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Moments with Mary

Moments with Mary

Thomas M. Columbus September 20, 2024

Prayer is varied. Sometimes we pray with words. Sometimes, we pray without them. Silent, we may close our eyes and open our hearts. Sometimes we open our hearts and our eyes. Christians, in embracing sacred art — whether icons or statues, amateur sketches or museum masterpieces — can use material creations to open themselves to spiritual contemplation.

Various artwork featuring Mary.A place to do this can be the expanse of a great cathedral or the intimacy of UD’s Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, where stained glass gives glimpses of points in Mary’s life. And, for a time, a small gallery on the seventh floor of Roesch Library offers a place for contemplation occasioned by images of Mary. Moments with Mary, a Marian Library exhibit of works on loan from art collector John A. Kohan, presents (through Nov. 1) personal moments of Mary from the perspective of female artists. Kohan has called his collecting “one pilgrim’s progress in rediscovering the majesty, meaning and mystery of sacred art.”

Bridget Retzloff, the Marian Library’s visual resources librarian, points to a theme explicated by Pope Francis as a way of approaching religious art. “Serene attentiveness,” she said, “is an idea from the papal encyclical Laudato si’, in which Pope Francis invites Catholics to unite creation and redemption through careful attention to the world around them.”

Practices for that kind of attentiveness are found in the contemplative tradition of the Benedictines and beyond. The longstanding tradition of lectio divina is an approach to Scripture focusing deeply upon a Bible passage. Visio divina is an analogous approach using art.

An online search for visio divina yields descriptions that vary in details such as the number of steps to the process, but the process begins by looking at the work of art. Retzloff offered questions that can guide the viewer’s relationship with the art: “What’s happening in this image? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can you find?”

This reflection is accompanied by a slowing down and a silence. 

“As you rest in silence,” Retzloff said, “allow insight or wisdom to come through by letting your reactions to the artwork and text wash over you. Savor the piece.” This is nurtured through contemplation and prayer. One commentator has described that as having a private conversation
with God.

The visio divina can conclude, Retzloff said, with some thought of “what action you might take, of where God is sending you.” 

How to see the exhibit

Moments with Mary is on display in the Marian Library Gallery on the seventh floor of Roesch Library. Marian Library hours for the course of the exhibit (which ends Nov. 1) are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. For a free parking pass, drive through the main campus entrance on Stewart Street just east of Brown Street, follow the signs to visitor parking and stop at the visitor center. Samples of the exhibit are online. The Marian Library also has some virtual exhibits. Its Christmas exhibit is scheduled to open Nov. 25.

Move the needle