Mary of the week: I need an Our Lady of Efficient Grading

We’re in the final throes of the school year here, and holy cow, I’m ready for vacation.  Stick a fork in me.   I’m done.

But then again, I’m not done, because I still have papers to grade.    With the exception of eight weeks in summer, I always have papers to grade.   Always.  The psychic toll this takes on a person simply cannot be denied.

So I really need a Mary called Our Lady of Efficient Grading.  I could use her prayers right about now, as I wearily polish off the final stacks.

Or I could use an Our Lady of Packing, because I’m doing that too: packing up the contents of my classroom and department office desk for a move to a new building.   I am unearthing fascinating things, like papers from students I taught in 1998.  That would make them … how old now … thirty?   Dang.   I’ve been doing this a long time.

But since I can’t find any icons of Our Lady of End-of-the-School-Year Pursuits, I’ll just share this image instead.  It is a soothing and lovely image for any week, especially a frazzled, moving-at-lightning-speed week like this one.  May it bring you peace, too.

Song of the Angels by William-Adolphe Bougureau