Masterpiece Monday #2 An icon by Andrei Rublev entitled Our Lady of Vladimir. I've always been captivated by the eyes of Mary in this tender piece. There is a look that speaks of deep wounds, but they are wounds that have still to come in the tiny Child's foreboding Passion. Mystically, the wounds that will redeem us are already present in Mary's heart. The little hand of the Infant Christ hovers over that Immaculate Heart, as if to protect or perhaps to bless. Delicately, Mary reaches to enfold the helpless Child in her arms. And that tiny hand, soon to be calloused by the hammer and the wood of a carpenter's days, reaches up and touches his mother's warm face. The speckled gold behind the Mother and the Child pulsates, swirls and swims with expectant majesty before the King and Queen as the dawn of a new creation fills the frame. Here are the New Adam and the New Eve, nearly trembling as they prepare to offer the total Yes to the Father, Mary offers us the gift of her Son, Jesus offers us the gift of his Mother, we their children receive the gift of redemption.