Personal computers, the Internet, and digital databases for choosing reproductions of artworks did not yet exist.

Saturday, 08 December 2012 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 MAGNIFICAT is more and more thankful  to us, not merely for this superior 'Missalette', but also making us acquainted  with the cyberspace of computer technology.

This Artwork page bridges the gaps that we also feel that our 'only search engine was our brain', - "...personal computers, the Internet, and digital databases for choosing reproductions of artworks did not yet exist."

Thank you.

Oh! The adorable babe!

Artwork of the front cover.  

The cover of MAGNIFICAT for this month of December 2012 is exactly the same as the one that appeared on the first issue of MAGNIFICAT in France twenty years ago, in December 1992. I remember in those days that personal computers, the Internet, and digital databases for choosing reproductions of artworks did not yet exist. Instead, one had to go to photo agencies or museums and comb through cases of large "Ektachrome" slides, as they were called. The only available database for such work was one's own knowledge, and the only search engine was your brain. On that particular day, I was there with Sister Isabelle-Marie Brault, C.S.A. (t 2011), sitting behind a slide projector. Our task: to choose, from among a dozen Ektachromes I had pre-selected, the cover for the first issue of MAGNIFICAT. 

When Neri di Bicci's Virgin and Child appeared on the screen, Sister Isabelle-Marie let out a cry of joy: "Oh! The adorable babe!" In that instant, I realised that the grace of art is so fertile that it can elicit sublime truths from our most spontaneous, flesh-and-blood expressions. And I made the decision that not only would every cover of MAGNIFICAT offer a work of art for our contemplation, but each issue would also feature a commentary on a masterpiece of sacred art. Yes, Neri di Bicci definitely knew how to depict an adorable babe, a truly irresistible tiny tot, with his golden locks and little button nose. Yet now behold his mother, how the Blessed Virgin Mary truly adores this adorable babe-as is fitting for one whose heart adores God alone! Merry Christmas!

• Pierre-Marie Dumont