The Franciscan Sisters TOR, honored me by requesting two paintings for the beautiful Father of Mercy chapel in their Motherhouse in Toronto, Ohio. One painting, depicting the Assumption of Mary, challenged me to create a new image of a doctrine that teaches the unique respected position that the Mother of God has in the Church.
According to Church tradition, the Virgin was assumed at her death into Heaven. With her outstretched arms, Mary accepts God’s will for her life in eternity, just as she accepted the Word made flesh at the Annunciation and body of her Son in sorrow as he was taken down from the cross. In this case, she lifts her arms in joy as she is taken up to Him in Heaven.
Tradition also holds that her sudary (a cloth or handkerchief that Hebrew women used to wipe sweat and blood) was found in the sepulcher by the Apostles after her Assumption. In this painting, she drops the sudary because she will no longer have need for it in heaven. Her left hand reaches up to accept the crown of stars that marks her transformation from humble maiden to Queen of Heaven. Rays of light highlight her spotless white garment, defining the Virgin as not simply the historical Mary, but as the Church, the Bride of Christ whose nuptials are traditionally understood to have been foretold in the biblical Song of Solomon.
The Franciscan Sisters TOR, honored me by requesting two paintings for the beautiful Father of Mercy chapel in their Motherhouse in Toronto, Ohio. One painting, depicting the Assumption of Mary, challenged me to create a new image of a doctrine that teaches the unique respected position that the Mother of God has in the Church.
According to Church tradition, the Virgin was assumed at her death into Heaven. With her outstretched arms, Mary accepts God’s will for her life in eternity, just as she accepted the Word made flesh at the Annunciation and body of her Son in sorrow as he was taken down from the cross. In this case, she lifts her arms in joy as she is taken up to Him in Heaven.
Tradition also holds that her sudary (a cloth or handkerchief that Hebrew women used to wipe sweat and blood) was found in the sepulcher by the Apostles after her Assumption. In this painting, she drops the sudary because she will no longer have need for it in heaven. Her left hand reaches up to accept the crown of stars that marks her transformation from humble maiden to Queen of Heaven. Rays of light highlight her spotless white garment, defining the Virgin as not simply the historical Mary, but as the Church, the Bride of Christ whose nuptials are traditionally understood to have been foretold in the biblical Song of Solomon.