Imagining the Life of Mary, Mother of JesusWritten by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur
So little is said about Mary, mother of Jesus, in Gospels. We can only imagine her thoughts and feelings as she went from being a simple Jewish girl to mother of Son of God. In "Shalom, Mary: Letters Blessed Virgin Might have Written", Kathleen Culligan Techler has done just that. This is indeed a work of fiction. Obviously, no one but Mary herself (and God above) know what experience was like for her. Yet, in reading "Shalom, Mary", one gets sense that it might have been this way. This is a human Mary struggling to make sense of unusual set of circumstances she has found herself in. Techler has Mary share her intimate thoughts with Rebekah, a girlhood friend who has since moved away. The letters begin with news of Annunciation. Here we find Mary not sure how to tell her parents or her betrothed she is pregnant: "Whatever future brings, I want to do God's will. My son Son of God! How can I tell my parents? . . . And what of Joseph? . . . How could he possibly accept this news as truth?" Yes, you can almost see scared teenager confiding her secret to her dearest friend. Through years, Mary shares her perspective on her trip to visit Elizabeth, Jesus' birth and strangers that came to visit them in Bethlehem, their hurried journey to Egypt, and Jesus growing up. She tells of everyday occurrences such as meals made and joy of watching Joseph and Jesus work together in workshop. Techler's Mary speaks with a mother's pride: "I know you are smiling, Rebekah, at my pride in Jesus and his accomplishments. We mothers are all alike, aren't we?"
| | Jesus in WalesWritten by Robert Bruce Baird
The next few days were as hectic and exciting as any days Jesus could remember. The never-ending stream of people who wanted to meet him actually increased each day. Taliesin (Perhaps author of Hanes Taliesin which tells story of Merovingians back to Melchizedek.) and others spread word of most interesting young man who already knew so much, but was there to learn from their own great teachers and adepts. People felt a presence when they were in his company. Sometimes he would say little and listen but ask most insightful questions and occasionally they would hear a sentence or two when he was challenged by someone else’s questions that shone an entirely different light. His passion was immediately felt when his eyes lit up and few who spent much time around him as he traveled with Mary and her father were ever left with any feeling that legends growing around him were anything less than true. But he hungered to spend serious time in schooling of Ogham and healing arts of Beth-Luis-Nion from Diancecht. “I just wanted you to get a feel for enormity of my enterprises and trade that supports it from mining and other assets we have throughout whole wide world. I suppose you have picked up a few clues when you see non-indigenous precious stones like jade and plethora of furs unlike any others you have known.” Joseph remarked as they traveled in a carriage towards a town called Penwith where they were to talk to miners of Ding Dong Mine. “But there is no great motivation for me in money, Joseph. I seek for knowledge and Isle of Avalon has people like Diancecht and Taliesin that will serve Mary and me some truly delectable delights. I look forward to contributing to and reading Coelbren (Kolbrin).” “It is important to know forces you are up against is it not?” Joseph smiled. “Yes, you are right about that.” Jesus replied. “And I will address this to miners as I did long ago at Temple with ‘money-changers’.” “Is that OK with you Father?” Mary worriedly asked. “I will never stand in way of our young lord.” Like most mines it was a veritable hell-hole and dangerous place even though living quarters were better than most and there were no slaves. It was one of those places that many who had been slaves, who were from Africa and all manner of places, were working; and Jesus was appalled after a brief tour. Joseph introduced Jesus to crowd of mostly miners who stood sullenly in amphitheatre. “I join in your pain ‘brothers’. I feel it and I worry about all ways that people make money on backs of other life. I know many of you are in a far better place here than you once were forced to experience but it does not change abject horror I feel and reason I will now be driven to always fight against forces of power and greed. You and I may not see world change in our lifetime but I will give my life in cause of Brotherhood and egalitarian or free-thinking opportunities for all life on earth. Verily I say unto thee – he that suffers least little hurt in this world is diminished but I and all others are just as diminished. In fact those who diminish others are even more to suffer karmic outcome of acts done in their name.”
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