Lenten Icons

"I'm still a novice concerning pain-

that's how small I feel in this great dark;

but if you are there, be heavy and and break through;

have your whole hand do it's work on me"*

The Three Handed Virgin is the Icon in honor of the Theotokos, healer of St. John of Damascus. St. John of Damascus' hand was cut off by the Iconoclast Emperor, Leo III, but when he took his pain to the Virgin, She restored St. John's hand, and he wrote the Icon in gratitude. Originally, the third hand hung around Her neck, but later versions have it as it is in the Icon above, a natural part of Her.

The Three-Handed Virgin, the miracle working Mother of God, reminds us always that God is the restorer of hope, and the healer of all wounds. She is magical, this Mother, offering 'a river of grace' to the children of God who come in faith to rest beneath her mantle. Restoring hands and hearts, bodies and souls, to wholeness.

"And though I am like leaves and loam, 

as often as I pray or paint

it's Sunday and deep down I am 

joyful Jerusalem."* 

Harry Potter's Lenten Retreat

I'm in charge of the Book Club this Lent. Jenna is starting a new job (congratulations!) and Christie has made the Big Move to the Wales-that-is-not-in-Maine (double congratulations!!), and I am sitting through another snow-storm (12-18 inches predicted. No congratulations in order). That means I have the time and the inclination to head things up this season, they don't. But hopefully they will have the time to jump in! Because we're talking about love. This Lent is sort of all wrapped up in love for me this year, as I work on being more loving to those around me, to myself, and especially to God (who is all good, and worthy of all my love..that's right, I just went to confession ;) ). 

There's an abundance of love (and love-seeming-emotions) in Harry Potter. There are good and beautiful loves, there are less than ideal loves, and then there are manipulations-disguised as love..we're going to try to talk about all of them. But not all at once.. Today we're just going to start at the beginning. 

The Rules

     We're not going to be absolutely careful in this discussion, but we are going to try very hard to keep the discussion to the first 3 books. But a few spoilers here and there are just fine. Just avoid focusing on all the love-y stuff from beyond book 3.

    Anyone can feel free to join in by linking a blog and/or commenting on any of the posts linked-in to the discussion. We'd love a big, happy argument about how much love Dumbledore actually shows Harry (cough, not much, cough)..or whether or not it is actually possible to create a human-being who has never and could never love another..and we'll probably get all teary-eyed together over Lily's sacrifice (yes, even me). 

     To make it easier on myself, we'll divide the discussion into four semi-overlapping sections: Friendship, Familial, and Sacrificial love, as well as Un-love - a time to explore Voldemort, the Dursley's relationship to Harry, and any un-charities we've noticed.

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Friendship

    Friendship is, I think, the love Rowling is least comfortable with..it is the weakest portrayed in the series, the most often portrayed, the least inspiring of all the loves shown in the series. The primary friendship: Harry, Ron, and Hermione is a frustrating one for me. Harry and Ron are pretty consistently abandoning Hermione for all manner of petty reasons, Ron is - it seems, never really stops hating Harry for life in the limelight, and Harry has the sort of trust issues that can only come from an abusive childhood..but why do they never, ever go away - at least with his two closest friends?

   I know we don't like to assume too much about the author from her writing, but throughout the series, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Rowling. "She must not have any friends.." kept flashing through my mind. Because the trio aren't the only friends represented in the series, but they're probably the best shot at healthy, true friendships, and it's disappointing. So much simmering resentment. I look back at my own school-day friendships and I remember having friends like that: friends I liked (even loved), but didn't really trust, friends I knew would isolate me at the first mis-step..those weren't my closest friends. My dearest friends from school were the ones I trusted with my whole heart, the ones I know are still there for me, despite the miles, despite the spiritual distance, despite the paths we've taken that lead away from each other. There's still that core closeness..and maybe that closeness is there, somewhere deeply hidden in the trio. Buried behind back-biting, petty betrayals, and thoughtless cruelties, maybe there's the core of friendship. But if it's there, it seems like a sad, struggling thing - beset on all sides. 

   Still, if it is there - and I never see it reading the books, really, only in discussing them afterwards with enthusiastic people who can see it - it does raise the friendships in the series above where I saw them. I like to hope that maybe Rowling is trying to draw that aspect of friendship out. Reminding her readers again and again that love is something constant..something that 'bears all things..endures all things..[and] never fails.' 

What do you think, are her friendships true and beautiful. Are they Loving?

Lenten Icons

The Lamenting Virgin is an ideal companion for the season of Lent. She mourns as we do - but deeper, fuller. Her empty arms wrapped around the Son she longs so much to hold. The Mother mourns what cannot be - it is a loss of something she never really had - for who can hold all of God? Strange to think that once she did. Once she had a child, a tiny son who nestled in that lonely space, but the dreams and hopes that mothers share, of the sweet potentiality in each child, that she never really had. He was something else entirely: "I had only streams of milk or tears to offer, and you were ever so much more than me." Something un-holdable, something set apart. And I think she knew, even then, that her arms would always be both empty and full.

My pain has been perfected and fills me up...

You became great,

and then you burst the rims of my heart

as a smarting too stark. .

no longer can I give to you

birth.

(Rainer Maria Rilke. From The Life of the Virgin Mary) 

Harry Potter Book Club: Lent, Lies, and Penitence

Ash Wednesday is this Wednesday! This very Wednesday..it's sort of overwhelming. But my fellow bookclubbing girls and I want to do something special this season: Christie is moving to Wales (no, not Wales, ME - unfortunately; the real Wales) and Jenna is readjusting her life in pursuit of more knowledge - so we may not have as much time as ideally we would for consistent sections of analysis and discussion. What we do have though, is a passionate interest in the ideas behind those sections and the holy season itself. So we're going to (and correct me if I get this wrong girls) slow down (maybe pause, maybe not, depending on schedules and real life commitments) the consistent analysis during Lent and focus instead on the way Love itself is presented and defined in these first three books. Just these first three books, no skipping ahead! I want to talk about family love and friendship and charity and hope..I know Jenna and Christie have a book's worth of thoughts to share on the topic, and I'm looking forward to your reflections as well! Excited? I am!


So I'm not going to go too much deeper into Lupin's Fatherly role toward Harry right now, but I love the scene Jenna references in her post:

      Lupin manages what Snape never could have done: he makes Harry feel guilty for 
      breaking the rules. I'm not sure there's a more successful punishment in any of the 
      books than Lupin's few, well-chosen words here. It's quite a powerful little 
      scene—it manages to make me feel like I took a deserved kick to the stomach, 
     and I didn't go sneaking off to Hogsmeade.

Lupin does manage that, doesn't he? And you know, I think part of the reason is that, as much as he does have obvious affection for Harry, and as much as he does sort of step into that father-role with Harry, he doesn't really treat Harry as special. We actually see him in this book relating with other students in a similar, affectionate, personal way. Snape treats Harry as special (especially awful, true, but singled out), Dumbledore, Hagrid, McGonagall, even Trelawney single him out. The Dursley's singled him out for mistreatment, and even Molly Weasley singles him out for the lion's share of her nurturing. But Lupin - even while giving him the extra lessons he needs - doesn't really treat Harry as special. He treats him very much like he treats Neville: as a boy in need of some extra help, a student that he as a teacher is trying to guide and help. It's refreshing to me, and it must be refreshing to Harry as well. To see an adult that is neither hostile nor indulgent reprimand him..Thank you professor Lupin!

 

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And I wonder with Jenna "whether Snape knew who the mapmakers were. Obviously he didn't know what the map was, but did he recognize the names?" She guesses that even if he didn't recognize the names, the personalities that came through were easily discernible..and I have to agree..even if he wasn't certain, he must have suspected - and having someone easily available who did know must have made him even more frustrated.. Poor Snape, everyone has a breaking point! It must have been a stress-filled year for him all things together.

I'm also left feeling just a little badly for Malfoy. Not only does Harry win the match, not only does the fake dementor attack fail, not only does he lose 50 points in one afternoon, but he has to be the too-short guy, perched on his friend's shoulders and then knocked over by a huge, scary spell in front of the whole school! When you're in Slytherin, and you know everyone hates you anyway, it stings even more.

this one's for you, Jenna ;)

Holy Week

Lenten Friday