Today is Friday in the 5th Week of Lent, Passion Week. In the traditional Roman calendar we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.
We hear today about the ancient Roman Station, a thought from Benedict XVI, something from St. Cyprian on The Lord’s Prayer, and the usual collects… plus another collect!
From St. Cyrpian:
In faith we believe that we always walk in the light, and never allow ourselves to be thwarted by the shadows from which we have fled. The nighttime hours cause no harm to our prayers; laziness and sloth never take us away from prayer.
Pray for Pope Francis.
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Pope Benedict says : in the mirror of the Cross we have seen all the sufferings of humanity…
I was just reading Pope Benedict the other day on St Clare of Assisi. This is from a General Audience, 15th September 2010, which just happened to be the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows in the Novus Ordo calendar! Pope Benedict mentions the mirror here too:
“St Clare’s spirituality, the synthesis of the holiness she proposed is summed up in the fourth letter she wrote to St Agnes of Prague. St Clare used an image very widespread in the Middle Ages that dates back to Patristic times: the mirror. And she invited her friend in Prague to reflect herself in that mirror of the perfection of every virtue which is the Lord himself. She wrote:
“Happy, indeed, is the one permitted to share in this sacred banquet so as to be joined with all the feelings of her heart (to Christ) whose beauty all the blessed hosts of the Heavens unceasingly admire, whose affection moves, whose contemplation invigorates, whose generosity fills, whose sweetness replenishes, whose remembrance pleasantly brings light, whose fragrance will revive the dead, and whose glorious vision will bless all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, because the vision of him is the splendour of everlasting glory, the radiance of everlasting light, and a mirror without tarnish. Look into this mirror every day, O Queen, spouse of Jesus Christ, and continually examine your face in it, so that in this way you may adorn yourself completely, inwardly and outwardly…. In this mirror shine blessed poverty, holy humility, and charity beyond words…” (Fourth Letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague, FF, 2901-2903).
I love Our Lady of Sorrows. I am the oldest of eight, but my mother lost four of her children; my sister Beth Ann who was a toddler, my brother who was in the womb but baptized by my dad when he came out at home too early, and two others.
When I was little, I would look at Mary as the Sorrowful Mother and think of my mom. Now, I can think of all mothers who have suffered loss.
The music for your thoughts is wonderful today. Thanks, as usual.