Monday, February 22, 2021

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Annunciation

This is a detail from an Ethiopian diptych of the life of the Virgin Mary, from the Annunciation to her Dormition (Assumption).

Mary, who is seated on a three-legged stool, is busily at work making thread. Gabriel appears at her right side with the message, while the Holy Spirit comes down in a white cloud. On the other side (Mary's upraised arm creating a nice division between two scenes), we find the very next story in the Gospel narrative, with Mary visiting her kinswoman Elizabeth.

As is traditional in Eastern icons, Mary is wearing a red dress, symbolic of her human nature, while she is enfolded in heavenly grace (blue). 


See the full two-page spread from the 17th century in great detail at the website of the National Museum of African Art.

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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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