A Virgin A Day-- A Sword Shall Pierce Your Own Heart

 It seems the conditions of life are such that being open to love means being open not only to pain as well, but to the possibility of agony. I look at my babies and think of the littlest one growing in my womb feel such a surge of protective love for them all. And then I think of Mary, holding that baby that she would live to see crucified. There really are no words for these kinds of contemplations, but I have been meditating a little on the depth of the love and pain that must coexist in the heart of the Madonna, and of God himself.

Constructing yesterday's art journal page was a straightforward process. I had an image and quote I wanted to use and prepared a simple background for them. I feel that this Mary's long black robes and austere expression are a suitable match for the biblical quote, which indeed was one of the first things that came to mind when I saw her.

This is my third journal page done in participation with the twelve days of Mary at the Recuerda Mi Corazon blog.

A Virgin a Day-- Magnificat and 12 stars

 

The Holy Virgin is taking over my art journal. In a way, this is so funny. I was not even intending on participating in "A Virgin a Day" more than that one time. I am not even Catholic! lol. But when I sat down at my art journal yesterday, this is what happened.

I think it is because I have been so captivated by all the inspiring tributes I'm finding on blogs participating in A Virgin a Day. As a result, the Magnificat has been kicking around in my head for the last 24 hours, and when presented with a blank white page in my journal, that is what demanded to be written. And that's what art journaling is all about, right? Go with the flow, go with the flow. In a way, it can be like a spiritual practice of it's own. So I scribbled down the ESV rendition of the Magnificat with a red gel pen, which forms the text you see behind the painting, writing the words "blessed" ("all generations will call me blessed") and "forever" ("to Abraham and to his offspring forever") large. Then I did some doodling with a led pencil, just for a change, and painted/colored the rest with neocolor pastels over that. (It's a little bit greener in real life than it is in the picture. My photographer is at his day job this morning so I had to take the picture myself.)

There are twelve penciled stars in the upper left hand corner. I was thinking of the twelve stars from the stunning passage in Revelation:

"And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his head seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished 1,260 days." 

Revelation 12:1-6