Over the centuries, many artists have understood that “silence and interiority” are the gateways to learning to love according to the heart of Jesus Christ and to letting themselves be set on fire by him. Thus, a profusion of works depicts the Cenacle as a place of prayer where, at the school of Mary, the disciples learn to listen to and wait for the Spirit.
Illumination representing a Pentecost from a Book of Hours, Bruges, 15th c. (second quarter), Bibliothèque municipale de Douai (France), Ms. 179, f. 018v (© Biblissima)
“Mary in the Cenacle incarnates what every sister of the Cenacle is called to be.
In the Cenacle, Mary is all waiting,
all listening in the solitude of her heart,
She receives the Holy Spirit and gives herself over to his action.”[3]
This sentence, taken from the Constitutions of the Cenacle Sisters, is inspired by the attitude of Mary, around whom the disciples of Jesus gathered. It applies to the way of life of the sisters of the Cenacle, but it can also be applied to any Christian who wishes to surrender herself/himself to the action of the Spirit, to listen to the Word of God, and to obey it by allowing herself/himself to be enflamed by it. That, at least, is what this illumination from a Book of Hours in Aix, like many other works, is trying to say by depicting Pentecost.
In this painting, men and women, in all their diversity stand in prayer around the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. Standing, sitting or kneeling, grey-haired, brown-haired or blond-haired, beardless or bearded, young or old, dressed in tunics and cloaks of pink, green, red, parma or blue, their hands clasped, raised or holding a book, all but one raise their heads in awe by what they see and hear. All of them, united in prayer, await the power promised by Jesus at the moment of his Ascension to the Father, the power of the Holy Spirit who will come upon them and make them witnesses of the Risen Christ to the ends of the earth. [4]. All have entered into this interiority that is waiting for the Spirit, listening to the Word of God and listening to God’s action in their lives and in the world.
Like Mary, who kept all these things in her heart, like the pilgrims on the road to Emmaus, who recounted to the Risen Jesus the events they had just experienced and allowed themselves to be taught by the Scriptures, the disciples at prayer in the Cenacle represent every Christian who remembers the events of his or her life and allows himself or herself to be enlightened by the Word of God, and especially by the Gospels and the words and deeds of Jesus. In their various attitudes, the figures in this illumination from Aix illustrate this listening to God according to what each person is, archetypes of the various vocations that make up the Church.
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Receiving God’s unconditional love To Mary’s right, seated, wearing a red tunic and a grey-lined green cloak, crowned with white hair, a short beard and holding an open book, is Simon Peter, the one to whom Jesus entrusted his Church, the one to whom he said “Feed my lambs, be the shepherd of my sheep.”[5] The humble listening of Peter, who feels loved beyond belief by the one he has betrayed and denied three times, but who, despite everything, entrusts to him what he holds most dear. The obedient listening of Peter, who from now on will take care of those whom the Father had entrusted to Christ and who, like his Master, will give his life for his friends. |
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Welcoming as a son Behind Mary, among the disciples, a young man with blond hair and no beard could well be John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. He stands discreetly behind the woman who, since Jesus’ death, is now his mother, and whose son he is. “Woman, behold your son,” and “Behold your mother” [6] – transforming words which John and Mary obeyed, by their loving listening, to the point of responding to each other from now on. |
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Listening and letting oneself be taught Facing Mary, very close to her, almost opposite her, in a green tunic and parma cloak, is a man of respectable age, with hardly any distinguishing features. He would blend in easily with the rest of the group if he did not have this privileged position so close to the Mother of Christ. Could this be Andrew, Peter’s brother and former disciple of John the Baptist? Could it be Thomas who had returned from his disbelief? Could it be Bartholomew, Philip or someone else? It doesn’t matter, it is one of the eleven, a disciple of Christ, someone close to Mary, a praying person transfigured by what he contemplates, enlightened by what he hears and receives, someone who knows how to listen and let himself be taught.
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Meditating on the Word of God At Mary’s feet, with his back to the viewer, another disciple is kneeling. This disciple differs from the other figures in the scene in several ways. He is not quite part of the group formed by the other figures, although he is integrated into it. His kneeling posture, his ample red cloak with a white lapel, similar to John’s and covering him completely, his hairstyle, very similar to that of a tonsure, and the book in which he is deeply immersed, help us to think that he is a man of prayer, a monk recognised for his holiness since he is wearing a halo, a contemporary of the illuminator, perhaps the commissioner of this historiated Book of Hours. He is the bridge between the scene in the Cenacle in Jerusalem two thousand years ago and life today. He represents every believer who allows his heart to be shaped by the Gospel. |
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All these persevered in prayer with Mary, the mother of Jesus.[7]
The central place that the artists give to Mary in this type of scene shows how precious her help is for praying and persevering in prayer.
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Here, she is depicted with the book open in her hands. She is not reading the Word of God, like the monk kneeling in prayer before her. She is looking up at the Spirit, who, like a dove, is swooping down on the Upper Room and towards the open sky above her, towards that portion of blue and gold sky that evokes the Ascension and Christ’s return to his heavenly Father. Sown by the Spirit, she who bore the Son of God, she through whom the Word became flesh, she who knows how to keep all these things in her heart, stands at the centre of the stage, not to draw attention to herself but to lead us to Christ and the Father. The decoration in the background, in the form of a sprig of plants similar to a large, golden decorative scroll, is rooted partly in the book held by the Virgin Mary, partly in her womb. This motif, which rises like a tree full of sap, like a bundle of fire spouting from where Mary is standing in prayer, reveals her role as mediatrix. Mary, Mother of God, Mother of Humanity, Mary is the Church who, listening to the Spirit, directs her children to the Son so that he may lead them to the Father. |
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This movement is strongly reminiscent of the place given to Mary by St. Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises. In fact, Mary occupies a special place at certain times during a retreat according to the Exercises, and in particular in two prayers at the end of the time of prayer, known as colloquies. In these colloquies, “Our Lady” is asked by the retreatant to obtain various graces from her Son.[8]. Sometimes it will be so that the retreatant has an interior knowledge of his/her sins, so that he/she can put them aside and better order his/her life; sometimes it will be so that the retreatant is received “under the banner of Christ.” In the Exercises, each of these two colloquies, addressed to Our Lady, is then addressed to the Son so that he may obtain this same grace from the Father, and then is addressed to the Father so that the eternal Lord himself may grant it.
In such a prayer, the process can be considered Trinitarian in the sense that it gives Our Lady a role equivalent to that of the Spirit. “That Our Lady, the figure of the Church, should be placed in the place of the Holy Spirit is in keeping with theological and liturgical tradition. She is filled with the Holy Spirit.” [9] Furthermore, as Father Adrien Demoustier points out, Ignatius speaks of Our Lady and not the Virgin Mary, thus giving her the title that the society of his day gave to the lord’s wife, an adult woman, distinguished from her role as daughter or mother and even wife insofar as the Lady can play the same social role as the lord. “It is to this woman who is human in her own right that a prayer is addressed that also recognises her but, secondarily if you like, as a mother, since it is addressed to her son, her Son who is the Son of the Father according to the second petition. This sequence leads insensibly from human filiation to divine filiation. In humanity, of which Our Lady is the figure, we can address the Son in whom the Father’s voice resounds and who pronounces his name. In a way, the retreatant is asking Our Lady to make the conversation for him and to teach him to speak in truth.”
Listening to do the Father’s will
The fiery red background and the golden sheaf, springing from the book held by Mary and from her womb, align her with the role Saint Ignatius gives her in the Exercises.
Mary in the Cenacle, in retreat in the Cenacle we might say, has this particular role of spiritual guide. She is the one who prays for the disciples gathered around her in expectation of the gift of the Spirit, to obtain for them some grace from her Son, and especially the grace of being received “under his banner,” as servants and friends. Mary in the Cenacle, amid the disciples at prayer, Our Lady, the mother of Christ and mother of the Church, is the one who leads the disciples to receive the Spirit of Christ in order to give themselves over to his action, which is none other than to lead them to the Father. All waiting and listening in the solitude of her heart, she is the figure of the Church obeying the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Indeed, as the Latin teaches us, where listen (écouter in French), obaudire, oboedire, obey, resonate together to lend an ear, the Greek teaches us that the verb to obey, hupakouô is composed of akouô, to listen, and the Hebrew שמע (ema), which means to hear, True obedience is rooted in listening, which is a spiritual process that echoes the commandment of love that gives eternal life as an inheritance:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind;
and your neighbour as yourself.”
[10]
Listening is a quest for God, a quest for life and a quest for the love we call agapé.
To love is to listen, to love is to obey, just as to listen is to love and to obey is to love.
The Spirit who gives himself at Pentecost opens up this listening, which is interiority and spiritual space. Represented in this illumination by the golden sheaf bursting forth against the red background, spreading its branches between the disciples in prayer with Mary, the vital space that opens up in them is one that will later turn them towards each other and towards the outside world, enabling them to speak to strangers in their own mother tongue.
But for now, this is the time to persevere in prayer,
the time when, in silence, the disciples give themselves over entirely to the action of the Spirit…
Sr Ghislaine Pauquet rc
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Lk 2:19 ↑
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Lk 2:51 ↑
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Constitutions of the Congregation of Our Lady of the Retreat in the Cenacle, n°37 ↑
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Acts 1:8 ↑
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John 21:15-17 ↑
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John 19:26-27 ↑
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Acts 1:14 ↑
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Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius n° 63 et n°147 ↑
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Adrien Demoustier, Lecture du texte des Exercices Spirituels de Saint Ignace de Loyola, La proposition des Exercices, Médiasèvres, 1999, cahier 1, 112-113 ↑
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Luke 10, quoting Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18 ↑
