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| Image by James Duta |
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The Celtic Mary
A GREETING
With my whole heart I seek you.
(Psalm 119:10a)
A READING
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
(Psalm 139:13-15)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
(Psalm 36:9)
A POEM
(Part 2)
Aren’t there annunciations
of one sort or another
in most lives?
Some unwillingly
undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.
More often
those moments
when roads of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.
God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.
- from "Annunciation," by Denise Levertov
found in "A Door in the Hive"
PRAYER FOR THE DAY
God, who cares for us,
The wonder of whose presence fills us with awe.
Let kindness, justice and love shine in our world.
Let your secrets be known here as they are in heaven.
Give us the food and the hope we need for today.
Forgive us our wrongdoing as we forgive the wrongs done to us.
Protect us from pride and from despair
and from the fear and hate which can swallow us up.
In you is truth, meaning, glory and power,
while words come and go.
- a prayer of the St. Hilda Community,
- found in The Flowering of the Soul: A Book of Prayers by Women,
edited by Lucinda Vardey
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| "Madonna del Parto" by Antonio Veneziano |
Denise Levertov was a 20th-century British poet who lived in the United States for most of her later life. Born to parents of Hasidic Jewish and Christian identity, Levertov absorbed her father's scholarship of both religions and also witnessed the anti-semitism he was subjected to, which strongly impacted her. Although raised Protestant, late in her life she made a full conversion to Roman Catholocism. Her poem, "Annunciation," which we are exploring this week, was written just before her conversion in the late 1980s.
In today's verses, Levertov pivots the focus on to us, to the ordinary human being who at some point or another, she imagines, is presented with remarkale opportunities that might require great bravery -- and turn away. In such moments, life most often just goes on, she says, with no extraordinary repercussions.
The Celtic Mary was not a passive figure in the early Middle Ages, though by the time of the late medieval era, under the influence of Roman Catholocism, she had lost some of her pagan power. Celtic Mary is full of the passion of justice and is excited for how much her child will transform the world. The Canticle of the Turning fully embraces this vision of justice that dominates the themes of the Magnificat, Mary's joyful song that she proclaims while visiting her cousin Elizabeth.
Fourteenth-century painter Antonio Veneziano portrays Mary pregnant, joining a small handful of artists of this era who presented her this way. While the others are more austere, this Mary is joyful and content. It is a departure from later (and some earlier) trends in depicting her as concealing the baby. Here, her robust body is part of her holiness, something which binds her to us instead of setting her apart as someone other-worldly.
During the nine months she waited, Mary carried with her not just the growing child but the words that had been spoken to her by Gabriel, that Jesus would be given the throne of David, that his kingdom would have no end. She must have had days of uncertainty. Although this text is in Greek, the Hebrew word for 'womb', 'Racham,' holds in its root the English words 'womb' and 'compassion'. In Hebrew, our capacity for compassionate love is a womb-like love. Perhaps she experienced reassurance through the very presence of the child.
God loves us this way too. The psalmist tells us that we were made and known by God in our mother's womb and that we were "intricately woven in the depths of the earth". God's love for us is a life-sustaining and nurturing love as old and deep as Creation itself. Sometimes it feels hard to know or believe that. At other times, God comes to us when we least expect it. Mary's journey of waiting is not just about the increasing shape of her body. It is a waiting for the future to unfold, for God's word to be fulfilled.
The Celtic Mary is a nurturing mother, whose hands are laced with the dirt of agricultural labour and who fulfills the chores of everyday life. How does this image disrupt your sense of who Mary is? How can you expand your vision to include it?
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| Image by James Duta |
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Scripture passages are taken from New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.
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LC† Vigil in Hope is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!
