Counting the Days: December 5, 2025

In the Manner of Ephrem the Syrian: A Personal Musing on Loss and the Separation of Mother and Child

Andrew Prieto, MFA
Assistant Professor of Art; Visual Art Exhibition Coordinator

Read: Philippians 2:6–7; Luke 2:7

“The Ancient of Days became a child.”
— Ephrem the Syrian (c. AD 306 – AD 373)

There are days when loss feels like a companion. Certain days when time feels like a mother must feel when a child leaves her body. On these days, I find myself returning to the image of Mary wrapping her newborn Son in swaddling clothes. The Ancient of Days became a child, as Ephrem says. He also became a child who would someday walk away from her embrace. In that first wrapping, there is still togetherness but also the first signal of parting.

Philippians tells us Christ “emptied Himself,” choosing the lowly confines of human flesh. But in swaddling clothes, I also see another kind of emptying. The emptiness a mother must sense, realizing she cannot keep her child to herself forever. Binding gently, already knowing that the child she swaddles will free Himself from her comfort to save the world.

Luke’s simple words penetrate me: “She wrapped Him in cloths and laid Him in a manger.” The first act of motherhood is also the first act of release. She binds Him in cloth simulating the protective pressure of her womb and then releases Him to His separate space. The first letting go. As love does.

There is an uncanny kind of comfort here. That even the mother of God knew that deep, low-burning of real loss. As I contemplate the swaddling cloth, I think of the inseparable nature of holding something close and losing that something. This is the way time works. Important moments slip into memories before you possess them at all. Perhaps the swaddling cloth is not only the symbol of Christ’s descent into flesh. But also, the Holy Spirit’s eternal return. Mary’s courage calls me to trust that what I let go of, what I lay down, is never lost.

Prayer: Tone 1 (Theotokoin – Dogmatika)

Now and ever…

Let us praise the Virgin Mary. The Gate of Heaven, the Glory of the World.

The Song of the Angels, the Beauty of the Faithful. She was born of man, yet gave birth to God.

She was revealed as heaven, as the temple of the Godhead.

She destroyed the wall of enmity.
She commenced the peace, she opened the kingdom.

 Since she is our confirmation of faith, our defender is the Lord, whom she bore.
Courage, courage, O people of God!

For Christ will destroy our enemies, since He is all-powerful.