Father Dennis Billy has written a book about Mary as a contribution to the year of jubilee for the OMPH icon.
Mary in 3-D: Icon of Discipleship, Doctrine, and Devotion will be published by New City Press later this year.
It will be available soon at newcitypress.com and on amazon.com.
Here, from Father Dennis, is additional information about the book:
The goal of this book is to present Mary in 3-D, as a living icon of discipleship, doctrine, and devotion, as someone who points at all times to her son, Jesus, “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). In a special way, it wishes to honor her under the title of Theotokos (“Mother of God” or “God-Bearer”), since the Greek initials of this word appear in the sacred icon of OMPH just over Mary’s head to remind us of her special place in salvation history.
The icon, moreover, tells the story of Mary comforting her son in her arms just after he awoke from a terrible nightmare about the Archangels Michael and Gabriel fluttering about him with the instruments of his passion. In the midst of these fears, however, she does not look down at him but out at us, as if to say with her deep, silent, and probing contemplative gaze, “Come to me, whatever fears may haunt you. I will always be there to comfort you and help you.”
Mary—Mother of God, Mother of the Church, and Mother of the Faithful—looks upon us as she looks upon her own son. She does so because we are members of his Mystical Body, the Church, and because he has given her to us as our own. Mary is his mother and ours.
She is our Guiding Light and Star of the Sea. She is the Undoer of Knots and the Mother of the New Humanity. She is Our Mother of Perpetual Help.
Mary C. Weaver
