Meditation on Our Lady's Sorrows - Day Four

The stark, unbelieving agony etched in the face of Mary, the mother of Jesus, causes him to avert his gaze in pity. Lead by the disciple John, the holy mother along with Mary Salome and Mary Magdalene have been guided swiftly through the throngs of people by a shorter route to meet him at this turn in the road. Now she confronts him. Frozen in mute horror, Mary realizes fully now the hideous end which awaits his mortal life.

The meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross

"And there followed Him a great multitude of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented Him." – Luke XXIII, 27.
Meditation: Come, O ye sinners, come and see if ye can endure so sad a sight. This Mother, so tender and loving, meets her beloved Son, meets Him amid an impious rabble, who drag Him to a cruel death, wounded, torn by stripes, crowned with thorns, streaming with blood, bearing His heavy cross. Ah, consider, my soul, the grief of the blessed Virgin thus beholding her Son! Who would not weep at seeing this Mother's grief? But who has been the cause of such woe? I, it is I, who with my sins have so cruelly wounded the heart of my sorrowing Mother! And yet I am not moved; I am as a stone, when my heart should break because of my ingratitude.

Say one Ave Maria [Hail Mary]

Today in your prayers, tell your Mother who never sinned, yet paid a great price for the sins of Man that you are sorry for having grieved her so. Amen+

Meditation for the Month of Holy Souls IV

"So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross. And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus And there followed him a great multitude of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning to them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck!' For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). John 19:1, Luke 23:26-32.

I remember reading some of the writings of St. Thersa of Avila. Her spiritual director had suggested a certain spiritual practice that I've attempted to use and will illustrate here. I'm in no way stating I'm good at it mind you, but I do find this technique helpful in calming the mind which makes it easier to focus and concentrate on the topic of meditation, which is now Mary meeting her Son as He carries His cross. The idea is to focus on one thing, one image, letting go of the rest. Specifically, St. Teresa was given the idea of the hands of Jesus. She was instructed to approach Jesus through His humanity and to meditate upon His hands as he went through the various stages of His life.

We can use the same technique to focus and clear out the debris of our meditation on any topic. Think of Jesus' little baby hands, tucked in lovingly by His mother as she places Him in the manger. Imagine his 12 year hold hands as he talked with the scribes in the Temple, etc.

Now applied to this current meditation: See the hands of Jesus as they grasp His cross. His were strong, masculine hands, muscular from years of working with St. Joseph. Now see them swollen, covered with dried blood, perhaps even slipping from this heavy weight from time to time in this hard labor. His hands are not yet pierced, but carry on them the wounds of abuse. He most likely fell upon them along the road to Calvary. See them reach out to His mother as she stands by the roadside, quietly dying inside to see her Son this way. Did He have a moment to meet her outstretched hand? "Son, I would carry this cross for you if I could. You are not alone, I am with You..." Did He touch her face one last time? Oh, now they have not the strength to continue, blood loss, thirst and fatigue threaten this life and Simon must now take up the cross. See His holy hands now falling limp at His side, blood dripping from His fingertips as He walks like the lamb to its slaughter behind the cross they could not longer bear. "No, do not weep for Me, but weep for my mother, assist her in her sorrow for love of Me...for I love her more than myself." O look, we are almost there....they have the nails and the hammer ready!

Mary Meets Jesus II

"His look was, as it were, hidden and despised; whereupon we esteemed him not...We have thought him, as it were, a leper" (Isa 53:3,4).

How horrible it must have been for Our Sorrowful Mother to see the instruments of her son's torture and death paraded before her eyes. As the soldiers walked by her, wielding the nails, hammer, the ropes, the very tools that would cause his death.

There she stood, perhaps at a street corner, hoping to catch a glimpse, then he approaches...struggling beneath the weight of the cross, she is finally able to gaze upon the flesh of her flesh, bone of her bone...covered with blood, sorely wounded from head to foot, crowned with thorns, a stammering gait. We are wise to gaze upon him with the words of Isaiah: "We have seen him and there was no sightliness" (Isa 53:2).

Others may not have been able to recognize him, but she does. She wants to see him, yet she would not be human if she did not feel some trepidation and dread at this pitiful sight. She watches him approach, their eyes meet. According to St. Bridget who was gifted with seeing this scene in vision, Jesus then wiped away the matted and clotted blood from his eyes so he could look at his mother. The mother and the son look at one another and their looks "became as so many arrows to pierce those hearts which loved each other so tenderly." Mary did not faint at this meeting, for Christ's mother would not lose the use of her reason. Nor did she die, despite her heart and soul being plunged in a sea of bitterness that could have caused a thousand deaths.

According to St. Anselm she would have embraced Jesus, but was prevented by the guards who "thrust her aside with insults and pushed the suffering Savior forward." Mary followed. O holy Virgin, where are you going? To Calvary. Can you trust yourself to see him hanging there who is your very life? "And your life shall be, as it were, hanging before you" (Deut 28:66).

Mary took up her cross and followed him, to be crucified along with him. St. John Chrysostom describes the scene thus: "We humans feel pity even for wild beasts. If we see a lioness following her cub to death, we are all moved at the sight. Should we not be much more greatly moved to compassion on seeing Mary following her immaculate Lamb to death?" Let us pity her, and walk beside her and her son by carrying our crosses with patience in our everyday lives. Be grateful for all Mary has suffered for your sake.

Prayer

O Mary, you and Jesus - both innocent as you were - have carried a far heavier burden. Shall I, a sinner who has deserved hell, refuse to carry mine? O immaculate Virgin, help me to bear patiently all the crosses of my life. Amen+

(Source: The Glories of Mary by St. Alphonsus de Ligouri)

Mary Meets Jesus

"Weeping, she has wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: there is none to comfort her among all them that were dear to her" (Lam 1:2).

"The more tenderly she loved, the more deeply she was wounded. The greater her love for him, the greater her grief at the sight of his sufferings, especially when she met him on that dolorous way, dragging his cross to the place of execution. This is the fourth sword." St. Lawrence Guistiniani.

The Blessed Virgin Mary revealed to St. Bridget of Sweden that as the time of her son's Passion came near, she wept continually. She also described how she was covered in a cold sweat due to fear as she pondered the sufferings Jesus was to undertake. Jesus went in tears to his mother to say goodbye on that terrible day. After this Mary was plunged into sadness, as St. Bonaventure describes: "You spent that night without sleep. And while others slept, you kept watch." In the morning the disciples brought her news of Jesus' arrest and questioning. Later they would bring her news of his condemnation, as St. Leo says "this unjust judge condemned him to death with the same lips with which he had declared him innocent." "O sorrowful Mother," exclaimed St. John, "your son has now been condemned to death; he has already set out on the road to Calvary, carrying his own cross. Come, if you desire to see him and say farewell to him, as he passes through the streets."

Mary goes with St. John, following the trail of his sacred blood, as she described to St. Bridget: "I knew from the footsteps of my son that he had already passed by, for the ground was stained with his blood." She may have taken a shortcut in order to see Jesus, the sorrowful mother went to meet her sorrowful son. It is commonly believed that as she waited, she was recognized by many who derided her, saying dreadful things against her and her beloved son, in effect now turning the sword which pierced her Immaculate Heart.

Prayer

My sorrowful Mother, by the merit of the sorrow you felt at seeing your beloved Jesus led to his death, acquire for me the grace to be able to bear with patience the crosses God sends me. I shall really be very happy if I can only learn how to accompany you with my cross until my death. Amen+

(Source: The Glories of Mary by St. Alphonsus Ligouri)