Mother of the Unborn
Oil on Linen
© 2023 Adelaine Nohara
“Am I not here who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?”
~The Consolations of Our Lady of Guadalupe
The gift of human life is precious – even the tiniest in our midst. God has sanctified the life in the womb by sharing with us the earliest stages of human development. The King of the Universe was once a zygote, a blastocyst, an embryo and a fetus dwelling in Mary’s virginal body.
This image honours Our Lady of Guadalupe as “Mother of the Unborn” – a powerful intercessor for expecting mothers who share in her beautiful maternity. I pray that this image may bless them in their time of pregnancy, and comfort those who have lost their babies in the sorrow of miscarriage. Surely, these innocent ones who never walked the earth are in the tender care of their Heavenly Mother.
More than anything, this painting is an image for the prolife movement. The Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego, an aboriginal convert to Christianity, nearly 500 years ago. Today, she is honoured as the patroness of the unborn because she revealed herself, first and foremost, as our Mother. To the Aztec imagination, the black sash around her waist signified that she was with child. Our Lady desired an end to the Aztec practice of offering human sacrifices to pagan gods, including the killing of small children. For all of our progress and technological sophistication, the practice of human sacrifice persists unto this day. It takes place not on the altars of temple pyramids, but in our hospitals and abortion clinics, where the most vulnerable in our midst are sacrificed to the pagan gods of sensuality and human selfishness. May our Immaculate Mother tend to the souls of these precious little ones and the burdened hearts of their mothers, loving them with purest and most compassionate of loves!
What follows is a poem, written by the artist, as a dialogue between the Mother of the Unborn and a mother considering abortion.
From Mother to Mother
A poem by Adelaine
Your fears, your tears, your future years
My tender eyes behold.
My tender Heart enfolds
The cries, the sighs, the gnawing lies
That life must be unchosen
A child’s voice unspoken
A mother’s heart unwoven.
Mother, I grope – my hope, my scope
In darkness shivers
My fearful spirit quivers.
I feel my shame, my blame, my pain
But how can I be mother?
Before this task I shudder –
I did not will this other.
Come stay, and pray, and find a way
Within my loving womb
Never shall it be a tomb!
For life, for Christ, I welcomed strife
And welcome now your troubles
The darkness of your tunnel
The dreams turned into rubble.
My dreams – they seem a distant theme
Unless this child is taken
And from this nightmare waken.
My plans disband and from my hand
are stolen by the breeze.
This life I have to freeze:
My future it will seize.
No dream won’t gleam and be redeemed
When set aside to give
Another life to live!
There’s more in store when you adore
The Love that knit your being
Whose Breath all things foreseeing
Will send the shadows fleeing.
Then must I trust I won’t be crushed
By leaving life to blossom…
Is God really that awesome?
Good Friend, descend and my life mend:
River of Life, be my possession
Flowing from the throne of Heaven
Heal me from my heart’s oppression!
You will receive: He heeds your needs
And fortifies your weakness
With His own power and sweetness.
Come taste His grace and be embraced
By Love released
And Mercy unleashed –
A torrent in the Eucharistic feast.
I’m not alone, I’m known, I’m home
Within the Father’s planning
This baby notwithstanding.
This life, its price – my sacrifice
Are precious in His keeping.
The voice of Truth now speaking
My child for joy is leaping!