For Reflection:
With Jesus, Mary had sojourned the agonizing road to Calvary. She had watched Him be beaten and tormented, ridiculed and spat upon. She had watched Him fall. And get up. Fall. And get up. Fall. And get up. She had watched nine inch nails pierce His hands and feet. She had seen Him hoisted into the air on a cross. And now she watches Him take His last breath as His life’s blood runs out. The soldier’s lance pierces them both. In light of this verse and meditation, read John 3:16. Substitute your name for “the world.” Sit with this truth and let it take hold of you. Journal your insights and reflections.
For Reflection:
Henri Nouwen also tells us that waiting is active, not passive. It requires the gift of receptivity, an openess to that which God is doing in the midst of the waiting.
Meditate on the words “Christ she saw…” As this verse says, Mary’s eyes surely saw her Son’s physical condition while she gazed upon Him. But what else might Mary have been seeing as she held vigil at the foot of the Cross? What might she have seen God doing in the midst of this holocaust? What might He be doing as you “hold vigil” in your current waiting period?
-Johnnette S. Benkovic
Who, that sorrow contemplating, On that passion meditating, Would not share the Virgin's grief?
For Reflection:
Henri Nouwen says that waiting is patient. He tells us that “The word ‘patience’ means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us…Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there.”
With comprehension and concentration, slowly read today’s GraceLine a second time. It is an invitation into Mary’s suffering – to share the Virgin’s grief. Ask Our Lady to take you into her Immaculate Heart and wait there with her. Wait with patience until what is hidden there manifests itself to you. Then journal about your insights.
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