Midweek Devotion for 14 August 2024

Reading

Luke:1:51-53

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

Devotion

Painting – NuriGallery

This week's painting is by Iranian Muslim artist Hossein Nuri.  It dates from 2006 and is entitled St. Mary.  I love the delicate brush strokes and the golden threads woven into her head covering.  They meld into the light that surrounds her face.  Their delicacy is all the more astonishing when one realizes that Nuri, rendered a paraplegic from his military service in the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988.  He created this treasure holding the paintbrush in his mouth!!!

I also am struck by the 'don't judge a book by its cover' nature of this painting.  We often think of Mary as "meek and mild" at least from the Christmas carol.  Do not be fooled!  This is the woman who sang the Magnificat with its words ringing of justice, the woman who directed her son at the Wedding Feast of Cana, the woman who was there at the Cross watching as her son was put to a most brutal death.  I tend to think of words like indefatigable, unconquerable, indomitable in describing her, rather than 'meek and mild'!

As a last observation, Nuri created this painting as his means of protest when a Danish cartoon made fun of his religion.  He and the painting sat outside the Danish embassy in Tehran, while others were throwing stones and setting fires, to respond in a peaceful way to ugliness with beauty.  It was as if, one observer put it, "He displayed the image and asked a question: This is our faith. What is yours?"  Where, this week, might you be asked, dear reader, to confront ugliness with beauty?  However you respond to ugliness, you will reveal something of your faith.

Prayer 

O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer)