Advent ... Annunciation

‘Annunciation’  etched glass panel : Janet Driver

“I love the way the sun shines through this glass !  But why call it Annunciation? ...Where is the Angel ? “

The questioner was quite perplexed...and certainly St Luke describes this as a conversation between Mary and an Angel: ‘...the Angel Gabriel was sent from God...’ [St Luke ch 1 v26 f ]  I have read this many times, and even had to take the part of the Angel in  Nativity plays as a child because I was tall & could shoulder the large heavy wings! 

I don't think I left out the angel... but wanted to portray a much more etherial indication of both angel and message...of the angel as an emanation of spiritual power...of light...of joy...of new  life...vitality...of something both seen and unseen...how do you describe or portray visually something so powerful and deeply spiritual ?   

Hence the spiral of flaming light...the shimmering sense of wings half seen, half understood... and the sense of Mary’s “yes” with echoing flames of the Spirit throughout her being...

 “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you...”

Whenever I see the sunlight  pouring through this glass...the deep reds dancing with flickering yellows, reflecting across the floor or lighting up someone’s hair with a halo of coloured light, I am reminded of  glimpses of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people I have met...

Advent 2

Families love to pass on stories about something unusual happening at the time of a child's birth,
and I can just imagine the story about the birth of John the Baptist being repeated by all the relatives, especially once he became well known as the

"Voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord..."   ( Luke 3 v 4 ) 

and people all flocked to this man who was not afraid to speak his mind.

 Zecharia's Vision : Alexandr Ivanov

Right at the beginning of  Luke's Gospel we are introduced to his parents, Elizabeth & Zechariah, a childless couple, who have hoped & prayed for children... & now Zechariah believes they are too old.

I searched the internet & found this painting which seems to express the shimmering awe & wonder of Angel Gabriel, together with the fear & disbelief of Zechariah who is struck dumb...

...but I have found no painting which portrays Zechariah's 'nightmare' of having to face the congregation awaiting him in the Temple, knowing that he cannot say a word... and yet the crowd are very understanding.

Mary's story is then closely woven into this narrative, like warp & weft together, as the same Angel  Gabriel visits Mary when Elizabeth is in her sixth month of pregnancy...

• to reflect further... see Trevor Dennis : The Christmas Stories [SPCK ]                                p.67 : An Angel, a priest, and a woman who loses her 'disgrace'