Alchemical Milk-Giving Mother of God

ALCHEMY IS MEDIEVAL CHEMISTRY which proposed to change base metals into gold or silver. One of the ingredients used in the alchemical process was milk. And so once again, the icon of the Milk-Giving Mother of God offers us new direction.

But of course, in her nursing the Infant Christ, she is pointing to an internal change: from baseness to something higher, from earth time-space to a spiritual place. And what is that? Often Christianity is reduced to being an ethical system, a battle between good and evil, but really it  is much more an invitation to "put on the mind of Christ." 1 Corinthians 2:16

Colm Toibin writes in his book, The Sign of the Cross about growing up in Catholic Ireland in the late 50's and early 60's.

At the cathedral at Enniscorthy the names of the bishops from the beginning of time were written on a painted scroll which stretched down the high walls on each side of the altar. There was benediction after the boys' confraternity when the priest's voice would boom down the huge, half empty, almost dark church, "death comes soon," he would say, "judgement will follow, so now dear children, examine your conscience and find out your sins."

"Find out your sins" is a rather low-level work of conscience while putting on the mind of Christ has more to do with the new consciousness of the Christ-mind. This is why Jesus so often speaks of hearing and seeing. His miracles performed for the blind and the deaf reveal his desire for us to see and hear spiritually. Have we ever explored the idea of an Examination of Consciousness and not just an Examination of Conscience? 

Icons of Christ always show him with an enlarged head and emphasized forehead because he is thinking thoughts that transcend earth-thoughts. And this Christ-mind, which can be our own minds, is a first step into the Kingdom of Heaven. 

The old ways of thinking are no longer adequate or even real! We fill our earth space/time minds with things that are too small.

Christ consciousness thinks outside the box. St. Therese of Lisieux was on-to-it when she said she'd spend her eternity doing good on earth. I asked a dying woman what she thought heaven would be and she answered, "I think I'll fly around and help people." 

• Some people vote only for the candidates who will safeguard their comfort, security or way of life.
• Some people have as their first thought: "What's in it for me?"
• Some people think only their way is truthful or righteous.

The consciousness of a Christ-mind transcends nationalism and sees himself/herself as one of the more than six billion people on this earth - created and loved by God who knows nothing of favorites. The word exceptional is reserved not for a nation but for God and God's messengers and saints.

Notice Saint Paul doesn't speak of  the mind of Jesus, but the mind of the Lord or the mind of Christ. This is the Resurrected-Ascended one, a Cosmic Christ or Pantocrator (Ruler of All). 

An earthbound mind is reduced to suspicion, paranoia and phobias. I know someone who spends every waking minute sniffing out Masons, heretics, homosexuals, satanists, political/religious liberals, feminists and Islamists. But when we have experienced the complete renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2) then the joy-stealing separations fall away with the bitter distinctions that create hate, violence and war. 

How do I get the Mind of Christ? 

• Participate in the Mass, receiving the Eucharist.
• Know the Gospels, even by heart.
• Plant and take care of a garden.
• Look long at icons.
• Wander around museums.
• Steer a wide circle around contentious people.
• Avoid contentious TV/radio news.
• Go for outdoor walks: parks, beaches, woods, nature trails.
• Stop: inhale, gaze, shhhhh!
• Read poems. Write poems.
• Learn to identify trees, wildflowers, birds and clouds.
• Challenge self-pity and resentment.
• "Water" the seeds of everything good in you.
• Listen to Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart. 

Before the Icon of the Milk-Giving Mother of God

O alchemical Mother of God,

Milk-bearing Nourisher

of your Child ~

take us up to the higher places

where sun and moon admire 

your transformational gift ~

your feeding us to expanded awareness,

seeing and hearing ~

the renewal of minds.

Intercessions for the Feast of the Departed

15th c Ethiopian icon ~ She Who Listens

November begins with the Feast of All Saints./ We pray to become saints ourselves:/ to love God and to love people well./ We pray to the Lord.

At the start of November we pray for those who will celebrate birthdays,/ anniversaries and other days of remembrance,/ asking for the blessings of good health and safety./ We pray to the Lord.

We ask forgiveness,/ healing and help from heaven/ as our nation is so often saddened by gun violence./ Children are frequently among the victims./ We pray to the Lord.

Election Day approaches./ We pray again to be healed of the waste and aggressive anger which overtakes us./ We pray to the Lord.

Much of our world awakens each day to suffering and misery./ We pray to be aware of and grateful for every blessing and good fortune./ We pray to the Lord.

We ask for God to light up dark hearts/ and that we would live and move and have our being in God./ We pray to the Lord.

We hold in our prayer the world's children,/ the poor,/ the sick,/ the prisoner and those who mourn,/ care-providers,/ parents and those who govern./ We pray to the Lord.

And for those who have died to share the fullness of God's joy,/ light and life./ We pray to the Lord.

Mother of God Milk-Giver Continued

A PRIEST WRITING about the meaning of the icon of the Mother of God Milk~Giver reduces the icon to a kind of proof that the Incarnation (God become human in Jesus Christ) was physical. I imagine he wrote that as a kind of rebuttal to the many who don't believe in the Incarnation. That's okay, but I think there is much more we can say about the icon's meaning for all of us.

Of course, not everything found on the Internet is true. Just because someone puts something up on a screen (including priests) doesn't make it true. But it seems that mothers, midwives, nurses, scientists and care-providers have a great deal to say about the wondrous medical benefits of mother's breast milk. 

Here are just a few of the claims made about what some call Nature's Cure and Wonder-Milk. Breast milk can help to heal: rashes, yeast and ear infections, pink eye, acne, cuts, diaper rash, sunburn, dry skin, staph infections, pneumonia, poison sumac (oak and ivy), bites and burns. It has even been found to kill forty different kinds of cancer cells. It is used as an anti-infective, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory agent. My intention is not to make medical claims of any kind but to get our attention and point us in the direction of spiritual healing.

Now someone might say, "Oh, you mean it's all just symbolic." But that doesn't serve the icon well because symbolic doesn't mean something isn't real, symbolic means that something is most real. Let the icon inform your prayer: heaven is holding and feeding humankind in our most weak, sickly and confounded inner worlds. 

One blog for new mothers says, "Every Drop of Breastmilk is Medicine; Don't Waste It." So the question is, what ails me - relationally, spiritually, in my mind? Then come before the icon with a felt need for your own interior healing (not someone else's). Ask the Milk-Giver to be healed of: 

the poison of hate and non-compassion,
the infection of suspicious distinctions,
the rash of a stubborn and un-generous spirit,
the toxin of desiring, dissatisfaction and possessing,
the inflammation of resentment,
the infection of moodiness, touchiness and laziness,
the old psychic cuts and burns that I keep picking at,
the dis-ease of entertaining the non-reality of fanciful thinking,
  grumblings and ungrateful negativity,
and the denial that often accompanies illness.

End the prayer with delight as the Theotokos is dressed so beautifully, angels give her a crown, and the Child is as comfortable as a baby can be. And their matching halos!