Our Lady of Sorrows

Her feast is tomorrow, Sept. 15, perhaps you might find a way to honor our Blessed Mother under this title.

From St. John Paul II we have:

“As we contemplate this Mother, whose heart a sword has pierced (cf. Luke 2:35), our thoughts go to all the suffering women in the world, suffering either physically or morally. In this suffering a woman’s sensitivity plays a role, even though she often succeeds in resisting suffering better than a man.
It is difficult to enumerate these sufferings; it is difficult to call them all by name. We may recall her maternal care for her children, especially when they fall sick or fall into bad ways; the death of those most dear to her; the loneliness of mothers forgotten by their grown-up children; the loneliness of widows; the sufferings of women who struggle alone to make a living; and women who have been wronged or exploited. Then there are the sufferings of consciences as a result of sin, which has wounded the woman’s human or maternal dignity: the wounds of consciences which do not heal easily. With these sufferings too we must place ourselves at the foot of the Cross.”

Pope John Paul II
(Mulieris Dignitatem, 21)

JPII gives us several ideas of how we could remember Mary in a special way tomorrow – a letter to a widow, a rosary said for children in hospitals, or perhaps a donation to a pregnancy center.

For my family, this feast is when we remember those children who were a part of our family for only a short period of time – those children we’ve lost due to miscarriage. Having enduring that special sorrow more than once, it is a real burden for me especially, both spiritually and psychologically, to remember them on the days we lost them, or on the day of their expected arrival.

So, we take time to remember them all on tomorrow’s feast. Mary, our Lady of Sorrows, knows even better than I ever could the sadness of losing a child. Each Sept. 14th, I know she is holding me and all mothers like me closely in her mantle.

Be assured of my prayers for all of you whose hearts have been pierced by the sword of miscarriage, stillbirth or loss of a child during Mass tomorrow morning.

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