12) Theotokos

Maria holding baby Jesus.
Mother of God a woman whose heart has been pierced by sorrow. She knows what it means to be poor, oppressed, a refugee, to be uncertain and confused about the future, to be kept at a distance, to stand under the cross, and to be the bearer of thoughts and feelings that cannot be shared with anyone. These sufferings linger in the gaze of her eyes and the gesture of her hands, not as frightening pain but as glorified signs of her patience….(from the book”Behold the Beauty of the Lord”by Henri J. M. Nouwen)