Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Happy New Year! After yesterday's Feast of Mary, Mother of God, we have a lovely Annunciation to start the Year of the Lord 2022. May it be a year of grace (and good health!) for you and those you love!

The first Annunciation of the year is by Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, with Manuela Viezzoli and Maria Stella Secchiaroli. It is from the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT and was dedicated in 2009. (Read the Chapel guidebook here; all the art on this page is taken from it.)

The Annunciation flanks the altar and frames the icon-style mosaic of the Resurrection. Jesus, the Conquerer of Death, is the New Adam and Mary, the New Eve. By his Incarnation, which took place at the moment of Mary's "yes," Jesus is also the Son of Adam and Eve, who are depicted in Eastern icons of the Resurrection as being pulled from the grave by the Risen Jesus. 

Gabriel serves as both the Angel of the Annunciation and the Angel of the Resurrection. He holds the open scroll that shows that all this has taken place "according to the Scriptures" (as we pray in the Creed). 

Full-length image of
Mary allows us to see
that the yarn is held 
against her womb.

Mary holds the red yarn that alludes to the tradition of the virgins who wove the veil for the Holy of Holies and symbolizes the "weaving" of the flesh of the Son of God in her womb. (The same image of the human body as the work of a weaver can be found in the Psalms.)

In the full-length image of Mary, you can see that her right hand is in precisely the position of an expectant mother cradling her unborn child. (See the detail for a close-up of the yarn held at the position of her womb.)

On the day after the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, I think this is a most suitable image to pray with!

Detail of Mary, so you can see the red yarn.