Maundy Thursday - Stay. Pray. by Mayr Boros

Mayr Boros: Stay. Pray.

by Mayr Boros

This textile mosaic was inspired by an 18th-century biblical tile from the Netherlands. The original tile was painted in a brownish or manganese-purple color, which was chosen because it was easier to draw in than the traditional cobalt blue. Biblical tiles were found in homes, often covering an entire wall of a room that served as both a living room and a bedroom. Many biblical tiles gave a reference to a text from the Bible. In this case, the image referenced was Matthew 26:42. 

If you would like to use this piece of art as a meditation tool, the following may be helpful.

1.   This piece is called Stay. Pray. With these two words in mind, ask for God’s guidance in viewing the art and in study of the Bible passage that accompanies it.

2.   Look at the mosaic. Jesus is praying. He knows what is coming, the betrayal by Judas. His disciples are asleep. Jesus goes back and forth three times between asking for God’s help and asking for the help of the disciples. It seems as though there is no response from either God or the disciples. But Jesus understands that the will of God is vital to his work in the Kingdom and even tells God that. Yet, no earthly person hears him pray that part of the prayer. But he prays it anyway and then accepts God’s will for his life. Finally the disciples awaken and the betrayal occurs.

3.   Now read the entire chapter of Matthew 26.

4.   Are there questions that come to your mind about your own life and what you ask of God? Do you also pray alone? Do you also have people in your life that stand by you, but are somewhat asleep in the understanding of something you might be experiencing? And then, do you find your way back to God over and over again?

5.   Notice the sharp pieces of the background. Life gives us, at times, its sharp edges.

6.   Notice the halo surrounding the head of Jesus. While the small sharp pieces are present, what surrounds those pieces are copper and gold – the tiniest bits of gold, 24-K gold in this case. Though they may be difficult to see, make no mistake, it is the enduring presence of our Holy one that is depicted. We need only to return to God again and again and perhaps again to find the ever present, the unchanging, the gold within our lives: his ever-abiding presence.  

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Mayr Boros: Stay. Pray., Lent, 2014, 24" in diameter, quilted wall hanging/textile mosaic made entirely of fabric. Embellishments include copper and 24K gold beads around the halo. St. Paul's on The Hill Episcopal Church, St. Paul, MN, USA.

Mayr Boros is a textile artist and writer from the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota metro area. Her inspirational/prayer book, The Dance of Creation: A Labyrinth of Healing Prayer and Art, ©2014, is pending publication by Good Ground Press, St. Paul, Minnesota. Mayr is founder of the “Bear and Prayer Program” which has distributed over 2,000 teddy bears to those in need, including to those in New York, after 9/11. Through her international “Labyrinth of Hope” project, hand beaded labyrinths have been sent from various communities, including faith communities, to Peru, Iraq, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Thailand and Haiti. Mayr is a single mom, Registered Dietitian and a pancreatic and breast cancer survivor. She’s grateful, that when she was five years old, her mother handed her one of her Dad’s old woolen army socks with a hole it and told her to “fix it.” Though she wondered what she was supposed to do with the light bulb (instead of a darning awl) that was also handed to her, once the needle was threaded and the first stitches were taken, she was never the same. The beginning of her life-long love of sewing had arrived.