by Mary Jane Miller, text and art

The image of Mary, her voice, and her message get lost in the shuffle of our busy lives and emotions. This year we could take time to reflect on the importance of being changed, and allow ourselves to be filled with an ancient brilliance that has been here for 2,000 years. She lives at the core of the Christmas message. I have come to hold Mary in the highest esteem for she reminds me to surrender and love everything more deeply. In the eschatological plan, the doctrine says our Creator needed to send one who would walk among us as an enlightened person, Jesus Christ. He is that person, filled with wisdom and love, and begun in Mary's womb.

The Christian church acclaims Mary as perfect service, surrender, and obedience. For me, Mary is the house of mystical silence. Her dark secure womb holds the wisdom of God, it is the place of contemplation from where the brightness of being fully alive is born. That baby bursts in on creation on Christmas morning with an illumination we can expect in our selves, it is the light of knowing spread out upon the Earth. For me this is the point. That light which shows in the darkness is hope, a new beginning, a revelation for change.

A priest once said, "I can give you the eucharist but I cannot eat it for you." The birth of Christ is the same, you can only storm the heavens by effort, reflection, prayer, surrender, perseverance, and commitment.

Mary is an elusive woman, who by her most human act gave birth to the most transcendent truth, which is love. This is by far the very thing the world needs for its healing. Mary is the archetypal mother for us all. She will hold our pain and anguish, joy and surprise as a perfect expression of love. Our job is to grow up and become the light.

She is represented as Mary Eternal Grace, Mary of Mercy, Mary of the Light, Mary who births the Wonder Worker, Mary Queen of Heaven, along with; Mary of Good Counsel, Mary of Help, Mary of Health, and Mary of Success. I would be content to live in any of these states of being, if even for a moment.

I understand Saint Mary, and why she is offered through such a wide variety of attributes. She is a female presentation of a divine being, after which we might model our own life. I have been a practicing Christian all my life. I have been a member of many churches and alternative practices; Lutherans, Episcopalian, Buddhist, Quaker, Tai Chi, etc. Such is a testament to the love and constant respect I have for God and all creation. However, Saint Mary remains at the center of teaching what lies within the feminine heart. After so many years, she has come to be a living source within me, manifesting the potential to become more than I ever imagined.

I know I am not any Virgin Mary or Mother of God, yet somewhere in me is the spirit of Mary with the willingness to surrender to God, to have Mercy upon all whom I meet, to yield to the Grace, Goodness, and Health all around me.

We are all potentially Saint Mary, the Saint, birthing God's presence into the World, through every word, every action, and every desire. Perhaps it is heresy that I am saying such things, but it is not without love for a better world, envisioning everyone as extensions of Saint Mary, all at peace this year.

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Mary Jane Miller born in New York and living in Mexico full time, is a self-taught Byzantine style iconographer with over 28 years of experience. Her collections of sacred art are contemporary, with a proficient command of egg tempera. The work is extraordinarily rich in style and has been exhibited in museums and churches in both the United States and Mexico. As an author, Miller blends historical content and personal insights to arrive at contemporary conclusions about faith. Her ten self-published books include Mediation and Iconography, Icon Painting Revealed, Mary in Iconography, In Light of Women, Life in Christ and The Stations. Miller has been published online and in publications such as Divine Temple, Russian Orthodox Journal, Faith and Forum Magazine, Liturgy Today and Profiles of Catholicism. She teaches four courses annually, 5-day immersion workshops throughout the US and Mexico.

Iconography - www.sanmiguelicons.com
Contemporary Icon Books - www.millericons.com/books
Workshops - www.sacrediconretreat.com

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