“HAIL FULL OF GRACE”
An icon written by Adele Pierce
The Story Behind the Image - by Adele Pierce
Fr. Rob Arsenault, Pastor of Annunciation of the Lord Parish in Ottawa, Canada, had a vision for his parish to become fully alive with Christ’s love. In the summer of 2022 he invited me to meet with him about this vision. Having worked as an artist more than 35 years at the time, I was now blessed with being asked to design the artistic transformation in the Sanctuary of the church that we see at Annunciation parish today.
“Hail Full of Grace” is the fruit of this transformation.
I wrote the icon, “Hail Full of Grace” between September of 2022 and March of 2023. Without a doubt, the act of painting this work of art was a prayer entirely inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Our mission was to transform the Sanctuary space to make it beautiful, and with a representation of Mary portrayed as strong and confident. This image of Our Lady makes up one third of a triptych that soars above the church Sanctuary while the other two-thirds of the triptych are an icon of the Angel Gabriel and a beautifully restored crucified Christ that hangs between the two paintings above the back altar and Tabernacle.
“Hail Full of Grace” is eight feet tall and four feet wide. In it, Mary, a young girl, faces us, her gaze inviting, strong and completely confident. She is painted in a grand scale to symbolize that who she is cannot be contained within the canvas. Her golden halo, immense and decorated with juniper branches and a portion of the Hail Mary prayer in Latin, is intended to draw our attention so that we are compelled to remain in the image, traveling around it with our eyes and responding to her gentle invitation to love.
I used acrylic paint and other mediums in this work. Raised decorative leaves and Fleur de Lis patterns inspired by those on several Catholic Church ceilings in Rome are covered in imitation gold leaf foil and frame the entire canvas. The gold foil in the bottom sixth portion of the painting acts as a backdrop for the words: “Hail Full of Grace”, a prayer filled with profound meaning that captivated me in a brand new way during this project. I learned from Edward Sri’s writings about Mary that “Hail” means “Rejoice!” and that John Paul II and other scholars wrote about “Full of Grace … being the name Mary possesses in the eyes of God … and that she can be defined by this special predilection.” - St.John Paul II
Mary’s hands are brightly lit by an ethereal glow that appears to emanate from Gabriel and the crucifix, positioned to her right in the church. Her hands are upturned in an open gesture of receiving grace. We see her at the very moment when the angel told her that she would be the Mother of God. This is the moment of her “yes.”
Immense wild roses, symbolizing Mary’s purity, and juniper branches, a reference to a tale about a juniper tree protecting the Holy Family as they fled from King Herod, spill over the gold frame just below Mary’s hands. These flowers are depicted as highly realistic – almost reaching out to us from the canvas – but the same flowers and plants in the background are flat and dark and recede to provide a beautiful backdrop for Mary’s figure. A single star glows gently above and to the left of Mary’s halo. It’s a reference to one of Our Lady’s many names: Stella Maris, or Star of the Sea and it was included in honour of Fr. Rob: pastor, evangelist and sailor.
The planning and writing of this icon was a prayer. I invited the Holy Spirit to be with me as I worked every day, during a time that was particularly difficult in my family’s life. I wanted to keep in mind that the dream was for people to enter Annunciation Church, to feel in their souls that they were “coming home”, and to allow themselves to be overwhelmed by beauty as they seek God. I prayed that this image of Our Lady on her own would provide viewers with the same experience of longing and nostalgia for God and the Truth.
“Evangelization is really nothing other than helping people see what it is they’re really longing for. And what we’re all really longing for is to participate fully in everlasting beauty”. - Christopher West
To see more photos and videos of the painting, design, and renovation process at Annunciation parish, visit my Instagram page:
@adelepierce
My website includes a blog about the journey: