) amplifies this grandeur. Tiepolo’s challenge was to paint Mary’s immaculate soul in bodily form; and the elegant turn of her body, her dynamic stillness amidst the bustling angels,  and, above all, the profound serenity of her face beautifully “embody” the mystery of a woman who is “full of grace” from the first moment of her life.

Tiepolo’s painting precedes the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by nearly a century, but his painting captures what the faithful have believed about Mary through the ages and illustrates what Catechism teaches about the "splendor” of Mary’s “entirely unique holiness":

To become the mother of the Savior, Mary "was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role." The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as "full of grace". In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God's grace. (490)

The "splendor of an entirely unique holiness" by which Mary is "enriched from the first instant of her conception" comes wholly from Christ: she is "redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son". The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" and chose her "in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love". (492)

MARYS for May #22 -- Mary Comforts Eve

Mary Comforts Eve

Sr. Grace Remington, OCSO, Crayon and Colored Pencil Drawing, 2005

The Cistercian sisters of Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey support themselves by marketing the greeting cards they design. This provocative image was designed for a Christmas card by two of the sisters. Sr. Grace prepared the drawing and Sr. Columba, the abbess, wrote this poem to accompany it:

O Eve!
My mother, my daughter, life-giving Eve,
Do not be ashamed, do not grieve.
The former things have passed away,
Our God has brought us to a New Day.
See, I am with Child,
Through whom all will be reconciled.
O Eve! My sister, my friend,
We will rejoice together
Forever
Life without end.

How telling that Mary “comforts” rather than “confronts” Eve; how lovely that the sisters surround the two women not with the apples that represent the sin and the fall, but with the pear tree (think "12 Days of Christmas") that symbolizes our redemption. Contrite Eve and consoling Mary are sisters in the story of our salvation, the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb overcoming and undoing all that was wrought by the cursed fruit Eve clutches to her breast.  

MARYS for May #21 – Madonna of Humility

Madonna of Humility

Giovanni di Paolo, Tempera on Panel c. 1442, 

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

In a gallery full of paintings at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, this one captured my attention and imagination immediately. A little research and some prayerful reflection drew me to this Madonna and Child even more. Giovanni di Paolo was a Sienese painter who is best known for his illustrations of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Mary is central to Dante’s conception of heaven and hell, and the Florentine poet’s influence can be seen in this painting. Notice how di Paolo situates Mary and Jesus at the base of a mountain and divides his composition into a series of “rings.”  At the top of the painting, the Holy Spirit “hovers” as in the first verses of Genesis, and di Paolo’s strange mountain peaks remind us of those wind-swept waters that precede creation. As we come down the mountain, we see the world gradually taking shape from barren earth to forest to tilled fields, roads and towns. In the middle ground of the painting we encounter a dense orchard of fruit trees of every kind. Have we reached the garden of Paradise?

Following his Florentine guide, di Paolo places the Virgin and Child at the center of his new Eden. We find the new Adam and Eve in a circular clearing filled with flowers. Seated on the ground with her head uncovered, the new Eve’s humility overturns the proud disobedience of our first parents. The serpentine folds of Mary’s cloak remind us that she will strike the ancient tempter. In the lap of his mother, Jesus, the new Adam, is charmingly and disarmingly naked. Truly God and truly man, the all-powerful Word of God spoken from all eternity assumes the weakest of human flesh. As Mary enfolds her child in her arms and as Jesus reaches out to his mother, their tender yet tense expressions tell us that they are thinking of another hill and another garden and of the price that will be paid to restore this paradise.

MARYS for May #20 – Formed from Clay

Madonna of the Niche

Lucca della Robbia, glazed terracotta, about 1448, 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Lucca della Robbia is an Italian Renaissance sculptor who developed a new technique for glazing and firing terracotta that produced works that were both more delicate and more durable than the ceramics that preceded him. Due to his talented relatives and his busy workshop, blue and white della Robbias can be found in almost any museum, but this one in Boston is particularly lovely.

As a sculptor in marble and bronze, della Robbia was capable of complex compositions, but for his ceramics he strips away every unnecessary detail, and offers us an elegant yet profound simplicity.

In Genesis God fashions the first humans from clay and Isaiah offers us an image of God as potter: Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand. (64:8)

In the skilled hands of della Robbia, clay becomes a powerful medium of expression. Set in a simple niche, we glimpse a tender embrace between mother and child. Formed from the rich red clay of Tuscany, Mary and Jesus are shaped into a unified composition. There is no separation or division between the human mother and her divine son. Notice how beautifully della Robbia integrates the bodies of Mary and Jesus, their faces pressed together and their hands and arms pulling their bodies closer to each other.  In humble clay, della Robbia offers us a glimpse of the “perfect” union of human and divine, potter and clay, in Jesus and Mary.

St. Louis de Montfort:

"Mary is the most perfect and the most holy of all creatures, and Jesus, who came to us in a perfect manner, chose no other road for his great and wonderful journey. The Most High, the Incomprehensible One, the Inaccessible One, He who is, deigned to come down to us poor earthly creatures who are nothing at all. How was this done? The Most High God came down to us in a perfect way through the humble Virgin Mary, without losing anything of his divinity or holiness. It is likewise through Mary that we poor creatures must ascend to almighty God in a perfect manner without having anything to fear."

MARYS for May #19 – Image and Likeness

St. Luke Drawing the Virgin

Rogier van der Weyden, oil on oak panel, c. 1435-40, 

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts describes this painting as "among the most important northern European paintings in the United States,” but I did not know the painting until I spent time in the MFA this weekend. Van der Weyden is one of the masters of the northern Renaissance and among the first artists to employ the use of oil paints. In this panel painting which was commissioned by the guild of artists in Brussels, van der Weyden offers us insights into both Mary and the artist.

According to tradition, St. Luke was the first person to paint an image of Mary. In some versions of the story, Luke uses the table top in St. John’s kitchen at Patmos as the surface for this original icon. Art and evangelization are thus linked from the beginning of Christianity. Van der Weyden re-imagines this tradition in a provocative way. In a composition that reminds us of countless scenes of the Annunciation, he places St. Luke in the position usually held by the angel. The artist becomes the messenger of the good news. Further, St. Luke is a self-portrait of van der Weyden. The ideal of the patron saint is that his followers assume the virtues of their patron, and van der Weyden shows his desire to enter into the familiar relationship with Mary and Jesus enjoyed by Luke. As he contemplates the intimate scene of nursing mother and contented child, he strives to capture more than just physical details. Seated beneath a royal canopy of costly damask, the humble mother and her incarnate son sit not on the throne but on its footstep. Beyond the room where Luke/Rogier sketches, we see an enclosed garden (hortus conclusus) that is a symbol of Mary’s virginity. Two figures at the back wall of the garden look out into the distance. Van der Weyden uses the background of his painting both to draw us into this intimate moment of union and to lead us out to the world, the goal of both contemplation and evangelization.

An icon invites the viewer to a prayerful encounter with the holy persons depicted. In this painting we see that the God who made us in his image and likeness has now taken on our likeness in the incarnation, the Word made flesh through Mary. In “imagining” ourselves as part of this we are formed ever more closely into the likeness of the one we contemplate. As we strive to “draw” closer to Jesus and Mary, we must use our talents to “announce” this wonderful news to the world beyond our enclosed space of prayerful encounter.

St. Luke, artist and evangelist, pray for us, that we may be made ever more fully into the image of the Word made flesh through Mary.

MARYS for May #18 – The Way

Our Lady, Star of Evangelization

Marek Czarnecki, Egg Tempera and gold leaf on wood, 2011, 

Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” -- John 14:6

“We can have life only in Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ. Now it is through Mary that this life is communicated to us.” – Blessed William Joseph Chaminade

MARYS for May #16 -- Pray for us

The Annunciation

Masolino da Panicale, Fresco 1428, Basilica of San Clemente, Rome

“Pray for us, Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”

One of the most beautiful Annunciations in Rome is overlooked by most pilgrims.  Most visitors to the ancient basilica of San Clemente come to see the three-tiered archeological excavations that trace the history of the building back to first century Rome or the vividly detailed 12^th century mosaics in the apse. Our lovely virgin is found high up on the rear wall of the church, part of an elaborate Renaissance scheme of fresco decoration for a chapel.

Masolino da Panicale (1383-1447) collaborated with some of the greatest artists of the early Renaissance including Ghiberti and Masaccio in Florence, but like this fresco he is not as well known. His peers celebrated his work for bringing fresh vitality and elegance, and, to my eyes, his frescoes are still more engaging than almost anything else to be seen in Roman churches.

Masolino situates the Annunciation in an elaborate portico that is neither inside nor outside, the opening to something completely new. He uses the architecture of the chapel to emphasize the distance between Mary and the angel, the distance between the promise of the Messiah and Mary’s conception, the distance between the angel’s request and Mary’s Fiat, when salvation awaits the word of a girl.

Mary’s stillness in this fresco is what captivates me. She is a woman at prayer, a contemplative whose entire attention is fixed on God. The Word of God stands before her on a bookstand, but more significantly it is already within her. The physical presence of the angel is mostly for the benefit of the viewer. Mary receives God’s message internally. Many Fathers of the Church relate how, before Mary could conceive Christ in her womb, she first conceived him in her heart. Masolino has stripped away every unnecessary detail, every distraction, to draw our attention to this profound encounter between God and his beloved daughter, to this moment of prayer so attentive, so loving, so generative that it will give birth to the long-awaited Savior.

Lumen Gentium, the great document of Vatican II, speaks of Mary’s “pilgrimage of faith.” (58) Masolino asks us to ponder her “pilgrimage of prayer:” her unshakable faith, her ready obedience, her simple humility, her joyous praise of the Lord, her ardent love, the brave and steadfast performance of her duty which is above all to persevere in union with her son and with the Father he reveals. How blessed we are to be able to join our prayers to hers and to ask her to pray for us.

MARYS for May #17-- Restoration

Madonna della Strada

Unknown Artist, Fresco, late 13th century, 

Church of the Gesu, Rome

“Behold, I make all things new.” Revelation 21:5

The last of our Roman Madonnas appears quite contemporary in its color scheme and in the direct way in which Jesus and Mary regard the viewer, but it is nearly a thousand years old. For many centuries it has been watched over by the Jesuits in their mother church in Rome called the “Gesu.”

In 1541, Pope Paul III entrusted a small church to Ignatius and his small company of priests. The church was named for the ancient icon venerated within it called the Madonna della Strada – “Our Lady of the Way.” Ignatius developed a great devotion to the image, and encouraged his brothers to seek Mary’s intercession as they discerned the “way” in which to serve her son. Before his death in 1556, Ignatius instructed that the icon be preserved in the new church being built on the site of that original chapel. When the Gesu was dedicated in 1584, Our Lady of the Way was enshrined between the altar of St. Ignatius and the main altar, dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus. The placement emphasizes Mary’s role as intermediary and intercessor, and for over 400 years pilgrims found their own way to the icon.

Over the centuries dirt and grime obscured the image. Faces became frozen behind the residue of discolored varnish. Layers of paint were added and then “retouched.” Mary’s hands disappeared beneath the flat folds of a heavy cloak.  Pious devotees “enriched” the icon by the application of gold crowns, sparkling jewels, and diamond earrings. It was as if the icon that had inspired St. Ignatius was lost behind the loving attention shown by the faithful.

Before restoration in 2006

Early in the new millennium, the Jesuits began a restoration of the image. Additions were stripped away. Dirt and resins were painstakingly removed, and the result was a revelation. New colors emerged from the beneath the murky over-painting. The figures emerged fresh and lively, with healthy complexions and more substantial, three-dimensional bodies.  Now a rosy-cheeked Jesus raises his hand in blessing while his mother holds him with one arm and reaches out towards her supplicants with the other.  Removing the accretions of the centuries renewed the vitality of the ancient image, giving it a power that engages the contemporary eye.

St. Ignatius encouraged what he called the “contemplative imagination,” in the spiritual life, and we can learn a lesson from the restoration of Our Lady of the Way.  Is it time for a restoration of our spiritual life? What needs to be cleansed or stripped away? What additions and enrichments have actually diminished our spiritual power? The peeling away may be painful, but we can be assured that Jesus and Mary are waiting to be revealed, waiting to show us the way to renewal. 

MARYS for May #15 – Dirty Toenails / Beautiful Feet

Madonna di Loretto

Caravaggio, Oil on Canvas c. 1603-06, Church of S. Agostino, Rome

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:15

Caravaggio is one of everyone’s favorite artists. His incomparable mastery of light and shadow (“chiaroscuro” in the evocative Itailan) and his hyper-realism appeal to almost everyone’s taste. This was not always the case. When the painting in the church of S. Agostino near the Piazza Navona was unveiled in the early 17th century, “a great cackle (‘schiamazzo’ in another delightful Italian original)” arose over the painting, according to one of Caravaggio’s many rivals.  The elite of Rome were outraged; the ordinary people flocked to see the painting.

What was the fuss all about? It comes down to dirty feet.

The painting shows two dirty and tired pilgrims arriving late at night at the shrine of the Holy House of Loretto. According to tradition, Mary’s house in Nazareth, where she was conceived, where the Angel Gabriel appeared to her, and where Jesus grew up, “flew” to the sanctuary of Loretto in search of safety from the dangers of the Crusades. I cannot help thinking of the Wizard of Oz, but for the faithful of the day, the house had a powerful appeal:  This was the place where Mary and Jesus lived and breathed, worked and prayed, where they lived a “real” life. As the pilgrims kneel in prayer before the shadowy door of the holy house, something wonderful happens. Mary and the child Jesus step out onto the doorstep to bless them. A light that seems to come from nowhere (this is sometimes called Caravaggio light) illumines them and is reflected on the astonished faces of the pilgrims.

The pilgrims in their travel-stained clothing were vulgar enough, but this depiction of Mary and her son was shocking beyond belief. They look as if they have just been awakened, their faces red and puffy with sleep. Mary’s clothes are disheveled, and she struggles to keep her squirming son wrapped in his bed sheet.  Her pose is awkward; she twists her shoulders and hips to keep her too-large child from slipping out of her arm. Her feet are bare. Her toenails are dirty.

I have always loved those bare feet and dirty toenails. They bring me back to an important truth. We are always tempted to make the Incarnation less real, less physical, too spiritual.  We forget that the everyday life of Jesus and Mary was not lived in the elegant perfection of a Renaissance palace, but amidst the dirt and distractions of a poor farming village. The Incarnation did not remove them from any of the demands of living a “real” life. They ate and slept; there were even diapers to change. Pope Francis likes to speak about pastors “who have the smell of the sheep.” Caravaggio gives us a Mother and Savior who have the dirty feet of the poor. How beautiful. Good news indeed.      

MARYS for May #14 – A Glimpse of Heaven

Apse Mosaic, 1140-1143, Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome

The frescoes from Santa Priscilla earlier in the week reminded me of some of my other favorite Marian images from Rome. First place goes to this glorious, glittering semicircular mosaic from the apse of Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of Rome’s most ancient churches.

Santa Maria in Trastevere may be the first place in Rome where Mass was celebrated openly. The original 4th century church was rebuilt in the 12th century by Pope Innocent II and richly decorated in the Byzantine style. If the frescoes of Santa Priscilla shrouded in darkness and mystery, whisper to us about the early Christians, the mosaics of Santa Maria are a shout out from the late medieval Church.

The sumptuous gold background composed of innumerable tiles catches our eye immediately upon entering the basilica.  These “tesserae,” formed of gold leaf fused between two layers of glass, both reflect and refract light, creating a visual sensation designed to transport the viewer from the dim light of earth to the glory of heaven.  Prophets and evangelists, apostles and saints, and a host of Biblical symbols invite us to contemplate this celestial vision. (Take a few moments to ponder the row of sheep and their “shepherd.)

At the center of this glimpse of heaven is an image of Jesus and Mary unprecedented in Roman art. They are dressed in the sumptuous formal costume of Byzantine monarchs, but their intimate, almost casual position speaks of a different relationship. Nestled in soft cushions, they sit side by side on a double-throne (a love seat?) with a carpet at their feet. The face of Jesus is ruddy and strong, youthful and alive. Mary’s face is softer, older, and more solemn. As in so many Byzantine icons, Mary points to her son. Uniquely in this mosaic, Jesus wraps his right arm around his mother’s shoulders, embracing her, and validating for all eternity the words first spoken to her at the moment when this mysterious and glorious mingling of heaven and earth first began: “Do not fear, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” 

MARYS for May #13 – Our Lady of Fatima

The Apparition at Fatima

Unknown artist, Mass-produced holy card, mid-20th century

“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the children.” Matthew 11:25

Nearly a century ago, during the darkest days of World War I, the sun danced in the sky above a remote, rural village in Portugal called Fatima, a name ultimately derived from the Arabic word for “peace.” This “Miracle of the Sun,” witnessed by a crowd of over 70,000 people, was the culmination of a series of apparitions by the Blessed Mother to three very young peasant children that began on May 13, 1917. Lúcia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco reported seeing a lady "brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun". Astonished by what they had seen and heard, they ran back to their village and told everyone.

Our images of Our Lady of Fatima are based on the descriptions given by Lúcia, the only one of the visionaries to reach adulthood. In the official statues at the shrine, endlessly replicated, Mary stands, slender and stooped, dressed in white. She holds a rosary draped over her arm or gestures towards her Immaculate Heart. A pair of golden roses is sometimes shown at her feet. There are no masterworks of art depicting these events. No poet or theologian was needed to spread her message. The astonished children went back to their village and told their families and friends of the Lady and her message. These told still others, and soon the whole world knew of the Lady “brighter than the sun” and of her pleas for prayer and peace.

As our image suggests, soon the message to the three young shepherds reached all the way to the chief shepherd in Rome. In 1946, Pope Pius XII “crowned” the statue in Fatima as a sign of papal approbation.  On May 13, 1981, an assassin shot point blank at the young Pope John Paul II. “It was a mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s path,” was the saint’s assessment of his miraculous escape from death.  Later he sent one of the deadly bullets to Fatima to be placed in the Virgin’s crown. On October 13, 2013, the 96th anniversary of the dancing sun, that crowned statue of Our Lady of Fatima was carried into St. Peter’s square as part of the culmination of the Year of Faith as Pope Francis consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. “Guard our lives in your arms,” he said. “Bless and strengthen every desire for goodness; revive and grow faith; sustain and illuminate hope; arouse and enliven charity; guide all of us on the path of holiness.”   

The meaning of Fatima and its “secrets” has given rise to much learned debate and speculation, but Mary’s message was simple enough for three children to comprehend and convey: pray for peace, do penance for sin. Another thing is also very clear. The lady “brighter than the sun” wore no crown. While she shares the glory of her Son in heaven, Mary remains the poor, humble woman of Nazareth who comes among her people as one of them. As in so many of her apparitions, she shows her preferential love for children and for the poor. She speaks not in the elegant language of official documents but in the direct and unrefined dialect of the people.  She goes to the margins, the edges of society, to bring the message of her Son to his people. This is truly “popular” devotion, the devotion of a poor woman for her own people and of the people for their Mother.

Pope Francis' Prayer of Consecration before Our Lady of Fatima

Holy Mary Virgin of Fatima, with renewed gratitude for your maternal presence

we join our voice to that of all the generations who call you blessed.

We celebrate in you the works of God,

who never tires of looking down with mercy upon humanity,

afflicted with the wound of sin, to heal it and save it.

Accept with the benevolence of a Mother the act of consecration

that we perform today with confidence,

before this image of you that is so dear to us.

We are certain that each of us is precious in your eyes

and that nothing of all that lives in our hearts is unknown to you.

We let ourselves be touched by your most sweet regard

and we welcome the consoling caress of your smile.

Hold our life in your arms: bless and strengthen every desire for good;

revive and nourish faith; sustain and enlighten hope;

awaken and animate charity; guide all of us along the path of holiness.

Teach us your own preferential love for the little and the poor,

for the excluded and the suffering, for sinners and the downhearted:

bring everyone under your protection and entrust everyone

to your beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus.

Amen.

MARYS for May #12 – Where it all began

The Earliest Known Image of Mary

Fresco c. 230-40 AD, Catacombs of Santa Priscilla, Rome

The Catacombs of Santa Priscilla off the Via Salaria in Rome are described in the most ancient documents of the church as the “regina catacumbarum – the queen of the catacombs,” because of the great number of popes and martyrs buried within its chambers. The bones of these saints were long ago removed to other Roman churches, but many remarkably well-preserved paintings from the first Christian centuries remain. The “queen” of these is this recently restored fresco of a nursing mother with a star overhead – the earliest known image of Mary and the first of many, many Italian Madonnas. – painted in the middle of the third century during a time of harsh persecution of the Christian community.

The restoration, completed in November 2013 after five years of work, reveals new details about the image that help us understand the place of Mary in the early Christian community. The nursing mother is dressed in the woolen garment worn by the most dignified Roman matrons, yet she also wears the short veil typical of dedicated virgins. This virgin-mother cradles her child in her arms as she feeds him. The persecuted Christians who gathered in these chambers 17 centuries ago already looked to Mary for refuge and security. They look to the mother to bring them closer to her son who turns his head towards them.

The man standing beside Mary wears a philosopher’s cloak. He points to a star that rests above the mother and child. He is a prophet, probably either Balaam or Isaiah, who foretells the coming of the Messiah. We see that the early Christian community in Rome esteems the Old Testament prophecies of their Jewish forbears. The persecuted Christians of the young church in Rome (the nursing child in his mother’s arms) declare their connection and continuity with the people of the ancient covenant with Abraham. Above the figures twinkles the first rendering of the Christmas star. How beautiful to think of that “light to the nations” shining for all those centuries in the darkened chambers of the catacomb.

Ever ancient, ever new: As part of the restoration of S. Priscilla, GoogleMaps filmed the catacombs. You can take a virtual tour here: https://plus.google.com/+CatacombediPriscillaRoma/about?gl=US&hl=en-US

(Thanks to the blog PureandLowly for the insights into Mary’s Roman costume.)

MARYS for May #11 – Mother of the Church

Madonna dei Raccomandati

Lippo Memmi, Tempera on panel c. 1350, Orvieto Cathedral

This Madonna dei Raccomandati, Our Lady of the “Recommended,” belongs to a tradition of paintings known as the “Mater Ecclessiae,” where Mary is depicted as the Mother of the Church. Her ample cloak is the bridge between heaven and earth, and both the angels in heaven and the people on earth look to Mary, who is the central axis of this painting and of Memmi’s cosmology. Mary, crowned as queen of heaven but with her feet firmly on earth, is the unifying figure of the communion of saints which is the Church. The angels and saints in heaven praise her, while the struggling "saints" on earth look to her as a guide and an advocate. Under Mary’s protection, we see men and women of all classes, with the donor just a little bit larger than the rest, so as to be sure of Mary’s notice.  The men and women are segregated according to the culture of 14th century Italy, but everyone is equally “recommended” by the Mother to her Son and by the Son to his Mother according to the eternal plan of the Father for his Kingdom.

Fifty years ago, at the conclusion of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI formally declared Mary to be the Mother of the Church. He prayed that this “most loving title” of Mary would lead Christians to honor Mary even more and to call upon her with still greater confidence:

"For the glory of the Blessed Virgin and our own consolation, 

we proclaim the Most Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church, 

of the whole people of God, faithful and pastors, 

and we call her most loving Mother."

Happy Mother’s Day to one and all!

MARYS for May #10

Madonna and Child
Marianne Stokes, 1907-08, Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Every detail of this painting compels us to pay attention. “Madonna and Child” is a painting from the early 20th century, but its style and inspiration reach back much further in time. Marianne Stokes, Austrian by birth, Italian by training, and English by marriage, belonged to a group of artists who were called the “Pre-Raphaelites” because they looked back to early Italian Renaissance artists as their models.

In designing her Madonna and Child, Stokes looked reached further back in time to the classic iconographic composition known as “Hodegetria” (She who points the way), a tradition with origins in the 5th century. In these icons, Mary the Theotokus (God-bearer) is shown holding her child with one arm and pointing to him with her other hand.  She both presents him to us and indicates to us that he is the one we should follow.  In our painting, Mary pulls back a veil to reveal her son, who is both swaddled and shrouded in white cloth.

The pale yet peaceful faces of Jesus and Mary contrast with the vivid colors of her robe. They confront us directly with serene expressions of both utter compassion and deep foreboding. What do they contemplate as they gaze at us so intently? The plants in the deep blue background give us some inkling. Interlacing thorns already begin to weave themselves into the crown that will surround the head of the son and pierce the heart of the mother. Fan-like stems of Garden Angelica, also known as the “Holy Ghost” plant, rise through the thorns. This medicinal herb, a remedy for snake bites, recalls the conception of the divine Savior and reminds us of the oldest prophecy in the Bible, the “protoevangelium” of Genesis 3:15 which presents us with the first messianic prophecy and points us to the Gospel:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, 

and between your offspring and hers; 

they will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel.

H/T: Thanks to Pierre Marie Dumont in Magnificat, Dec. 2011 for identifying the Garden Angelica.

MARYS for May #9

Annunciation

Maurice Denis, 1913, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tourcoing

Maurice Denis (1870-1943) belongs to a group of late 19th century French painters called “les Nabis” (the prophets).  These avant-garde prophets of modern abstract art abandoned the traditional techniques and color schemes of painting along with much of the implied meaning given to works of art. Denis famously defined painting: "Remember that a picture, before being a battle horse, a nude, an anecdote or whatnot, is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order."

Despite its flattened composition and bold colors, Denis’s Annunciation is quite deep and traditional. Light is the key to understanding the painting. The Angel Gabriel enters through the door on the right, God’s messenger breaking into the world. Natural light, cool and lifeless, pours in from behind the angel, washing over the bed, the wall and the front of Mary’s gown. A different quality of light, rich and golden, enters from the window behind Mary, glancing over her shoulder and illuminating her face. This is divine light, the light of life which is coming into the world at this moment. Notice that Gabriel, God’s emissary, reflects this light back towards Mary. As this light pours though the window onto the floor, the shadow of the window’s frame marks a cross at Mary’s feet.

This is where Denis’s radical painting illustrates an ancient analogy. The fathers of the Church frequently employ the image of light passing through glass to explain the Virgin birth. Just as the light passes through the window pane neither breaking the glass nor diminishing the light, so the eternal Word of God passes through the womb of Mary preserving fully both Christ’s divinity and Mary’s virginity. Gerard Manly Hopkins, whose poetry is a radical as Denis’s painting, sees this as Mary’s mission:

Mary Immaculate. . .

This one work has to do—

Let all God’s glory through,

God’s glory which would go

Through her and from her flow

Off, and no way but so.*

*Gerard Manly Hopkins, “The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe,” lines 24, 29-33