Spiritual Quote of the Day (Barry Hannah, on Jesus, Who ‘Forgives Our Wretchedness’)

“[A]t the center of all my faith, as at the center of the sadly unvisited Good Book, is a man who also forgives our wretchedness. He was not always strong himself. In the garden of Gethsemane he asked his father to let this cup, the crucifixion, be passed from him. His stumbling under the cross up the Via Dolorosa reminds me always of our own stumbling and crawling, over a mighty rough pathway of words left to us by long-dead writers, toward the good mountain of our deliverance.”— American novelist and short story writer Barry Hannah (1942-2010), “The Maddening Protagonist,” Paste Magazine, Issue 19 (December 2005-January 2006)

The image accompanying this post, Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary (ca. 1514-16), was created by the Italian Renaissance painter and architect Raphael (1483-1520).

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Barry Hannah, on Mary, ‘The Being Who Stands for Us All’)

“I was raised Baptist, among those whose interpretation of the Bible led them to decry the cult of Mary as intercessor to Christ, to decry those Roman Catholics who built their increasingly heavy, rich and gorgeous church around her. I now find myself drawn to Mary as the being who stands for us all.

“Mary provides bewilderment and also faithful attendance to her son through the crucifixion, an excruciation beyond belief for a mother. She remained on Golgotha after the faithless males fled. Hers is a journey through the Passion never to be forgotten.” — American novelist and short story writer Barry Hannah (1942-2010), “The Maddening Protagonist,” Paste Magazine, Issue 19 (December 2005-January 2006)

The image accompanying this post, The Assumption of the Virgin, comes from a large altarpiece panel painting in oils by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian (ca. 1488-1490-1576).