Rue Anemone and Easter Expectation

This delicate Rue Anemone is blooming along the edge of the woods here. Its range spans from east to west about a third of the country and comes in pure white or white with pink tints. I feel lucky to have the pink-tinted kind. 

Rue Anemone is frequently found in the stories of ancient mythology and is sometimes called wind flower as it is imagined to open only in breezes and winds. But it further symbolizes expectation, which is lovely for the Easter Season we're in these days. I'm thinking of the priest's Mass-prayer, Libera Nos, prayed immediately after the Our Father. The old translation is linguistically more accessible:

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

As we wait in joyful hope. Joyful expectation. And for the Christian this means: I trust that God has won. Remember the Easter hymn?

The strife is o'er the battle done;
Now is the Victor's triumph won;
Now be the song of praise begun:
Alleluia!

Death's mightiest pow'rs have done their worst,
And Jesus has his foes dispersed;
Let shouts of praise and joy outburst:
Alleluia!

He closed the yawning gates of hell;
The bars from heav'ns high portals fell;
Let hymns of praise his triumph tell:
Alleluia!

On the third morn he rose again,
Glorious in majesty to reign;
O let us swell the joyful strain:
Alleluia!

We live with the Easter myrrh-bearing women who came to the tomb at sunrise. Sunrise is symbolically the time of the greatest contest - a cosmic contest - when light pushes the darkness away. It is a time of great tension, but surety as well. 

To live on this planet is to live in that tension. But if we believe that Jesus is risen from the dead in his body, that his Resurrection is not a hallucination or wishful thinking, then everything is different for us. 

Intercessions ~ Third Sunday in the Easter Season

Pope Francis is planning a trip to Greece/ to draw attention to the plight of refugees/ and to encourage a ceasefire in the Middle East./ Bless the world with a desire for peace/ and the strength to set out creatively to achieve it. We pray to the Lord.

In the Year of Mercy,/ Pope Francis has asked every Catholic Diocese to establish a new project of mercy:/ a hospital,/ drug rehab center,/ nursing home,/ refugee or homeless shelter./ We pray for a generous response to the pope's request./ We pray to the Lord. 

Heal and restore our families/ where we are discouraged,/ anxious,/ tired,/ sick or sad./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the children of the world and for their safety/ where they are enslaved,/ exploited,/ uneducated,/ afraid or hungry./ For adults who will protect and care for them./ We pray to the Lord.

We ask for the Church to be deeply rooted in the Gospel of Jesus/ and to correct ourselves where we have become distracted,/ non-reflective or lazy./ We pray to the Lord. 

We pray for parents and care providers,/ those who await the birth of a child,/ for the unemployed,/ the home-bound and the elderly who are abandoned or without support./ We pray to the Lord. 

For the sick./ For those in chronic pain or whose illness is incurable./ For mourners/ and those who have died,/ aware that many die lonely deaths,/ without family or friends./ We pray to the Lord. 

Annunciation: With Fra Angelico's Help

The Feast of the Annunciation has been moved to today, March 25 having fallen on Holy Saturday this year. And here is Fra Angelico's (1437-46) depiction of this well-known gospel scene: 

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. He went in and said to her, "Rejoice, you who enjoy God's favour! The Lord is with you." (Luke 1:26,27ff)

Fra Angelico painted at the start of the Italian Renaissance, which means his paintings give birth to completely new ideas. We see Mary seated outside (a new idea) on a patio surrounded by arches. This cloister setting would have been familiar to the Dominican friars for whom the painting was created, making the image immediately accessible to them on an emotional level. 

The stone columns, serve as frames, the figures of Gabriel and Mary separate and distinct, but also joined into one as heaven and earth come together in the Annunciation. Even the thin, horizontal metal bar which runs through the tops of the columns, while serving the practical purpose of architectural support, all the more symbolizes the coming together of the divine and human. 

There is a wooden fence, to the left behind Gabriel, which in symbology means that Mary in her virginity is like an enclosed garden. But I think it's much more than that. I'd suggest that in this painting we are allowed entre into Mary's interior vision - her inner graced life of contemplation.

Dominican friars take vows of poverty and so there is nothing imperial about this Mary. Instead of a gilded throne, she sits on a low wooden stool, as if she were going to milk a cow or sit in a circle of kitchen girls to peel potatoes. Her pink dress echoes the angel's robe; her blue mantle suggests her elevated or royal status.

The only fussiness is seen in Gabriel's highly decorated wings. Maybe Fra Angelico didn't want Gabriel to look like a winged bird, or maybe he just couldn't handle the bare, unadorned reality of what's happening in the scene. Maybe he felt that somehow love has to be decorative. No matter. 

We notice too, that while Gabriel clearly has his eyes fixed on Mary, not a word has been spoken. The two lean into each other, their hands folded across their chests. Already, in silence, there is the language of  intimacy and heart.

A friar's little room is called a cell. Behind Mary is just such a room, but I would say the window placed there symbolizes Mary herself. It is through Mary, open in the littleness of  her youth, simplicity and humility that God has found incarnating access into our world.

There is nothing extraneous or overtly symbolic in the painting: no vase of white lilies, no prie dieu to kneel upon, no open prayer book, no Holy Spirit dove in the sky, no rays of light - only a  lawn of little spring flowers. Something new, fragrant and lovely is beginning here for us!

A key word in all of this is new: God's new idea depicted by an artist in a new way in a new (Renaissance) time. Often in religion we wind up just admiring what's old. Any ideas for yourself, your family, your parish ? Something new and life-giving!