St Pat's Report

St Pat's Marist Laity continues to meet 3rd Fridays at 6p.m. We are continuing our advertised programme, our July gathering entitled: Revealing the Mystery. We focused with the assistance of Monica Brown's mantra, 'Holy Sacred Spirit, breathe Your breath on us', on our dominant theme of freedom. As aids to meditation and the ongoing conversation we looked at the way in which the music of Hildegard of Bingen evokes the image of viriditas given off by plants, sunlight and light reflecting gemstones to evoke the life of the Virgin Mary as lived in the Spirit. We contemplated several images; Sally Morgan's 'A Child is Born' - the importance of family and the spirituality of birth; Giotto's fresco of St Francis with the birds; Michael Galovic's icon of St Luke the Iconographer and Leunig's Mother and Child in front of the open window with the star lying on the floor. An interesting conversation evolved finishing with opinions about the changing images of Mary - from the idea of Triumphalism to Truly Our Sister. This Friday we will continue by exploring the notion: Are We free People?

Jina Mulligan.