Jan Richardson’s poem about the Visitation calls Elizabeth’s house a sanctuary for Mary.
Tag Archives: Mary
You, Mary, Are More Than Welcome Here
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When All Around Doubt the Mystery
How can we believe in mystery when everything appears as it has always appeared? So the Virgin Mary wonders in this Carl Phillips poem.
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Stop and Smell Mary’s Perfume
The scene in John where Mary anoints Jesus’s feet with a costly perfume, Judas, who chastises her for wastefulness, reminds me of those earnest activists who can’t stop and smell the perfume. D. H. Lawrence explores a similar theme in “The Man Who Died.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged anointing of Jesus's feet, D. H. Lawrence, Jesus, Man Who Died, work ethic Comments closed
“Is My Son Mad?” Mary Asks
In Thomas Hardy’s version of Mary, she’s a mother wondering whether her son is mad.
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Motherhood, an Astounding Ministry
Annunciation, Philippe de Champaigne (1644) Spiritual Sunday Here’s a poem by Denise Levertov for Mother’s Day. I dedicate it to my own mother and to the mother that I’m married to. I also dedicate is to Maurine Holbert-Hogaboom, at whose funeral I read it ten days ago. It was one of her favorites. Levertov imagines […]
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I Sing of a Maiden
Spiritual Sunday Here’s a lovely spring poem from the Middle Ages about the conception of Jesus. Jesus enters Mary as “stille” (quietly) as April dew falls upon the grass. Mary is described as “makelees,” an adjective which (according to the Norton Anthology of British Literature) is a three-way pun: spotless, matchless, and mateless. I love how […]
