Mother of Sorrows … Mother of All Joy

September 15 is traditionally the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows in the Catholic liturgical calendar.  Sunday takes precedence this year, but I got to musing about Mary remembered under this title while praying for our three Sisters who take this feast of Mary as their name day.

The other day I met a woman at Giant in the veggie section of the grocery store.  She had a darling haircut and I smiled at her and told her how lovely she looked.  She smiled back and told me she had just gone through cancer.  So we swapped “the big C” stories and laughed together.  “I always wanted to look like Jamie Lee Curtis,” she said with a big smile.  JOY … coming out of her sorrow.

After a huge storm the other night, we were blessed with a rainbow.  I ran down to snap some photos and met my neighbor who was on her way to “Meet the Teacher” night at Conrad Weiser School.  Seeing the rainbow, she called her son to see it.  Together we admired.  JOY … coming after a storm.

We were blessed to be amidst a retreat this week at the Jesuit Center.  Some came with confusion.  They left with greater clarity.  Some came with hurt and loss.  They left with greater surrender and hope.  Graces shared aloud at Eucharist this morning were testament to God’s Spirit deeply at work.  JOY … coming out of darkness.

Seems to me that Mary whom we name Mother of Sorrows can equally bear the title Mother of All Joy.  Mother of God … Mother of the One who IS our greatest joy.  She too must have mused on all the little things that brought her joy:  her son’s first steps …. Was the first word “Mama” or “Papa?”  What did his first effort at carpentry look like?  What was it like to hear him laugh?

Sorrow and Joy … they dance together.  In walking through our moments of pain, may we remember that JOY comes in the morning!