Immaculate Conception, O Lovely Lady,
Bless’ed channel of many mercies!
Your pretty face: loved and most loving,
Having evaded sin’s aggression,
Smiles a path that’s free of worries.
Then favor, please, my friend whose hand I hold
Who begs for liberation.
She… chill-held, rain-soaked, inelegant in destitution.
Her clothing clings to her despair,
as lip-bit and soul-holed,
In grim affliction, though among us addicts, she has found a deviant tranquility
But no way, no truth, no life.
On her love starved face, which I caress,
No moon glimmer, no star shimmer, no sun shines.
Less than. Least. Nothing.
O Mother of crucified love!
Embrace my broken girl, In fresh immaculation!
Cover her in golden stars and lift her chin toward heaven!
Crush the craven dragon that claws for our attention!
Incarnate now in her your Son’s vital warmth, His light, His healing pity
That once again, I pray, my friend may lovely smile
Conscious of her beauty!
Who is the beautiful woman of the Immaculate Conception? And does her beauty reveal a path to redemptive healing? Or is she just another pretty face?
We can harvest clues from her iconography, the Immaculate Conception’s artistic fingerprint, found in Revelation 12.1-6:
“… a great portent appeared in heaven, [a woman in the anguish of childbirth], clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. And … behold, a great red dragon … stood before the woman … that he might devour her child when she brought it forth…”
This potent scriptural image was meditated on, written and sung about, painted, discussed, and otherwise flourished in the Catholic imagination since the 4th Century. But an ‘iconography’ specific to the IC did not come until the 17th Century. Francis writes about it in his Love of God (1616). However, on canvas, Tiepolo’s Immaculate Conception, featured above, is a super example…
We see Mary poised in cosmic vigor in a celestial paintscape. Rosy-cheeked, hands gently joined, elegant in prayer; fully heavenly, fully earthly, stellar. Meanwhile, she dispassionately pins the dragon to the earth with a foot, preventing him from offering anyone another ‘apple!’
Like other Immaculata, she stands over an inverted crescent moon, carried along by helpful cherubs. While not exactly “clothed with the sun,” she is clearly resplendent in its light. She is crowned with 12 stars, while the dove, the Holy Spirit, is in overwatch.
Not in clear focus below, it appears that civilization and nature itself are battered, reminding us of Psalm 74.3… “Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins, all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.” Fear not! This Immaculata is clear about her mission as the unshakable sanctuary, exuding practical confidence and God-given majesty.
Illuminated by the sun, the furnace of God’s love, it is her face and form that commands attention and seems to secure a path for us out of the wreckage of this world’s destructive energies. No words, only through the interior fire that illumines her outward beauty, Mary in the Immaculate Conception, tells us that Love can and will restore us to our original beauty, serenity, and completeness.
Francis warmly explained that Mary’s “heart remained perpetually inflamed with the holy love she received from her Son…” and that her … “sacred flames … never ceased to take incredible increase, even as far as heaven the place of their origin…”
We glimpse the heavenly origin of love and beauty and its redemptive power in the Immaculate Conception… not just another pretty face!
Fr. Mark Plaushin, OSFS
Love. Learn. Serve. Charlie Mike
