When I find an icon of the Mother of God without a title, I like to name her myself, bringing her forward here with thoughts and prayers. So I will bestow the title Mother of God ~ Who Is Like Dew on this 13th century Byzantine icon of Mary, un-named and seated on a throne. The English to French translator makes the title very beautiful. She is Mere de Dieu ~ Comme la Rosee.
And while we notice many details about this Mere de Dieu: her royal-red shoes, the double pillows, the printed fabric of her throne and admiring angels, we notice all the more, that instead of looking at us directly, Jesus and Mary are looking off to the side, as if to the margins. What's got their attention over there? Who do they see?
And while we're not shown who they are looking at, or maybe looking for, we're free to imagine. Perhaps in this disturbing election time they are looking at the margins of our nation where there is now so much estrangement, contention, division and un-pleasantness. I'll ask her to come down like moisture on the heat and the dryness of it all.
Mother of God, drop down dew:
on the aridity of our discourtesy,
our vulgarity,
our passions.
Revive us:
in our debating,
our arguing,
our slander.
Enlivening dew:
in the desert of our unkindness,
the desert of our cruelty,
the desert of our hatred.
Open, moisture-laden-cloud:
over the dryness of our resentments,
our insults,
our bigotry.
Mother, who is like dew:
to refresh our thinking,
our speaking,
how we see each other.
Enlivening dew:
begin for us a new day of collaboration,
a new day of reconciliation,
a new day of loving each other.
Dew-cloud:
comfort us in our sorrow,
in our instability,
in our anxieties.
Mother of God:
healing dew in the sickness of our distrust,
of our accusations,
our self-degradation.
Mother of God Who is Like Dew:
in the wasteland of our party-spirit,
our demonizing,
and our blaming.
