The Blessed Virgin was a woman of sorrows. She suffered hearing Simeon’s words that a sword would pierce her heart. Mary suffered in the flight to Egypt, on the day Jesus left for school and the house seemed so empty, when rumors claimed Jesus was “mad,” when mother and Son met on the via crucis, their compassionate eyes allowing the other to share the pain. The Son, Mercy Itself. The woman of sorrows, the Mother of Mercy.

Let us imitate our mother by meditating on the words of Saint John Henry Newman: “Let us copy her faith, who received God’s message by the angel without a doubt; her patience, her obedience. . . her meditative spirit. . . her fortitude, whose heart the sword went through; her self-surrender, who gave him up during his ministry and consented to his death.”