Charity

Sometimes, in my sporadic way, I read the daily office from This Website.

The last few days I have gotten up before my kids--or gotten up with them and been unable to go back to sleep when they do--and I have sat at my kitchen table and had my morning tea with probiotics and read prayers.

Yesterday's prayer was on charity, and the image they paired with the devotion was this one:



It is a stained glass depiction of Hope, Charity and Faith, by Edward Burne-Jones. 

Here is a more intricate view of Hope as an oil painting: 



Hope reaches up, eyes to the sky, despite her bars, her chained feet. It is a beautiful depiction, as is Faith on the far right. Yet the first thing I noticed about this artwork was Charity.

I can't help but relate to her--two young kids at her feet, another in her arms. She has her hands full! (I wondered what the three children symbolize, and the best answer I was able to uncover via Wikipedia is that perhaps they represent the three boys who were rescued from their sinking boat off the coast of Spain by Our Lady of Charity in the 1600's.)

Charity holds in her hand a large, red flame. She's looking at it. Drawn to this image, I started to think: She only has one hand to love with. She's busy burping a baby, held back by two other kids holding onto her skirts. She can hardly move. Look at her. She kind of looks... helpless.

Talk about projection.

What makes me think that her whole body is not acting in charity? That she is love? With the baby on her shoulder, the boys at her feet. That the red flame she holds, open-handed, is not the only way love flows from her?

She may have one free hand, but that's because she chooses to hold the things she is given. She doesn't seem too preoccupied with that halo around her head--if it's still there, if it's getting bigger or smaller. She accepts her assignment. She is not imprisoned; Nor is she without obligation. She simply accepts. She takes what she's been given. With open hands, she holds them. She loves them. She shares them. She knows that true freedom lies in surrender.