Mary’s Vision: The Archangel Gabriel
During times of crisis, especially when serious health related issues are at stake, the occurrence of visions or other paranormal phenomenon is not as unusual as one might expect. Many people have been led to believe that seeing a vision either indicates saintliness or insanity—not a comfortable point of view to hold when an angel drops by! As a result, people tend to be very cautious about sharing their experience of visions. However, I found that quite a number of average people have visions. In my classes, many students recounted seeing visits by supernatural beings like Jesus or angels or the presence of a comforting divine light. For the most part, these experiences come at traumatic or life changing times in someone’s life.
These phenomena can be thought of as expressions of pure intuition, healing energy that breaks through when the veil between this world and other realities is made thin by the magnitude of a mind-bending reality a person is facing. The reality to be encountered can be traumatic such as life threatening surgery, a sexual assault, or death of a loved one. However, it may not necessarily be negative. It could be something profoundly wonderful such as the gifting of a special and life changing calling as Mary experienced with the visit of the Archangel Gabriel who heralded her role to be the mother of Jesus.
At these times, visions come to tell the distraught person that the overwhelming reality encountered is not all there is and will not have to be born alone—that something more abides giving comfort, love and insight. In Mary’s case, she was told she had found favor with God and that the power of the Most High would overshadow her.
Visions vs. Hallucinations
Some people may be confused by the difference between visions and hallucinations. According to Morton Kelsey, in Dreams: A Way to Listen to God, Paulist Press, 1978, visions and hallucinations are very different and easy to distinguish. He says the vision is “attributed to the inner world” by the beholder while a hallucination is “attributed to the physical world.” Visions can be very practical and helpful, tending to bring gifts like guidance and comfort. Hallucinations, on the other hand, are taken to be actually there in the physical world when they aren’t perceived by others, and tend to instill fear and other negative feelings into the beholder. Hallucinations can come as a side effect of certain drugs or medications.
Jesus With Martha and Mary — Tintoretto
Luke 10 is about preparing and sending the disciples out in the world to heal and to preach. The stories told within Luke 10 illustrate the values based choices necessary for someone called to participate in Jesus’ mission. The Parable of the Good Samaritan defines what it means to love my neighbor and the Story of Martha and Mary shows what it means to sit in the presence of divine wisdom. Both involve choices that come from an open, empathetic and intuitive heart.
Treating the Stranger as Oneself
In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan (who was thought to be inferior in class and moral values to the Jews) is ironically the one who treats a stranger beaten and robbed as he would want to be treated—quite unlike the priest and the Levite. The Samaritan is the one who is operating from a moral perspective which recognizes that this is a human being just like himself. Since he wouldn’t want to be left hurt and penniless by the wayside, he simply makes the choice to help the man. This is empathy in action. It shows a heart open to the needs of others.
To Do or to Be Still and Receptive: The Better Choice
The Story of Martha and Mary clearly describes the state of mind of each one of us at any given moment. One part of us is busy, running about taking care of errands, serving others and the performing the tasks of everyday life. This is the doing part of ourselves that make us feel like we have “to do” something in any situation, and often make us feel good when we have done something. The other part of us—which wants to sit quietly, patiently and attentively to hear what comes from silence— however, is often ignored and disparaged in our action-oriented society as being lazy or useless, “navel gazing” with no productive outcome. Jesus makes clear this latter choice to sit in the presence of divine wisdom is the better choice. It is a reminder to us to put aside the busyness of the day and sit in intuitive reflection, open to what comes in the silence.
5 Stars The Shepherd Girl of Bethlehem: A Nativity Story Carey Morning Alan Marks 32 Pages Ages: 4 + …………………….. Inside Jacket: The shepherd’s young daughter helped with the sheep every single day. How she longed to help through the night as well; but her father said it was too dark and she needed sleep. [...]
Hickem, Catherine. (2012). Heaven in Her Arms: Why God Chose Mary to Raise His Son and What It Means for You. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. ISBN 978-1-4002-0036-8.
What do we know of Mary?
What we know of Mary’s family is that she is of the house of David; it is from her lineage Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. Given the archeological ruins of the various places thought to have been living quarters for their family, it is likely the home was a room out from which sleeping quarters (cells) branched. As Mary and her mother Anne would be busy maintaining the household, with young Mary working at her mother’s command, it is likely Anne would be nearby or in the same room during the Annunciation. Thus Mary would not have had a scandalous secret to later share with her parents but, rather, a miraculous supernatural experience, the salvific meaning of which her Holy parents would understand and possibly even witnessed.
Mary and Joseph were betrothed, not engaged. They were already married, likely in the form of a marriage contract, but the marriage had not yet been “consummated”. This is why he was going to divorce her when he learned of the pregnancy. If it were a mere engagement, he would have broken it off without too much scandal.
Married but not yet joined with her husband, her mother would prepare her by teaching her all that she needed to know. This is further reason to assume that Mary would be working diligently under her mother’s eye when the Annunciation took place.
We know that her cousin Elizabeth’s pregnancy was kept in secret for five months, and not made known until the sixth month when the Angel Gabriel proclaimed it to Mary. We know Mary then rushed to be at her elderly cousin’s side for three months (the remaining duration of Elizabeth’s pregnancy), and that this rushing appeared to be in response to Elizabeth’s pregnancy (to congratulate her), not an attempt to hide Mary’s pregnancy. Note how all of this is connected to Elizabeth’s pregnancy rather than Mary’s circumstances. As Mary was married to Joseph, he likely would have been informed of the trip. Had the intent been to hide Mary, she would have remained with Elizabeth until Jesus was born, not returned to her family after the first trimester, which is just about the time that her pregnancy was visible and obvious.
So we these misconceptions clarified, we can put Mary’s example within an even deeper context and more fully relate to her experience. We can imagine living in a faith-filled family who raises their child in strict accordance of God’s word. The extended family members may not understand, and certainly their community will not, so Mary, Anne and Joachim, and Joseph face extreme scandal as well as possible action from Jewish authorities. But they faced this together steep in conversation with God, providing a model for today’s family.
Although sometimes scriptural interpretations are flavored with modern-day eye, overall this book will be more than just a quick read for a young mother (or new bride, or teen aspiring to overcome the challenges of American culture, or single parent losing her mind). It is a heartwarming reflection with many examples that open up conversation with God. As an experienced psychotherapist, the author’s examples are spot on and easy to relate to. We do not need to have had the same experiences to empathize, reflect, and pursue meaning; we see it around us in everyday life. As such, a reflective look upon these examples can help one overcome an impasse in their own relationship with God and also open the reader up to self-knowledge as Hi
Final color drawing of Mary
Note* Just click on the label Mary, or scroll down, to see the entire work-in-progress. The new scanner worked great! I only had to do minor color adjustments. (I did tweak the color slightly after seeing this scan online. )
Detail of Mary.
At this point I've concentrated on finishing up everything on Mary. Next, I'll be making some adjustments to the reflections and moving on to the wood for the window frame. I should be able to post the finish on Monday.
I've finished up the leaves and most of the areas reflecting in the glass. The sepia color worked perfect as a base under the green leaves. I was able to get the depth I wanted, with less layers, by working over a complimentary color. I used ground pastel dust applied with tissues for the blue areas. Everything else is color pencil. While working on the leaves, I was able to take advantage of the view out my studio window. As long as it wasn't too late in the day, the sun hitting the leaves of the lemon tree just outside my window made a great source of reference.
With this illustration of Mary, my work has become true mixed-media. The final underpainting was done in graphite on vellum. (Previous post.) For the stage shown here I scanned the graphite drawing, then worked on the blue areas of glass in Photoshop. I also isolated areas that I wanted to print out in a sepia tone for the underpainting. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time and I felt this piece, with all the warm tones, would be the perfect one to try it on. After printing this out on my art paper I will be layering in pastel and color pencil.
Now that I have a large-format scanner, I will be able to scan in one piece, hopefully, the final color drawing of Mary. If you don't remember, or didn't see it before, I did a work-in-progress of the B&W underpainting of Mary. Since I'm having some issues with the software on the new scanner and am waiting to hear back from tech support, I'll post the color in stages each day this week. So stay tuned!
Final B&W Underpainting
Forbes has an article on teen mags for girls . One it examines is Teen Vogue. The article says in part, “Teen Vogue seems to suggest maybe, without being didactic about it, the teen books ought to clean up their acts. Its March issue cover lines featured "Sweet 16 parties," "Should your school day start later?" and "Romantic white dresses," as well as how to earn a summer internship. April's issue includes a report on how more schools are cracking down on "dirty dancing" at the prom, and a cautionary feature on "Big spenders: Are you a shopaholic?" plus another titled, "I saw my friend die," about "drunk driving's deadly toll."�
Certainly beats CosmoGirl, which seems to have articles like “Tips for looking hot this summer” and “10 most asked sex Qs answered” and “All about guys.”
And some teen mags have folded, like Teen People and Elle Girl.
Maybe I should pick up some for research, but for right now, I’ll just eavesdrop on kid and friends. I don’t necessarily want to write about girls who only care about their skin, hair, and abs.
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That's lovely, Gail! And I adore the sheep under the tree!
Very nice! I love your work!
Just beautiful Gail :)
Gorgeous! I love it, Gail!
Ohhhhhhhhh
Beautiful!!!
Thanks guys!