Images of Mary

The Immaculate Heart of Mary is celebrated the day after The Sacred Heart of Jesus. For our Saturday morning mass, the altar was adorned in a light blue cloth and the priests processed in wearing light blue vestments. It is the only time I recall seeing this color at mass and since the abbey is named for Our Lady of Guadalupe, I wondered if this splendid sight is only found in churches dedicated to her name.

Since I've arrived, I have been wanting to buy an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a special remberance of my time here. At an outing to Family Dollar to get some supplies with some of my friends, I saw a cast image of her for $2.00. As I picked it up and looked at it, I didn't see how the plaster figurine would survive the trip back to the monastery, much less to North Carolina.

Later at the Monastery Gift Shop I saw a poster of Our Lady as she appeared to Juan Diego many centuries ago, but thought it too large to fit on my wall at home. Next I considered adding one of the cast aluminum medals of her image to my Rosary bracelet, but decided to wait.

At lunch time we gather in the dining room to eat our meals in community with the monks, nuns, and abbey guests. There is a local woman who comes everyday to fill her water bottles, eat a meal, and take home leftovers for her dogs. At first her image was startling, for she marched in wearing dusty boots, a long heavy flak jacket, a bandanna over her hair, and a hat. She didn't talk to anyone, but went through the buffet line and took a seat at one of the tables to quietly eat her meal.

After a few days I found myself seated next to her and learned a little bit about her life. She told me she has been a hermit for almost thirty years. She shares a tiny plywood building with her two wolf-like dogs. Since it is so hot in the high desert, she sits outside with them on the rocks until eleven or twelve at night before going inside for the night. Her place has no kitchen or running water, so she comes to the abbey everyday to get supplies.

Over the days that have transpired since we first met, I've learned that she is an artist who paints images from her imagination, faces of people she's never met, and sells them in a local gallery. Over the years her work has brought in enough money for her to get by and lately she has felt inspired to give them away to some of the people she meets. When she talks about her work, her weathered face lights up with a childlike enthusiasm. She is surprisingly lucid and happy, considering the solitary life she leads.

She told me she began living on the fringe after experiencing a blackout that left her unable to go to work. She lived with her dogs in her car for seven years until a man weilding a piece of metal came after her one night and she drove off in time to rethink her living arrangements. In prayer one day, she received an inspiration that she could turn to her art to help support herself. A few days later she purchased a piece of land from one of her cousins, and built a small one-room building on it out of plywood. She has lived there ever since and enjoys praying, painting, and coming to the abbey for daily mass and a meal.

Yesterday she came over to me at lunch carrying a large silver brief case. She said, "I've got something for you!" as she opened it up and took out a carefully wrapped package. "It is an image I painted of Our Lady of Guadalupe and it is framed with a piece of silk I found," she said as I gazed at the beautiful image. "The Holy Spirit told me to give it to you." I thanked her and told her how much it meant to me as we placed it carefully back in the newspaper wrapper.

Later as I thought about her incredible gift, I realized that I had received it on the day dedicated to Mary and her Immaculate Heart.

- Posted from my iPad