The Chartres Labyrinth and Mary (13) The Passion and Resurrection Window

When there are no words, touch still speaks. Even death isn’t powerful enough to kill all connection. As long as I am alive, I can reach for what I love or loved.

My prayer

I extend my hands to you, O God.

Biblical touchstone

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2 (NRSV)

Invitation to prayer

Think of someone you care about who is suffering or suffered while they were alive. Reach out with your imagination and your hands as if you could hold their hands. 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 reaching out to Jesus’ body as it was being taken off the cross. The image is the right panel of the fourth row from the bottom of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ window, a twelfth century stained glass window on the south side (left as you face it from the inside) of the west wall 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. This image reminds me that while we may seem to walk alone, we can still touch those we love or have loved.