The Cherry Tree Lane Mystery

Chapter 25

They made a handsome threesome as they walked solemnly into church, Mary, Remy and of course Hero. Mary followed along with the words of the liturgy but found some of them were different from what she remembered. Had the words changed, or were they different in England, or just different from regular Catholic churches? Something to ask Jacinta or Peter later. Before long she realized that although she was following the motions she had more or less daydreamed through the readings, though she caught snippets here and there. One of the lines had been "She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth." Followed shortly thereafter by "Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born."

Mary's mind was whirling as she listened. She had become fascinated by the idea of the woman and her child and realized that the imagery had stirred her imagination. Her first thought was of her first day in this very church sitting and praying she saw Jacinta coming towards her with with Zoe, mother and child. The images of mothers and children came thick and fast, Jacinta nursing Zoe, mother and child. Anna heavily pregnant with twins. Cleo with her hands-off approach to her delightful children, Janine with an adult daughter whom she adored, Karen with children from two relationships but keeping her family closely connected nonetheless and Samantha Barrett desperate for a child, a young woman who probably died in childbirth a hundred years ago and above all these a young woman newly pregnant and now dead.

In her stupor Mary realized that she'd almost missed the Gospel. Mary had found herself standing for the Gospel reading but hadn't remembered doing it. Muscle memory, her body had somehow remembered how to behave at Mass, even if she couldn't keep her brain focussed. Then the Gospel was over and they were sitting again for the Homily. To her surprise Fr Peter pointed to the Mexican Madonna that Mary had admired on the first day she visited St Agatha's. The same image that Elena had carried with her on the train.

"It is a famous and unusual image of the Virgin Mary," he told them "known as the "Virgin of Guadalupe". It is in fact thought to be an image of the Virgin Mary in the state of early pregnancy."

Mary's interest perked further, she tuned in more closely to Fr Peter. "The story goes that a fifteenth century Mexican man - Juan Diego had seen the Virgin Mary and spoken with her, but the Bishop didn't believe him, so he found some proof in the form of roses that he found growing on the spot where the Virgin had appeared to him. He collected the roses, never seen growing before in the Aztec hills, in his tilma, the cloak he wore. Juan Diego tipped the roses out of his tilma to the ground at the Bishop's feet. Where the tilma had been a plain fabric made of cactus plant there was now the miraculous image of the Virgin as a Mexican woman. Full of symbolism and beauty, in the 500 years since it has been there, the painting hasn't flaked and the tilma has not disintegrated. The Mexican Virgin wears a belt around her waist, the locals would have recognized this as a symbol of her pregnancy. This is why Pope John Paul II declared the "Virgin of Guadelupe" to be the "protectress of the unborn child".

"I want you to take one of these prayer cards home with you today, keep it on your person, in your handbag or attach it to your fridge and please daily pray the prayer offered on the back for the unborn souls."

The prayer card was identical to the one that Elena carried. I need to speak to Fr Peter, thought Mary. He's given her one of those prayer cards, perhaps he knows more about Elena's situation that he had been letting on.

Remy went to communion and Mary watched as the congregation moved towards the altar. She had decided to stay in her seat. Small baby steps Mary thought. After being ambivalent about going to church for so many years just wanting to be there this morning was a major step for her.