Behold Your Mother

Lent is the season of the Church year, during which we particularly turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows- Our Sorrowful Mother. We contemplate Our Lady, as she witnessed and experienced the Passion and Death of Christ her Son. It was in this great act of Our Lord's redemption of the world that Jesus from the Cross, gave to us the gift of His Mother to be Mother of the Church, the Mother of each baptised member of His Mystical Body, the Church on earth. "Behold Your Mother".

Our Saviour invites all of us to truly take Mary home in our hearts as St John the beloved disciple. We do this by daily asking Our Lady as Our Mother to love Jesus with Her love, to be obedient to the Will of the Father with her obedience and to cooperate with Holy Spirit following her example of her surrender to the Lord. Each day in the business of our lives we can turn Our Lady's intercession for us, so that we live with Christ, through Christ and in Christ. We are always in need of becoming more patient, forgiving, truthful, considerate and prayerful and to be an example and encouragement to others as Our Lady was to the Apostles and to the early Church.

The Virgin Mary stood with John, Mary Magdalene and the other women from Galilee. Our Lady stands with us to support us and to feel her Motherly comfort that we will not give way to fear or despair, but to keep our eyes fixed on the Merciful Face of Christ. So many people today in our world have fled from Christ. They look elsewhere for redemption, but cannot find it. For it is sinless Blood that flows down the wood of the Cross. The Crucified Son of God dying for their sins, calls them, as he loves them to hear his words of forgiveness, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do.” Let us ask Our Lady to intercede for those who have abandoned Christ, perhaps members of our families, friends or associates to come to the Lamb of God, to receive his forgiveness and grace in the sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Confession, to which we make recourse in a special way during this season of Lent.

Let us ask Our Sorrowful Mother at the foot of the Cross to pray for us that we might not fail her Son but be faithful to Him, especially in our difficulties and sorrows. May the Mother of God given to us as Mother by Our Lord, pray for us, that we and our loved ones may truly know the joy and consolation of Christ's Resurrection, the same joy she truly felt when she met Her Risen Son and Lord on Easter Sunday "For He is truly Risen." May that Joy be in our hearts now and forever.

Fr. Benedict M. La Volpe OFM Conv