The first time I saw it this summer I was surprised that it’s only four-and-a-half-feet-tall, but I should have realized it was imprinted on Juan Diego’s cloak, so it couldn’t be much taller than that.
The second thing I noticed was the block ribbon which Mary wears tied around her waist. Most of it was blocked by her arms, but just below her joined hands you see the two ends of the ribbon.
The black ribbon would have been a sign to Juan Diego and all who looked at the image on his cloak that this woman was pregnant, for the Spanish word for pregnant (encinto) means, literally, “wrapped in a ribbon.” Encinto.
In English, we use the words “expecting” as a euphemism for pregnancy, a word which reminds me of the second Preface for Advent, which reads, in part:
…the Virgin Mother longed for him
with love beyond all telling…
The longing of this pregnant Virgin is the very essence of Advent, and is echoed in Prayer Over the Offerings for tomorrow, which asks “that no infirmity may weary us as we long for the comforting presence of our heavenly physician.”
Yesterday I spent four hours in the surgical* waiting room of Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, waiting in hope and fear for news that the Divine Physician had worked through the hands of a thoracic surgeon to bring new life, and healing and peace to the one whom we loved.
And, you know what? He did. And David will be fine. And the virgin encinto will give birth to a newborn child, and he for whom we long, will come and save us.
