Catherine Baxter, RSCJ, gave the keynote address entitled “Mater, Model for the Millennium” at the AASH Western Regional Meeting, May 5-7, 2000 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Excerpts appear here.
I think that the painting of Mater is for us an icon—an image that draws us into and beyond the actual representation, that serves as a gateway into deeper knowledge and experience of God’s presence and action in Mary’s and God’s presence and action in our own lives.
Whenever and wherever we see the image of Mater, we touch into our own life stories. For those who attended a Sacred Heart school as a child, Mater evokes memories of the young girl you once were, memories of your teachers, your friends, pink frosted cupcakes for goûter, writing letters to Mater—maybe you even recall what kind of person you asked her to help you become, and maybe you hear God now asking you what is taking you so long to get there.
I had no childhood association with Mater. When I finally made it up the stairs to her shrine one night at the Trinita, I felt in touch once again with the young and gradually not so young nun I had been at Newton Country Day School and Carrollton and was filled with awe and gratitude for God’s faithfulness during all the years of extraordinary changes that have intervened since then.
