One Minute Reflection – 15 September – The Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows
Near the cross of Jesus, there stood his mother…..John 19:25
REFLECTION – “Mary “stood by”; she was simply there . Here again the young woman of Nazareth, hair now grayed with the passage of time, still struggling with a God who must only be embraced and with a life that has come to the threshold of the darkest night. Mary “stood by” in the thickest darkness but she “stood by”. She did not go away. Mary is there, faithfully present, each time a candle must be held aflame in a place of fog and haze. She does not even know the future resurrection her Son was opening at that instant for us, for all of mankind – she stands there out of faithfulness to the plan of God whose handmaid she proclaimed herself to be on the first day of her vocation but also due to her instinct as mother who simply suffers, each time there is a child who undergoes suffering. The suffering of mothers – we have all known strong women who have faced their children’s suffering!”…Pope Francis – General audience, 10 May 2017
PRAYER – Our Father, when Jesus Your Son, was raised up on the Cross, it was Your will that Mary, His Mother, should stand there and suffer with Him in her heart. Grant that in union with her, the Church may share in the passion of Christ and so be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Be our intercessor and our consolation, Our Lady of Sorrows! We make our prayer through Christ our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen.
(via One Minute Reflection – 15 September – The Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows)