Tag Archives: Spiritual

Irked by the Mother of God?

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It amazes me that the Mother of Jesus has come to be such a contentious figure.  Some time ago, I painted Our Lady with the Child Jesus in her arms.  It showed at the Parker Gallery in CO.   A church met in the same building, so members of the congregation would stop by to see the artwork after services.  One Sunday only a young girl, about 9 years old, wondered  from painting to painting,  until she came to Mother and Child.  She stood before it a moment considering the painting and then to my astonishment made a disdainful sound, “Psst!” motherchild12 Then,  the child tossed her head and left abruptly.  The gesture seemed beyond her years.  Wouldn’t you expect an image of a mother and a child to touch a soft spot in a young and tender heart? Instead,  it struck like a rock bouncing off unyielding ground.   I remembered the lyrics of a song from South Pacific:

You’ve to to be taught before it’s too late,

Before you are six or seven or eight

To hate all the people your relatives hate,

You’ve got to be carefully taught!

Prejudice can effect, or more accurately,  infect us at any age or stage.  It’s sad when it blinds us to goodness; saddest when it makes us immune to holiness, which, I guess,  it always does.

Thinking about Communion

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Another day in which to praise the Lord.  So again we begin.  That’s how I feel, that I am always at the beginning, trying to live just one day as I ought.  In this day and age, many people despise the word “ought.”  It may be that “ought” presumes some actual Truth and Lawgiver.  How gosh in this so sophisticated an age.  Though finding the Truth does wonders for our compass.   Take Communion:  “The Bread that I will give is My flesh, for the life of the world.” John 6:52 “This is My Body, that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of Me.” 1 Cor 11:24  This morning once again I will receive the Lord of Lords in Holy Communion.  At least, today, since I am thinking about it out loud, I can see that on most mornings I do this with little thought.  Here is how Thomas a’Kempis put it:

Solomon, the wisest of the kings of Israel, spent seven years building a magnificent temple in praise of Your name, and celebrated its dedication with a feast of eight days. He offered a thousand victims in Your honor and solemnly bore the Ark of the Covenant with trumpeting and jubilation to the place prepared for it; and I, unhappy and poorest of men, how shall I lead You into my house, I who scarcely can spend a half-hour devoutly — would that I could spend even that as I ought!

O my God, how hard these men tried to please You! Alas, how little is all that I do! How short the time I spend in preparing for Communion! I am seldom wholly recollected, and very seldom, indeed, entirely free from distraction. Yet surely in the presence of Your life-giving Godhead no unbecoming thought should arise and no creature possess my heart, for I am about to receive as my guest, not an angel, but the very Lord of angels.

Not to be deterred, I remember,too, Jesus’ words, “Come to Me. all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.” Matt 11:28  I am often my biggest burden but I have great hope for me.  Is it any wonder with so generous a God?