During this season, an icon of Mary feeding the Christ Child hangs above our mantel as a reminder to us of the deep mystery of Christmas.
The artist is Vladimir Blaho, of Slovakia. I saw this in an art gallery shop in Gettysburg while we were living in that area years ago. I bought it as a Christmas gift for my wife. This was at the time when Czechoslovakia was breaking apart and people there were in desperate poverty. Some professors from Gettysburg College who were traveling in that country brought several pieces of Blaho's iconic art back to Gettysburg to sell on his behalf. Because of the desperate times that Vladimir was facing, he had to paint this icon on a fence board instead of using traditional icon materials. Normally this piece graces our "prayer closet," and it remains one of my wife's most cherished possessions. Every year during the Advent and Christmas seasons we bring it out to a more prominent place in our home. Earlier this month she found the perfect words to go with it, a part of the Galasian Sacramentary.
Nourish, O mother of Jesus, Him who is your Nourishment. Nourish the Bread descended from heaven and placed in the manger like the fodder of animals.
At Christmas we rejoice in the best-of-all news, that God is with us. We continue pray for peace and ask God to show us and many others how to be peace makers. May the justice of God come more fully into our troubled world.
Trusting that all of you will find joy this Christmas.
Blessings and peace,
Dee Bee
