The Birth of Mary

From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

We read this excerpt from the Magnificat every evening in evening prayer as part of the routine of Liturgy of the Hours. On days when I have my wits about me, I try to envision Mary when she is being visited. I see a young girl with dark skin, dark eyes and dark hair simply dressed in robe style dress of era, a hood pulled over her hair loosely. I imagine her having a plain appearance about her but I also see a countenance filled with a radiance that both attracts but confuses those who encounter her. I try to contemplate if I would be able to match her great faith, to proclaim that the Almighty had done great things for me by choosing me to bear the most precious of gifts only to see him die in the most terrible of ways. I try to always remember to finish prayer with a Hail Mary which always seems to bring the day to a more comforting conclusion, particularly if it is not likely I will be able to recite night prayer. To finish in this way always seems to make the precious mother a real and immediate presence in my life, a true loving intermediary for me with her son, our lord.

I tried to find an image of Mary that matched up with what I seen when I try capture the image of Mary in my mind. I looked at hundreds of images of Mary but did not find anything similar to what I hoped to find. Many were beautiful, haunting, mysterious and, curiously, all clearly recognizable as being Mary. None of them picture a girl as young as Mary, by the custom of her time and era, would have had to have been when betrothed. None of them represented the image of a clearly semitic girl as Mary had to be since she was native to the land. With respect to all of the great artists who have painted Mary through out the years, she could not have been light skinned or light haired or had European features. I come to realize my visualization is just that: my visualization. How I see her makes her seem some how more personal to me and that we all, if given the chance, would create an image of her that would allow us to see her in a way that brings us comfort.