Today is The Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or, the day we remember the (unknown) day the angel told a girl called Mary that she would have a child, and was to call him Jesus.
The image is one I took at the Church of the Annunciation, in Nazareth. I like this statue. I like how Gabriel looks quite casual, really; an animated type; one hand raised mid-story-telling, the other in his pocket. And Mary? Well, she's not the serene woman of Mediaeval art. Her arms are wrapped around her, in a protective, comforting, pondering-these-things-in-her-heart kind of way...but she's listening attentively to the angel's story. She's vulnerable, of course, but she has something about her; she might harbour unspoken thoughts inside, but she's not other-worldly. And, of course, she would have had something about her, in a self-effacing sort of a way, to make her a good choice of mother. Anyway, I just like this statue a lot. So I thought I'd share it with you.
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