A couple of years ago, I asked a good friend of mine (and a SOLT religious sister), Sr. Mary Mediatrix of All Graces, when her birthday was. It’s June 28th she told me. An easy date to remember since it’s a day after my brother’s birthday. I was not familiar with the Marian title that she had adopted as her religious name but eager to find out. I offered to paint Our Mother Mary Mediatrix as a birthday gift. The longest part of my process is the development of a painting concept and this proved to take the longest time plus life threw a bunch of doozies at me so that made it even more challenging. I began to research and Sr. Mediatrix helped me along the way; when she went to Rome, she discovered a church named after Our Lady and sent me beautiful photos of a sculpture relief there. At another visit, she even encountered a monk who was not entirely happy when she showed up to take additional photos of this relief (at my request btw) during siesta time. Well, I thought I would bring that sculpture relief to life and I earnestly tried but I lost the zeal for painting it. This truly only happens when I force it – you know, not listen to the Holy Spirit. So, I set the unfinished canvas aside and worked on other commissions then before I knew it a couple more years had passed. This year Sr. Mediatrix turned 50 and I didn’t want to miss it (I almost did but I made it by 5 minutes and the painting was still wet – thank you Sr. Caritas Sparke for stalling her at the party).
Whenever I faced a struggle, I’d spent time before the Blessed Sacrament in Adoration and pray and pray and pray (lots of begging actually). With this painting, I did just that – I spent 3 hours in Adoration imploring the Lord for a new and original concept. It was in the silence when I finally heard (mostly felt) the Holy Spirit, and as it always happens, an image formed in my mind’s eye. I tried to capture this divinely inspired image as closely as I could and this is the painting that emerged. It took about 2 months (plus the 2 years) and Sr. Mediatrix said it was worth the wait and that made my heart sing.
During the National Eucharistic Congress this past July, I ran into her (out of 60,000 pilgrims!!) In our very brief encounter, she told me that she knew that I wanted my paintings to be seen publicly and so she was going to make prayer cards of the painting instead. I was thrilled but told her the painting is my gift to her and she could to do with it as she pleased. This past weekend at her delayed 50th birthday party I presented her with the painting and seeing her light up when she first gazed at it, was God’s reward to me. It was her joy that made all the all-nighters painting in my studio worth it. Mother Mary Mediatrix of All Graces – please pray for us.
“Mary Mediatrix of All Graces“
18″x24″ Oil on Linen
Framed
June 28, 2024
Merci F. McCoy
