15 September 2022
Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows
Today is the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. It follows upon the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. It is a reminder to us that Our Lady was there at the first exaltation of the cross with a heart full of compassion, which caused her, out of love for her son and the world, to be wounded as she entered most deeply into her son’s sacrifice as only a mother can.
At the cross we find Mary and Christ. At the cross we find two hearts wounded out of love for us. At the cross we find two hearts full of compassion and love for us and for the world. Mary shares in Christ’s sufferings through her motherly heart, and thus she shares in the sufferings of Christ’s body – the Church – through her motherly heart. Our Mother longs for us to bring to her any sorrows we have and to lay them at her feet. She will lead us to the heart of her son and help us, not only to bear our sorrows with love, but to find in them ways to draw close to her Son like she did at the Cross.
Let us pray today to invite Mary into our sorrows and struggles so that she might lead us closer to her Son, exalted on the cross, and exalted and adored in heaven. Let us ask her to transform our sorrowful heart into a heart of deep compassion: wounded and open out of Love for Christ and the world and also healed and consoled through the Cross of Christ our savior.