Mother Mary

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I love Mother Mary.

I don't always know where she fits in; being Episcopalian, I teeter between a Catholic and Protestant understanding of the saints...but that's just a doctrinal quandary.

When I relax and let my religious imagination be my guide, I remember that she bears God into the world, she glows with her own Spirit-infused radiance, and that she knows our deepest sorrows: she had to bury her child.

We have this statue of Mother Mary at Trinity by the Sea, and she has had quite an adventure through Harvey. She took a faceplant when the bricks from the wall behind her fell on her. Volunteers excavated her and helped her to stand once again. I imagine she has some Harvey-survivor memories to ponder in her heart. Now she rides on a dolly (not a donkey) as the wall is repaired, and we find the best place for her to stand and welcome in the weary souls.

As with other icons of Mary, our statue of her stands barefoot, trampling a serpent. She shares in Christ's victory over death and temptation by the evil One. She stands with open arms: a loving mother welcoming in her children who need to rest and be refreshed.  As we recover from Harvey, we will create a sitting area around her so people can receive her welcome, and sit, and perhaps be in conversation with Mother Mary. 

In Luke's Gospel, she sings,
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for you Lord have looked with favor on your lowly servant: from this day all generations will call me blessed. You O Most Mighty have done great things for me: and holy is your name. You have mercy on those who fear you: from generation to generation. You have shown the strength of your arm: you have scattered the proud in their conceit, you have cast down the mighty from their thrones: and have lifted up the lowly. You have filled the hungry with good things: and the rich you have sent away empty. You have come to the help of your people: you have remembered your promise of mercy, the promise you made to our forebears: to Abraham and his children for ever. 
(Luke 1:46-55, from A New Zealand Prayerbook, p. 41) 

When she learns of her pregnancy; when she realizes she has conceived God; when Mother Mary becomes the portal for God to enter the world, she sings of the vision of things to come, the vision of the kingdom of God. I want to sing with her. I want to share in living that vision into a reality. I do love Mary, and I am thankful for her presence on our church grounds. She stands as a reminder of the vision of the kingdom come.

A friend who is a priest in the church of England once pointed out that just as we ask our living friends to pray for us, it makes sense to ask our dead friends to pray for us as well. The saints are our friends, and in death life is changed, not ended.

Pray for us Mother Mary: Comfort us in our deepest sorrows, teach us to be the bearers of God in our world, help us to sing the song of the vision, so that we all might live the reality kingdom of God, and share in Christ's victory.

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