On the Feast of the Annunciation
This air, which, by life’s law
My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy Welcome in womb and breast, Birth, milk, and all the rest But mothers each new grace That does now reach our race – Mary Immaculate. These lines of Gerard Manley Hopkins, when thoughtfully considered, offer within the framework of poetic meditation, an aesthetic catechism comparing the Blessed Virgin Mary to the air we breathe. They turn one’s mind at once to that most important of all the New Testament texts about Mary, the narrative of St Luke’s gospel concerning the Annunciation. This text is arguably the one that is best known and most loved throughout the Christian tradition. Artists, sculptors and painters of renown have chosen to depict its subject with all its potential for delicacy, for mystery, for drama, for conveying both uttered and unuttered dialogue.[1] The Fathers of the …More