Last Updated on January 10, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
Mary is a queer liberator in a new prayer from Vine and Fig, a queer Catholic community.
The queer Marian prayer brings together a fully affirming set of petitions on behalf of all LGBTQ people and allies. The “Mary, Queer Liberator” prayer appears on new prayer cards with a vintage feel.
The prayer is shared here for the Dec. 8 feast of the Immaculate Conception, one of the most important Marian feasts.
Vine and Fig seeks to elevate the lives of queer Catholics as they find beauty and power at the intersection of our faith and sexuality. They granted permission to share the full prayer here on Q Spirit:
Mary, Queer Liberator
Mary, our Mother, we your Queer children call on you.
Help us to see ourselves as wholly good
and made in God’s image and likeness.
Protect us from harm so that we may
be safe from hatred and fear, especially
for our other Queer family, regardless
of color or gender identity.
Inspire our church to see the goodness
of our lives and our love, and for our allies
to advocate along with us.
Liberate us from a world that sees us as
inherently disordered and into one where
our lives and relationships are fully
affirmed.
And above all, convert us to your Son that
we may love with a heart like His, and
work to see God’s Reign in our midst for
all God’s people
Amen.
A rainbow flag wraps an androgynous Madonna and Christ child in a painting by Richard Stott, a gay Methodist minister and artist in Britain.
Links related to Mary as a queer liberator
Madonna of Montevergine: Patron of LGBTQ people since medieval times
Black Madonna of Czestochowa becomes lesbian defender Erzuli Dantor
Queer Lady of Guadalupe: Artists re-imagine an icon
Advent: Lesbian Mary’s virgin birth
Support Polish LGBTQ activist arrested for rainbow Virgin Mary posters
Mary, Diana and Artemis: Feast of Assumption has lesbian goddess roots
Books with liberating views of Mary
“Mother of God Similar to Fire” with icons by William Hart McNichols and reflections by Mirabai Starr presents a wide of variety of liberating icons of Mary, including a black Madonna. McNichols is a New Mexico artist and Catholic priest who has been rebuked by church leaders for making icons of LGBT-affirming martyrs and saints not approved by the church.
“Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology” by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow. Two pioneering leaders in the study of women and religion discuss the nature of God / Goddess.
“Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary”
“Holiness and the Feminine Spirit: The Art of Janet McKenzie,” edited by Susan Perry, includes many black Madonnas in an art book to nourish devotion to Mary with reflections by diverse women.
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Top image credit:
“Mary, Queer Liberator” prayer cards from Vine & Fig
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This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBT and queer martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
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