Guided by Mary

by Lisa Taylor

It all started on a two-week tour to Turkey with astronomers, belly dancers and feminine divine devotees. It all started because a plane was cancelled from New York City to Istanbul and I had to stay the night. I called a friend from Louisiana who I knew was in town visiting. He chose of all things to take me to The Cloisters, the beautiful gift of John Rockefeller. There I became enamored for the first time with images of the Virgin Mary. I had never been interested in religious icons particularly, but this time I saw something that provoked me. Some artists had created images of Mary as a domestic servant and others had created images of her as a queen mother. I noted the differences and discussed it a bit with my pal not thinking anything more about it.

As it turned out, that was the launching of a two-week trip that became all about Mary. I had thought my focus would be pre-Christian images, such as the one found at Catal Hayuk in Central Turkey. That was the reason I signed up for the trip. But Mary seems to have wanted me to get to know her instead.

My experiences on the trip were magical. I will limit myself to the most obvious examples of the serendipity that happened for me. Besides the great luck of having a friend conveniently in town who manifested my exposure to Mary at the Cloisters, I also feel that what happened in the tiny town of Ephesus, Turkey opened my soul in a new way. First, I went into the Chapel of Mary, which I knew nothing about. Turns out a German nun dreamt that Mary had been escorted to Ephesus and that she might have lived there. In honor of that dream, Germany had sent a beautiful wood carved Black Madonna to sit in the place of honor in the chapel. I happened to have lived in Germany so the myth caught my interest especially since the priest I asked was Maltese (where I had spent my last spiritual journey).

I happened to sit down in the chapel next to a gal who was known for hearing voices. Sure enough, she heard a voice as I was sitting there and she chose to tell me as she said the message had been directed to me. She said Mary told her to tell me that she had spent half her life in joy and half her life in sorrow.

I began to cry. For the rest of the trip, which included a stop at a Chapel for Mary in Istanbul that shows her life in the ceiling frescos, a ceremony in Vienna on Mary’s Ascension Day, and a final stop at Marianplatz (Mary’s square) in Munich, I cried at her site. I had gone through a divorce and was torn about the new man in my life. I had suffered from severe depression.

When I arrived back in Dallas, the first meeting I had was at the Cathedral Guadalupe where the largest image of the Virgin of Guadalupe I have ever seen is housed.

The message of half my life in joy and sorrow has taken effect.