The Chartres Labyrinth and Mary (6) The Life of Christ Window

Friends speak volumes to one another without needing words. My understanding of others sometimes comes from our bodies reveal.

My prayer

Creator of flesh and spirit, may I more fully honor every form of wisdom You have made available.

Biblical touchstones

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. Luke 1:39 (NRSV)

Invitation to prayer

Place your hands as you see Elizabeth (the woman on the left) doing. What prayers are emerging in your heart, mind, body, and imagination? Pray them now.

Place your hands as you see Mary (the woman on the right) doing. What prayers are emerging in your heart, mind, body, and imagination? Pray them now.

Photo and placement of this image in relationship to the labyrinth

Mary and Elizabeth greeting one another in the middle panel of the bottom row of the Life of Christ window. This twelfth century stained glass window is in the middle of the west wall directly under the rose of the Chartres Cathedral in France. This image is visible from all those places in the labyrinth where the walker is facing west. As one leaves the center the labyrinth, and on all the straight sections of the pathway as one returns to the threshold, the window and Mary are fully visible.