Earliest known image of Mary and Jesus: 3rd C image of Mary Nursing Jesus

Catacomb of Paiscilla, near Rome

 

Mary’s Song

by Luci Shaw

 

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest…
you who have had so far to come.)
Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.

His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world. Charmed by dove’s voices,
the whisper of straw, he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
he is curtailed who overflowed all skies,
all years. Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught
that I might be free, blind in my womb
to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

Mary, theotokos, the birth-giver-of-God.

 

Day 19.

 

Patience.

This is Moo. He has the patience of a saint. In October, he too a 30-something Buddhist Monk riding. The monk emegrated from Sri Lanka in 2007. In the airport upon his arrival he saw a movie poster with a balck man in a cowboy hat riding a horse. Ever since, my noble friend has had the American Dream if riding a horse. In October, Moo made that dream come true.

Day 18.

Mercy.

Day 17

 

Freedom

Day 16.

 

Strength.

 

Throughout time God made great and mighty acts of salvation known through water. At the creation of the world, the Spirit moved across the waters bring all that is into being, God delivered the people of Israel through the flood and through the Red Sea. In the fullness of time, God sent the beloved Son, Jesus nurtured in the waters of Mary’s womb, baptized in the waters of the Jordan by John and filled with the Holy Spirit. So too, God meets us in the water of our tears holy and mighty signs of the grace we can only barely begin to comprehend.... This seems especially true of those that well up against our will as we sit among the faithful of the community gathered worship and praise holding the everyday memories of  ancient griefs and the emergent sorrows of living and loving.Amen.



Day 15.

 

 Rejoice.

"Therefore, rejoice, O, heavens and you who dwell in them..."

 (Rev 12:12).