Empahty

Empathy and compassion...gifts we'd all like to have in abundance to be a presence of comfort and support in a world so fraught with pain and sorrow. How many wakes and funerals have we attended in just the last two weeks? How many have asked for prayers for this one of that who has recently been diagnosed with cancer or some other serious illness? How many parents watch in frustration as their children make bad choices? How many teens and college students "stress out over course work or peer pressure? The list is endless. Today we are reminded that Mary, the Mother of Sorrows is there fully empathetic and compassionate, for indeed there is no sorrow like the sorrow she bore time and time again as she mothered her only Son from infancy to the foot of the cross. The pain in her face as she held his lifeless body in her lap and then watched the stone close over his tomb says it all. So, she knows what we are bearing, she is there for us. That's why we pray to her daily, "pray for us now and at the hour of our death"; this last, especially, when we do not know what frame of mind we'll be in. She gives strength to us as she did to Jesus..the strength that only a mother can give. May we be aware of it today, thank her for it, and be graced to extend it to others in need.
Bro. Rene