Mary Is Our Model

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa is a Polish icon at least 600 years old and possibly much older. allegedly created by St. Luke himself while Mary told him the story of Jesus’ life, later to be retold as the Gospel of Luke.

 You may be familiar with the 16th-century Litany of Loreto, which gathers wonderful images of Mary such as

Mystical Rose Madonna, by Salvador Dali

Mystical Rose, Tower of Ivory, Ark of the Covenant, Gate of Heaven, and Morning Star. Saint Francis of Assisi in the 13th century had a similar litany, his “Salutation of the Virgin,” which hails Mary as Christ’s Palace, Tabernacle, Home, Robe, Handmaid, and Mother. But perhaps the most striking is Mary as “Virgin made church”: Mary as the model for all Christians to pray, “Let it be done unto me according to God’s word” and who is always directing us toward her son, saying again and again, “Do what he tells you.”