Monday, May 23, 2016

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

In Ancilla Domini (1896) by Australian artist Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunn, Mary and Gabriel occupy two different "worlds," set apart by both the floor level and the background. Gabriel, in front of a red curtain (evoking the scarlet of the Temple drapes?) is here standing upright, rather than in the more common genuflected posture.  Mary's position is elevated, as if in a raised sanctuary, but she is on her knees to accept the divine invitation. Behind Mary, on the back wall, there is a scene of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise: Mary, the new Eve, if about to "untie the knot" by which our first parents bound us in slavery to sin.

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About the Angelus Project

We rightly admire Muslim neighbors and co-workers who put everything on hold five times a day in answer to the "call to prayer." But Christians have a call to prayer, too! It is the Angelus. Morning, noon and evening we are invited to pause and reaffirm our faith in the Incarnation: The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (Jn. 1:14), because "God so loved the world that he sent his only Son" (Jn. 3:16).
The Angelus Project is a personal project of Sister Anne Flanagan, FSP, a Daughter of St Paul. Find out more about the media ministry of the Daughters of St Paul at DaughtersofStPaul.com.

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