The Ustyug Annunciation (early 12 ^th century) is not the most famous icon in Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery, but, for me, it is one of the most striking. First, because of its size: the wooden panel stands nearly eight feet tall.  The design is simple, omitting other figures and architectural background. We see only the Angel Gabriel informing Mary that she is to bear a son who will be the savior of the world - informing Mary that she is to be, as the Eastern Orthodox put it (see last issue), the Mother of God.

The design is simple - except for one subtle, and stunning, detail. On Mary's torso, framed by her right hand, there is a faint shape that may, at first glance, appear to be simply the pattern of her robe. A second glance reveals it to be a faint image of the infant Christ, already formed within her, at the moment she says, "Let it be to me according to your word."

Greek Orthodox scholar Fr. Maximos Constas offers a challenging commentary on this imagery: "Whereas Christ's consent to 'assume the form of the slave' (Phil 2: 7) was a self-emptying of his power and infinity into the circumscription of the flesh, Mary's consent to open her sealed body to the presence of the infinite is her kenotic [self-emptying] act.... This is the great risk involved in surrendering oneself to God. This is the risk of unsealing the self, of consenting to have the chamber of the heart host another's presence. The unsealing of love is a form of kenosis, an emptying of the self, a making of space within the womb of one's being for another to reside."

I gaze at the icon, and see Mary's eyes gazing back at me, as if to ask, "How will you, Bill, make space within your being for God's presence to reside?"