Our Lady Light Catcher

The whole sculpture is moving–the broken and lifeless body of our Lord limply in the arms of his mother offers a powerful reflection on the horrors of the crucifixion, and the price of my sin.  The depiction of Our Lady is also very thought provoking.  She is much bigger than her son–with the shoulders of a football player.  I like to reflect on the strength of Mary–the strength she needed to do what God asked of her, and the strength she can have in my own life, if I let her.

I had the opportunity to study the sculpture in person a few years ago when I was in Rome with my two younger sisters.

Standing in front of the sculpture you get to see not only the whole, but the parts too.  When you get really close, you can see the gentle beauty of Mary’s face.  The entire sculpture is depicts the cruelty of sin and hate, but on her face is peace, and trust in God’s plan.

That is something I need to foster in myself–Peace and Trust in God’s plan.

For this reason, I used a close up of Mary’s face from Michelangelo’s Pieta for this project.  He did such a beautiful job capturing her and the image serves as a quiet reminder of the blessing and trails of motherhood.  I also really love the idea of Our Lady reflecting the glorious light of Jesus, and I wanted this project to be light-filled as well.

If you’d also like to make a Light Catcher of Our Lady, here’s how:

Supplies:
Printed image of Mary
Sheer Fabric (mine has a sweet little flower design on it)
Transfer Gel (sold at arts and crafts stores, in the glue section)
Paint brush
Mod Podge

• Once you have gathered your supplies, trim your printed image of Mary to the desired size.  Then, spread a thick coat of transfer gel onto the face of the image.  Press the image face down onto the sheer fabric.  Use the pads of your fingers to get out any air bubbles or gel blobs.
• Allow this to dry.  You will probably need to hang it while drying, so it doesn’t stick to something, since the fabric is sheer.
• Once totally dry, take a wet wash cloth and totally saturate the paper.  Then, using the pads of your fingers, start to rub away the paper.  The paper will come off, but the image will remain.
• When all of the paper has been removed (be patient, it takes a while) cover the image, front and back with Mod Podge.  This is important because it is nearly impossible to remove all of the paper, so without Mod Podge your image will appear cloudy.
• After the Mod Podge dries, add a frame of your choice and whatever you decide to use to hang it up!