Tag: Mary

• Church Year Lectionary Theological reflection

  Advent 3

  

  Year A – December 14, 2025 Lectionary readings:Isaiah 35:1-10James 5:7-10Matthew 11:2-11Psalm 146:4-9or Canticle 15 (the Magnificat, or Song of Mary) This icon type, Theotokos of the Sign, depicts the expectant Mary. Her posture is one of prayer, and while her son is still in her womb, we see him as God, arms…

  14 December 2025
• art Theological reflection Uncategorized

  A Wounded Presence

  In this post, I am sharing an article published in 2016 that had its start as a term paper for the class, Icons and their Audiences, taught by Rossitza B. Schroeder at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. Elaine Elizabeth BelzA Wounded Presence: The Virgin of Vladimir Icon Abstract:   …

  20 January 2024
• Church Year poetry Theological reflection

  Among Women, Blessed

  The following poem, for a long time while I kept revising it, bore the working title, “Closing in on Christmas.” I’m glad my poetry group agreed I should change the title once it found its final form. And now that we’re deep into Christmas, why don’t I share my Advent…

  28 December 2023
• Church Year Theological reflection

  Full Circle

  Today is the second and last time this century that Good Friday and the Feast of the Annunciation fall on the same day. Historically, though, they’re linked. In the earliest centuries of the Church, the death and resurrection of Christ were observed, but Christ’s birth was not. However, the symbolic…

  25 March 2016