Madonna Nurse

Picture Courtesy of Saint Mun's, Dunoon Website

This painting was commissioned by Father Roddy McAuley, Parish priest of Our Lady and Saint Mun's Church in Dunoon. Father Roddy granted me the freedom to interpret his vision for this work in my own visual way. For this, I thank him. The Madonna Nurse is based on a recurring vision of his. In his own words:

"An image keeps on coming back to me. It is of a person wearing a protective coronavirus mask, and the person has tears streaming down their face. The tears fall onto the desert sand and water the desert, and lo and behold, these tears cause beautiful flowers to spring up from the barren earth. Associated with this idea is the one that after this dark cloud of the coronavirus has passed, the sun will shine again, and the Faith will be alivened. People will see their neighbour in a different way, and there will be a great revival. In times of crisis, God and the natural world are great sources of joy, strength and comfort. In damaging the natural world, we damage ourselves."

When working on the sketches for the painting, a quote by G K Chesterton came to mind, and I began to base my visual ideas around it:

"The main point of Christianity was this: that nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same Father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. Orthodoxy."

I love the poetry of this quote and the idea of nature being a little sister and both of us having a Father, our loving Creator. Chesterton also mentions that nature is not our mother, and this idea made me think of Mary, the mother of Jesus, our heavenly Mother. From this was born the idea of the Madonna as a nurse and healer. Throughout Christian history, she has been a true mother, especially in times of crisis, inspiring us to have the hope and courage to persevere through all our tears as she did at the crucifixion of her Son just before new life burst forth from the tomb at the Resurrection. Coming through the image of the Madonna, we see the face of a nurse wearing a nurse's cap. On the lower part of her face is the suggestion of a mask, which is made by the reflection of the primroses, blossoming and watered into life by her tears. In meditating on this painting, we could ask our Father to have mercy on our little sister and us through His Son Jesus, born of Mary and conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit seen in the painting here rising as a dove. Like the morning sun, it renews the face of the earth.