Today's pick: The Annunciation (ca. 1440) - Rogier van der Weyden. #art #VanDerWeyden #Annunciation #AnnunciationTriptych
#Annunciation
S6 E4: Reading Helen Hoyt, Poet and Visionary
“At present most of what we know, or think we know, of women has been found out by men. We have yet to hear what woman will tell of herself, and where can she tell more intimately than in poetry?”
Helen Hoyt, Poet and Visionary
Reading Helen Hoyt, Poet and Visionary
Sarah and Rebecca invite you to join them as they explore the poetry of Helen Hoyt through her poem Annunciation.
Rebecca and SarahPoet Helen Hoyt (1887-1972), born in Norwalk, Connecticut, was the daughter of former Pennsylvania governor Henry Hoyt. Educated at Barnard College, she lived in Chicago and worked as an associate editor for Poetry. In 1916, she edited an issue of Others: A Magazine of the New Verse, an American literary magazine founded by Alfred Kreymborg in July 1915.
As editor of the 1916 issue, Hoyt addressed her interest in poetry as a space for women’s voices: “At present most of what we know, or think we know, of women has been found out by men. We have yet to hear what woman will tell of herself, and where can she tell more intimately than in poetry?”
Helen Hoyt‘s poetry spoke of gender, the body, and nature. She married William Whittingham Lyman Jr, a writer and academic, primarily in the field of Celtic studies, and moved to St. Helena, California, where she spent her later years. She was the aunt of poet Elinor (Hoyt) Wylie who wrote “Velvet Shoes”.
https://youtu.be/ck7GjNfnBtg?si=kFNbTqvLi2xsF0Pv
Helen Hoyt’s poetry provides a unique window into the early 20th century, capturing the spirit of social change and the burgeoning feminist movement. Her work is characterized by its intimate and personal tone, exploring themes of love, loss, and the search for individual identity.
https://anchor.fm/s/107374d0/podcast/rss
Reading Helen Hoyt allows us to connect with a pivotal era and gain insight into the experiences of women navigating a rapidly changing world. Her poems offer a blend of emotional depth and intellectual engagement, making them both accessible and thought-provoking.
Helen Hoyt’s contribution to American literature deserves recognition, and her poetry continues to resonate with contemporary readers interested in exploring the complexities of human experience.
Thank you for joining us on The Book Dialogue!
Sarah & Rebecca
Annunciation
By Helen Hoyt
From “Poems of Life and Death”
LIFE,
The great Life,
Came unto me:
He of old ages,
The eternal,
The owner of all,
Came, and his word was for me,
Calling my name:
And the radiance of his presence shone about me.
With leaping heart I heard his voice
And the entering of his steps over my threshold:
Heard, and was not troubled;
Because it was known to me a long time
What answer I should make to Life.
With outstretched, quiet hands,
With unreluctant face,
I stood before him,
And let my eyes look into the eyes of Life:
And I gave, and delivered up to Life,
Myself:
Utterly.
Yielding me
As one yields and delivers to another
A dumb vessel.
Mighty and splendid is the presence of Life.
By a far road he comes
And travels a great way before
And sways the world.
I trembled to be near his glory,
But with unbowing head I stood before him,
With unbowing head and proud heart;
Knowing my service that I should perform to the honoring of Life.
And in his dignity I was exalted.
Now for a term I am not my own,
But Life is my master:
And I dwell under his commandment,
Beneath the fostering of his wings.
Wrapped in the mantle of Life,
Patient, by ways apart, I go;
Bearing in my flesh his sign
That I am one of his chosen:
The instrument of his purpose; the way of his will.
Slowly day follows day,
Laying its hands upon me with invisible touch,
Molding my flesh;
And I tarry waiting upon Life
Until the use he purposes for me shall be accomplished,
And his intent be fulfilled:
Until the wonder is wrought upon me that now possesses my days.
#Annunciation #ElinorWylie #Episode4 #HelenHoyt #PoetryRecitation #RebeccaBudd #SarahAhmadi #Season6
What inspired #JavierGarciaLemus to paint the #Annunciation? Doing homage to the Lady who saved him from death in the sea at 16 y/o. Sinking into the depths, knowing he was drowning, he prayed “Mary help me!” Suddenly her silhouette brightened the darkness & he shot up out of the sea. https://dailymeditationswithmatthewfox.org/2025/03/26/the-annunciation-one-artists-take-on-the-times-we-live-in/
The #art of today ! #annunciation https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rossetti-ecce-ancilla-domini-the-annunciation-n01210
The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Today, we celebrate one of the most important feasts on the Church calendar. This is when we remember the time when the Angel Gabriel came to visit Mary, and to let her know God’s plan for the world, that would involve her in a very special way. She was to have a baby, whose name would be Jesus, and he would save the world from sin and bring forth the Kingdom of God. Mary’s cooperation was necessary to bring mercy in the way God wanted it to come to us.
Without this feast of the Annunciation, there would never have been a Christmas. Without the Annunciation, there never would have been a Good Friday or an Easter. So this feast is so very important. Mary’s cooperation meant that Jesus could be born in her, and through her, come to save us. The faithfulness of Mary, especially as a very young girl, has to be an inspiration for all of us. Mary had no roadmap or big-picture view of how this would come about, yet she is full of grace and so she is very firm in her fiat, her “yes” – her decision to exercise her faith: She says, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Mary says yes to God’s plan for her, and because of that, God is able to say yes to us, to invite us into the Kingdom.
We too are called to have the kind of faith that Mary had. And that’s because surely the glory of God is aching to be born in all of us; God wants to do important things for the world through all of us. We are called to bring Christ’s presence to every corner of our world, every place where we are. Sometimes, that can be scary, because we too don’t know what God’s work will call us to do or experience. We may be called upon to feed the hungry, or clothe the naked, or visit the sick, or shelter the homeless, or any of the works of mercy. But do we have the strength and ability to do that? Maybe not, but we are called to be Christ in those situations anyway. We might respond as Mary did at first: “How can this be?” But ultimately, we are called to respond that we are the Lord’s handmaids and accept the call with great faith.
Mary is our patron whenever we feel overwhelmed by what we are called to do. May we rely on her intercession to guide us through the dark pathways of the unknown. May we look to her for an example of faith. May we follow her great example and let the Lord be born in us too, so that our Incarnate Lord can be made manifest in our world yet again. May we, like Mary, cry out in faith, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
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The Annunciation is one of the very first feasts observed by the early Church. It was widely held that Jesus Christ was crucified on the day of the Annunciation, and they calculated that that had occurred on March 25 that year.
Originally, the Nativity, visit of the Magi, and Baptism were all celebrated on January 6. When it was decided to break Nativity into its own feast, they added nine months to the preexisting Annunciation date in order to arrive at December 25.
That puts paid to the Saturnalia/Christmas myth.
The Word entered Mary’s silence—and her yes changed everything. What is God asking of you? #Annunciation
America still has a compassionate feminine soul. That is the promise. Not hate or power for power’s sake. Not vengeful patriarchy or political/religious attacks on women’s bodies. Not “justice” for corporations & the superrich. But justice serving the poor, as Mary spoke #annunciation https://www.matthewfox.org/donation-store/trump-the-maga-movement-as-anti-christ-a-handbook-for-the-2024-election
Image: Lithograph by Ben Wildflower, https://benwildflower.com/collections/prints-1/products/magnificat-print
Quote of the day, 25 March: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
After Jesus Christ, doubtless at the distance that there is between the Infinite and the finite, there is one who was also the great praise of glory of the Holy Trinity. She responded fully to the divine election of which the Apostle speaks: she was always “pure, immaculate, and without reproach” [Col 1:22] in the eyes of the thrice-holy God.
Her soul is so simple. Its movements are so profound that they cannot be detected. She seems to reproduce on earth the life which is that of the divine Being, the simple Being. And she is so transparent, so luminous that one would mistake her for the light, yet she is but the “mirror” of the Sun of Justice: “Speculum justitiae!” [Mirror of Justice, from The Litany of Loreto].
“The Virgin kept all these things in her heart”: [Lk 2:19, 51] her whole history can be summed up in these few words! It was within her heart that she lived, and at such a depth that no human eye can follow her.
When I read in the Gospel “that Mary went in haste to the hill country of Judea” [Lk 1:39] to perform her loving service for her cousin Elizabeth, I imagine her passing by so beautiful, so calm and so majestic, so absorbed in recollection of the Word of God within her.
Like Him, her prayer was always this: “Ecce, here I am!” Who? “The servant of the Lord,” [Lk 1:38] the lowliest of His creatures: she, His Mother! Her humility was so real for she was always forgetful, unaware, freed from self. And she could sing: “The Almighty has done great things for me, henceforth all peoples will call me blessed” [Lk 1:48–49].
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity
Last Retreat, Fifteenth Day
30 August 1906
Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: The Annunciation is an oil on wood painting by the great Leonardo Da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519), created around the year 1472. Nothing is known about the painting’s original location or who commissioned the artwork, but it now hangs in the Galleria Uffizi in Florence. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
🌸 “She lived… at such a depth that no human eye can follow her.”
St. Elizabeth draws us into the silence and recollection of Mary’s heart—a heart entirely available to the Word, hidden in humility and radiant with grace.
🕊️ What does it mean for you to live “at such a depth” with God?
💬 Let’s reflect together—share your thoughts in the comments!
#Annunciation #BlessedVirginMary #heart #humility #simplicity #StElizabethOfTheTrinity
The Annunciation marks when Gabriel announced to Mary that she'd be the mother of Jesus, as told in Luke's Gospel. This moment signifies the start of God's plan to save the world through Jesus' birth, teachings, death, and resurrection. It highlights Mary's faith and willingness to serve, showing how God works through ordinary people. The event also reflects God's love, inviting us to trust and follow Him. #Annunciation #Faith #Christianity #Hope https://young-catholics.com/536/annunciation/
Matthias Grünewald and Otto Dix at the Musee Unterlinden in Colmar, France. #111Words #MatthiasGrünewald #OttoDix #Unterlinden #Colmar #Annunciation #Crucifixion https://andrewjshields.blogspot.com/2025/03/matthias-grunewald-and-otto-dix-at.html
Today's pick: The Annunciation (c. 1563) - Il Tintoretto. #art #IlTintoretto #Annunciation
Our standard #KJV English phrasing of the #Christmas #Annunciation is wrong, but actually more gracious than an accurate translation. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annunciation_to_the_shepherds#Translational_issues
#GermanBaroque #SacredMusic: #Christmas
Here, the second set of LES PLEIADES collection of RICERCAR re-releases’ devoted to German #Baroque ... focuses on Nativity repertoire, early 17thC to #JohannSebastianBach cantatas #Schütz’s Oratorio #Yuletide cantatas by Christoph #Graupner... #Nativity #Annunciation Presentation in the Temple #Lutheran compositions by #Praetorius, Selle Tunder #Lübeck #Buxtehude #Scheidt #Hammerschmidt Schütz Bruhns...
Sample/Download/Buy
https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/german-baroque-sacred-music-christmas
Quote of the day, 20 December: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
“If you knew the gift of God….” [Jn 4:10]. There is one who knew this gift of God, one who did not lose one particle of it, one who was so pure, so luminous that she seemed to be the Light itself: “Speculum justitiae.” One whose life was so simple, so lost in God that there is hardly anything we can say about it.
“Virgo fidelis”: that is, Faithful Virgin, “who kept all these things in her heart” [Lk 2:19]. She remained so little, so recollected in God’s presence, in the seclusion of the temple, that she drew down upon herself the delight of the Holy Trinity: “Because He has looked upon the lowliness of His servant, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed!” [Lk 1:48].
The Father bending down to this beautiful creature, who was so unaware of her own beauty, willed that she be the Mother in time of Him whose Father He is in eternity. Then the Spirit of love who presides over all of God’s works came upon her; the Virgin said her fiat: “Behold the servant of the Lord, be it done to me according to Your word” [Lk 1:38], and the greatest of mysteries was accomplished. By the descent of the Word in her, Mary became forever God’s prey.
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity
Heaven in Faith, Tenth Day, no. 39
Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: The Annunciation by Andrea Solario (Italian, ca. 1465–1524), called Andrea di Bartolo, oil on wood, 1506. This artwork was recovered after World War II, retrieved by the Office des Biens et Intérêts Privés (OBIP) and destined to be returned to its rightful owner once they have been identified. Online records of all MNR (‘National Museums Recovery’) works can be found on the French Ministry of Culture’s Rose Valland database. Image credit: Louvre Museum via sailko / Wikimedia Commons (Some rights reserved)
#Annunciation #HolySpirit #HolyTrinity #light #ServantOfTheLord #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #VirginMary #WordOfGod
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity: Mary’s purity, humility, and fiat made her God’s beloved and the Mother of the Eternal Word. #VirginMary #Annunciation
Today's pick: The Annunciation (c. 1576) - El Greco. #art #ElGreco #Annunciation
#Medieval WorldDramaWorkingGroup invites you HybridHolidayGathering WedDec 04 at 5:00
JHB 100 - JackmanHumanitiesBldg, 170 StGeorge TORONTO
SpecialGuest: AlexandraAtiya
- Belcari’s #Annunciation, the York #ThreeKings sequence, Auto de los Reyes Magos, and Encina’s #Nativities
- Participate or observe
- Wear your most creative holidaythemed costume medieval/modern
- Snacks & non-alcoholic beverages provided
request ZOOM link info@plspls.ca
more about MWDWG https://premodernity.net/mwdwg
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