Friday, September 15, 2023
Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Praying with Mary
Many mothers lose their babies and are sorrowful, full of sadness and grief, often the weeping, desperate kind of grief. Still it seems remarkable that Mary the mother of Jesus, would lose hers. Jesus was God’s Son! How could God let his son just die?
There was Simeon, though. She never forgot that moment in the temple. After Jesus was born, old Simeon, with prophetically-opened eyes, loved and blessed Jesus and his parents. But then he spoke to Mary.
And you yourself a sword shall pierce, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
In the Rosary prayer we pray with Mary, one of the daily decades is dedicated to the “Sorrowful Mysteries.”
- The Agony in the Garden
- The Scourging at the Pillar
- The Crowning with Thorns
- The Carrying of the Cross
- The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
As you can see, the prayers are all about the sorrows of Jesus. But of course they are also about the sorrows of Mary his mother, as she watches this awful spectacle unfold, miserable in her solitude, unable to even touch her son, certainly powerless to help him, rescue him, carry him home or nurse him back to health. She would not be allowed any of this.
I hadn’t thought that we can be praying with Mary in this ritual prayer of the Catholic church. But of course we are. Mary’s treatment at the hands of Jesus’ persecutors, indeed even at the hands of God, results in her own sorrow. These are her sorrowful mysteries as well. This mother too prays over and over in her grief.
She, like Jesus and indeed even like us, must wait till the next day, until the ”Glorious Mysteries” will be bathed in this Rosary prayer. Until then, tears of grief and sorrow pour from her eyes.
She would have watched Jesus interact with the soldiers at the foot of his cross. She would hear his words: “Father, forgive them! For they know not what they do!” Would Mary, hearing her son say this, say it too? This thought from Henri Nouwen applies to her like it does us all:
Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.
Fr. Nouwen pulls no punches.
Father, forgive ME, for I know not what I do.
I can learn to pray this prayer, morning by morning, dark night by dark night. And I can confess my turning away from God and turn back to him. I can do this with Mary, who might no longer turn away. Let me follow that path with your mother, Jesus. Praying with her, I can rest more easily as I am, confident of God in the land of the living.
Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
(1 Timothy 1, Psalm 16, John 19, Luke 2)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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