The Child Mary Soon To Become The Ark of the Covenant

The Child Mary Soon To Become The Ark of the Covenant
(This original painting is available please contact us if you are interested. )
“Contemplata aliis tradere...” (to share what you have contemplated), along with “Veritas”, (Truth) Dominican mottos.
“Then God’s Temple in Heaven was opened, and the Ark of His Covenant was seen within His Temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And a great portent appeared in Heaven, a woman clothed with the Sun, with the Moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child.”
(Revelation 11:19 - 12:2)
“Let us chant the melody which has been taught us by the inspired harp of David, and say, ‘Arise, O Lord, into thy rest; Thou, and the Ark of thy sanctuary .’ For the holy Virgin is in truth an Ark, wrought with gold both within and without, that has received the whole treasury of the sanctuary.”
St Gregory Thaumaturgis (c. 213-270)
“The Ark contained three things: the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written, a jar of manna from the desert, and Aaron’s staff that budded (Hebrews 9:4). So whereas the Ark contained the word of God inscribed on stone tablets, the bread of Heaven and the staff of the Levitical priesthood, within Our Lady’s womb was the word of God made flesh, Jesus the bread of life who is our true high priest. Until the Babylonian exile, the Ark of the Covenant marked the presence of God among His people. Now Our Lady has taken on this role and so it is very appropriate that we pray to her as Ark of the New Covenant, that she reveal to us the blessed fruit of her womb.”
Dominican Friar Robert Verrill, OP
The titles given to Mary of Nazareth are especially evocative in icons. She is, Quick to Hear, Seeker After the Lost, Similar to Fire, the Enclosed Garden, the Burning Bush, Joy of All Joys, Mother of Mercy, Life-Giving Spring ,Star of the Sea, Your Lap Has Become the Holy Table, Soothe My Sorrows, Stone Broke Loose From the Mountain, She Who Reigns, Mother of Holy Hope...and in the Litany of Loreto, Mystical Rose, Gate of Heaven, House of Gold, Seat of Wisdom, Health of the Sick, Solace of Migrants, Ark of the Covenant, Morning Star, Refuge of Sinners, Mirror of Justice, and many more. At times I would choose an icon to copy just because of the title. It was very nourishing for me to spend the time on the icon and to better understand how the ancient iconographers brought these titles so tenderly, to life.
When I began my iconographer’s apprenticeship in 1990 I had already read many of the mystical lives of Mary which all go back to the Protoevangelium of St James, the ancient story where we learn the names of Anna and Joachim, Mary’s parents. And during the Year of St Joseph, proclaimed by Pope Francis, I found a mystical life of St Joseph by Mother Maria Cecilia Baij, OSB, she said was given to her by Jesus, completed in 1766. During that year I slowly read this life and began to ponder the young Joseph and his gradual realization of his vocation. I put this contemplation into a painting I called “St Joseph Flower of Jesse.” These mystical lives of course are not Gospel, and some people consider them pious novels, but for some reason I have been really inspired by a few; not all feel authentic and at times, they can feel forced.
While reading Cardinal von Balthasar’s volume (in his 7 volume series “The Glory of the Lord”) on the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible) I came across the Shekhinah; the Feminine presence of God which would lead the Israelites, wandering in the desert and hover over the Ark of the Covenant whenever they would stop for a time. Then I discovered Rabbi Leah Novick’s magnificent book, “On The Wings of the Shekhinah.” For years I had planned in my imagination to portray Mary, the Shekhinah and the Ark, all in one image. I chose to make Mary about 8 or 9 years old, as if she too (like Joseph) was coming to a gradual awareness of some extraordinary vocation she would embody. This of course was all revealed to her by the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation. Most scholars agree that Mary was around 14 or 15.
This year at the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, and into Yom Kippur, I finally felt it was the right time to bring this imaginative, symbolic, inner vision to life.
I will never forget when, through the writings of my friend Christopher Pramuk, I first saw Thomas Merton ‘s mystical drawing of “Christ Unveils the Meaning of the Old Testament,” on the cover of his book “Sophia : The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton.” I realized again, that some contemplative concepts can only be represented through visual art. Chris and I are now working on a book (to be published by Orbis Press) of some of my drawings, illustrations, paintings, and a few icons, through this book, we go deeper into this conversation- with images included.
This one of the Child Mary, I have just completed, is really something I hope will feed your prayer during this Advent which begins very early this year, 27 November. I have really loved working on this image, and my hope is that love will touch you too.
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible for God.”
Luke 1: 35-37
Fr William Hart Dominic McNichols 🍁 October 2022