Radiant Beauty: A Reflection for the Month of May

By Kathleen Nichols, CWRC

May 5th, 2025 - Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center

My mother is beautiful. I imagine everyone in the world could say the same—especially during the month of May, when we celebrate mothers everywhere. There’s a particular beauty in a young woman anticipating the birth of her first child: a luminous, quiet strength that cannot be fabricated.

While guiding one such young mother on a preview of the new Pentecost Room at Notre Dame, I found myself reflecting on that very beauty—made visible not only in her face, but in the central figure of the room: the Blessed Virgin Mary. Their expressions shared something sacred. Both radiated the unique glow of expectation and hope—something far more profound than what any model could display.

Mary, Mother of God and our mother, is portrayed in the painting as the one who carries life, both physically and spiritually. Her gaze is turned heavenward, her eyes familiar with the Holy Spirit who descends in the form of a dove. She stands as a vessel of divine presence—an ark of the new covenant—sanctifying the space and all who enter it.

And, as every mother must, she also stands as a protector of life. Above her head, the constellation Draco—from the Latin draconem, meaning "serpent"—lurks ominously, ready to devour the child she carries. But Mary’s steady step forward seems to crush its brightest star, known as “the dragon’s head.” Her strength is quiet, fierce, and triumphant.

One of the most touching moments in the room comes from the two young girls in the painting, their heads turned toward Mary’s womb, their faces lit with wonder and awe. My guest instinctively cradled her own belly, marveling at the mystery of the life she carried—just as Mary carried the Word made flesh.

Across the room stands the image of St. Peter, holding the scroll of the Commandments—what God called “the Ten Words” at Sinai. It seemed fitting that Mary’s womb, which bore the Living Word, would face the place where the written Word was first received.

From the Ark of the Covenant on Sinai…To Mary’s womb…To the Upper Room…To each of us who receive the Holy Spirit—We are all arks of God’s presence, bearers of the divine to the nations.

As St. Peter writes, “You are being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood... Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.” (1 Peter 2:5,10)

When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, the beauty of God Himself resides within us. It is this beauty that empowers each of us to fulfill our prophetic mission—to raise the eyes of the world toward heaven. And when the Spirit is truly alive within us, the world will know: not through words alone, but by the radiance of love, by a joy that overflows, by a boldness that feels like holy fire.

Let us end with the words of St. John of the Cross, whose poetic vision helps us see the beauty that binds us to God and to one another:

“My friend, let us rejoice and go to see you in your beauty: let us be alike in beauty... and let each one see himself in your beauty; and so it will be, if you transform me in your beauty.And my beauty will be your beauty, and your beauty will be my beauty. And I will be you in your beauty, and you will be me in your beauty: because your very beauty will be my beauty.” (Spiritual Canticle, 37)