Matchbox Shrine: Mary’s Prayer
“Blessed is the one who shares
the power and your beauty.”
Here’s another little matchbox shrine for the current Creativity Challenge. This fun project is perfect if you only have a little time to be your creative self. I made this ode to Mary in a half hour, while the kids ate afer school snacks at the kitchen table.
I’ve been carrying this vintage enamel token in my pocket for a couple of months, ever since I found it at our local flea market. I’m constantly afraid I’ve lost it, until I dig through the pile of dirty clothes to find her resting serenely in some pocket or another. I’ve been yearning the past few years for more feminine images of the Divine. The BVM, or Blessed Virgin Mary, is a good stand in. While while Mary doesn’t quite fit the bill for me in that regard, (DaVinci code conspiracy theories aside), I do find it comforting to have a nurturing mother figure at my side.
I’m having fun putting together a nice little ephemera package for making tin-box shrines. It will be the prize in the matchbook shrine drawing on October 5th. Carve out a little time for yourself this weekend and indulge in some mucking about with tiny things — make a matchbook shrine. There’s plenty of room in the pool!
P.s. Do you remember this song? Sometimes it gets stuck in my head when I’m wishing for Mary…
“So if I say save me, save me
Be the light in my eyes
And if I say ten Hail Mary’s
Leave a light on heaven for me …”
-Mary’s Prayer
Danny Wilson
3 comments
This is cute. I agree with you about wanting more feminine images of the divine. I find it difficult to separate what I want to explore about Mary as an archetype and as a person from the sickly sweet virgin pushed so hard at my very conservative convent school.
I heard Scott McKnight, author of “The Real Mary” speak last year. His premise ws that Mary was a brooding revolutionary, creating for herself a narrative about her pregnancy and the child she bore, that would introduce a new way of being into her society. McKnight sees the Magnifact (Mary’s Song) as a song of “protest and revolution.” It’s a very interesting take on Mary — the exact opposite of our traditional pale mother with downcast eyes.
I want to make Mary a big part of my Advent (pre-Christmas) meditation and study this year.
“Magnificat (Mary’s Song) as a song of ‘protest and revolution.’”
that’s exactly Liberation Theology’s Mary, and as a protestant, the Mary I recognize most readily. Beautiful, inspiring site, by the way–be blessed!
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