A meaningful life.WE LONG FOR REASSURANCE, our own personal angelic visit, the removal of obstacles, the certainty of fulfillment. Botticelli's Virgin sways in prayerful prayer·ful adj. 1. Inclined or given to praying frequently; devout. 2. Typical or indicative of prayer, as a mannerism, gesture, or facial expression. wonder she receives the blessed summons. What will follow? For Mary it will be a life of loneliness and poverty, with her son dying a criminal's death and the only solace her faith. Human strengths can only lead to human satisfactions, and even these are vulnerable to fortune. But these are meager mea·ger also mea·gre adj. 1. Deficient in quantity, fullness, or extent; scanty. 2. Deficient in richness, fertility, or vigor; feeble: the meager soil of an eroded plain. 3. goals, not enough to lead us into peace. There is no lasting peace that does not rest upon a sense of life having meaning. For Mary, that meaning was her divine son; for others, it can come from a determination to do what is right and the solid certainty that this is something that nobody can wrest away from us. SISTER WENDY BECKETT of Norfolk, England, well-known for her BBC BBC in full British Broadcasting Corp. Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. and PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, television art series and her popular art books. Reprinted with permission from: Sister Wendy's Book and Meditations (DK Publishing, 1998; 888-342-5357). Painting: Annunciation Annunciation dove and lily pictured with Virgin and Gabriel. [Christian Iconography: Brewer Dictionary, 645] Elizabeth Mary’s old cousin; bears John the Baptist. [N.T. , 1489-90, Sandro Botticelli, Uffizi Gallery, Florence. |
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