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“The well-spring of Mary’s joy is the possession of Jesus.”

                     --Sister Mare Eugenie of Jesus   

                                      

For Reflection:              Both the Pieta and the poem from yesterday portray a serene and composed image of the Blessed Mother. In both, Mary is “in possession” of Jesus, physically, spiritually, and eternally. How can this moment be for Mary, then, a well-spring of joy? Ponder this and record your reflections. How does this inspire you?

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Tradition has it that Jesus’ body was placed in His mother’s arms after he was taken down from the Cross. This touching scene became the subject of artistic renderings around 1300, with the most famous of all being Michelangelo’s sculpture in white marble. The Pieta has been housed in St. Peter’s Basilica since the early 18^th Century.  Today’s For Reflection captures in verse what Michaelangelo’s sculpture captures in marble – a deepening insight into the mystery of Mary, Virgin and Mother, whose Son was her Savior and her God, and Whose suffering was mystically her own.

To Mary: At the Thirteenth Station

You are the priest tonight: The paten of your lap holds sacrifice. You are the priest tonight, Offering Peace and its price. Star candles burn palely bright; John is your faithful acolyte. You are the priest tonight.

                                                                  ---Raymond Roseliep          M. Thérèse. I Sing of a Maiden: The Mary Book of Verse.                                                         New York: Macmillan, 1947.

For Reflection:              How is this scene almost para- liturgical? Read Paragraphs, 783 and 1546 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in light of the poem.  Do you think the description of Mary as priest is an apt one? What deeper insights does this give you into the mystery of Mary, her union with her Son and His sacrifice, and the suffering they shared in common?

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“Only the joy that stands the test of pain and is stronger than afflictions is authentic.”

                                Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

For Reflection:             

Consider the paradox of joy and pain co-existing. What joy might Mary have been experiencing at the foot of the Cross even in the midst of her great suffering? How might this joy help her to stand there? Recall a time when you were experiencing a suffering marked with an underlying joy. How did it help you to stand there – actually or metaphorically? Can you identify the joy in her current sorrow – what is it? How does it help you to stand?

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“When the hour came the disciples fled, but Mary remained at the foot of the Cross, near her Son, she was prepared, she was ready for anything, even this.”

                                                                       Federico Suarez

For Reflection:                            In light of Matthew 7:14, how did the narrow way prepare Mary for Golgotha? How has each contradiction and sorrow of your life prepared you for the next? With supernatural outlook, see how these sufferings and difficulties have formed the path of your own Via Dolorosa. Giving your fiat at the foot of this, your cross, unite them to the Cross of Our Lord. Journal your insights.

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“To drink the chalice with the Lord (Mt. 20:21) means dying to one’s natural self – both in the sensitive and in the spiritual part. Only in this way can one enter the narrow way.”

                                                     St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

                                                                                    (Edith Stein)

For Reflection:              Recall again that Scripture and Tradition tell us that Mary stood at the foot of the Cross. What is the significance of this stance and what does it indicate about Mary? How was this a “dying to one’s natural self,” in the sense and emotions as well as in the spirit? Read Matthew 7:14. Mary’s fiat gained was her gate to the narrow way, a way she followed all her life. What is your current sorrow? How can it be a narrow way for you?

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                                        Mother!

In a garden Mary stood when Springtime’s radiant beauty Wrapped the world in sunlight and filled her heart with joy. Down the garden-path there ran a slender little Figure Bringing her a gift of love - He, her God, her Boy! Mary opened wide her arms to take her sheaf of lilies: "Mother!" called her little Son, and never had she heard In the angel’s message, in brooklet, or in bird-song, Music half so lovely as that one tender word.

On a hill-top Mary stood one sadder, later Springtime. All the earth was wrapped in gloom beneath that blood-stained Cross; Memories thronged about her, memories of His Childhood, Adding to her loneliness, her pain, her sense of loss. Mary opened wide her arms but His were nailed securely "Mother!" breathed her dying Son, and never had she heard In her sword-pierced heart that knew the very depths of sorrow Anything approaching the pathos of that word.

"Mother! Mother Mary!" a million hearts are calling, "Open wide again those arms, and in their warm embrace, Take the children Jesus gave you on that darkened hill-top When He named you Mother of the sin-stained human race."

Sr. Maryanna. Robert, Cyril. Our Lady’s Praise in Poetry. Poughkeepsie, New York: Marist Press, 1944. From the Mary Pages, University of Dayton.

For Reflection:              Today’s poem gives one person’s reflections on what Mary could have been thinking and feeling as she watched her Son die. What aspect of this poem helps you to enter most deeply into Mary’s fifth dolor? Why do you think it touches you so.  Prayerfully read St. John’s account of the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus (19:16-30). Stand beneath the cross with Our Lady. What are you thinking and experiencing in that moment? How do you show solidarity with Our Lady? She with you? What suffering of your own life do you seek to unite to hers?

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“A woman is a kind of poem about love, peace, and compassion. These gifts enable her to know, love, and serve God in a generous way, with perseverance and affection.                                                             Mother Angelica, P.C.P.A.

For Reflection:              "Poetry is a literary genre that appeals to the imagination. It evokes emotion and sentiment, artfully draws connections and relationships, and leads toward a raising of the heart and mind to greater things.  Some of the features of poetry are rhythm, grace, fluidity, musicality, form, and imagery.  Consider Mother Angelica's comparison of woman as a poem.  Why is this an apt metaphor? Consider the qualities Mother says the “poem of woman” embodies. What do they enable her to do? If these are true of woman, they are true to the superlative degree of Mary, the Perfect Woman. How do you think Mary was a poem at the moment the fourth dolor penetrated her heart?

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“We may well suppose that no one, except our Blessed Lord Himself, ever fully understood the Passion, or grasped all its horrors in their terrible and repulsive completeness. Yet Mary’s knowledge of it is the only one which came at all near to His, and simply because of the excess of heavenly light which shown unsettingly upon her sinless soul.”

                                                                   Father Frederick Faber

For Reflection:              How does Father Faber’s reflection echo Father Suarez’ reflection? Envision the gaze between Jesus and Mary when they meet on the Via Dolorosa. Enter into it. What were Mary’s eyes saying to her Son? What were Jesus’ eyes saying to His mother? Journal their unspoken conversation. Now envision Our Lord and Our Lady  turning to you. What do their eyes say to you? What do your eyes respond?

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“The closeness of all the saints to Jesus in His Passion has in all cases been directly related to their degree of sanctity, and to the degree in which they possessed this divine life. The more identified they were with Christ, the more Christ lived in them, the greater was the intensity with which they could feel and participate in His Passion.”

                                                                                    Federico Suarez

For Reflection:              In light of this quote, consider the fact that Mary was preserved from sin from the moment of her conception. What does this indicate about the intensity with which she could feel and participate in the Passion of her Son? With this in mind meditate again on Mary’s fourth dolor.  Journal your insights and reflections.

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The Fourth Dolor of Our Lady’s heart is tied to the Fourth Station of the Cross. Though not supported by Sacred Scripture, early legends of the Church tell us that Mary journeyed with Jesus on the Via Dolorosa, and “swooned away for anguish of heart” when she saw Him. What must it have been like to behold her Son in such a state of suffering?

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman said this in his reflection on this dolor: Mary would rather have had all his sufferings herself, could that have been, than not to have known what they were by ceasing to be near him. ... He was now carrying the load of the world’s sins, and, all holy though he was, he carried the image of them on his very face. ... what a meeting of Mother and Son! Yet there was a mutual comfort,  for there was a mutual sympathy.

For Reflection:              Read St. Luke’s account of The Way of the Cross (23:26-31). Picture yourself in the scene as one of the women along the way. Imagine the encounter between Mary and Jesus. Journal your thoughts, inspirations, insights, and emotions.

 

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