- μακάριοι οἱ πενθοῦντες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται.
- Blessed are the mourning, for they will be comforted.
Mourning, eh?
- “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass this way? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was severely dealt out to me, which the Lord has inflicted on me on the day of His fierce anger.”
Meanwhile, in that fierce maternal love giving rise to such grief: Behold this Treasure of Love and Truth, who makes all things new, look at how much He has loved you. The deep currents of blessedness in unshakable faith are strongest at such times, and gush forth in fulfillment with great joy upon the Resurrection. He has indeed made all things new in His love, in His Truth.
© 2023 Fr George David Byers
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 
…and look at how Mary embraces that suffering, with blood smeared on her face. Today I pray we all see things made new; all my gripes/complaints are nothing. Thank you Father.
There is no pain like the loss of a child. My son was killed at 33 by a drunk driver in 2004. Its an agonizing pain. I can imagine the anguish and sheer terror Mary must have gone through seeing such a cruel and agonizing death of her son…the Son of God. An amazing act of faith…how beautiful her reunion with him must have been! God bless those who revere her and thank you Jesus for paying the price for us…
Help me to love as you love, O Lord.
Kyrie eleison! moloch’s children come out if hiding.
https://www.abqjournal.com/2570996/satanic-temple-samuel-alito-mom-abortion-clinic-to-offer-abortion-services-in-new-mexico.html
This neo paganism will deliver a one-way ticket to perdition. This is why the Angel of Portugal cried out in a loud voice, “Penance! Penance! Penance!
The picture posted above from the “The Passion of The Christ” is striking. It speaks to our hearts and reminds us of the truth in a way words cannot. And it seems to me that our Immaculate Mother often – throughout history and in our present day – speaks to our hearts through works of art: pictures and statues.
It was reported last Monday that in January a man was smashing the altar at a Benedictine Monastery in Arkansas and aiming to break into the tabernacle when he suddenly stopped. He later confessed to police that “after he looked up and saw a statue of Mary, he couldn’t continue to break open the tabernacle as he had planned to do”.
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2023/02/06/police-say-church-vandal-was-about-to-break-into-tabernacle-until-he-saw-the-statue-of-mary/
The statue pictured in the report looked like the Fatima statue. All I can think is that her maternal love for her divine Son and for his attacker touched that vandal’s heart.
Then, the following day, came a report concerning another statue of our Immaculate Mother, this one with the infant Jesus in her arms, found intact amidst the rubble of Turkey’s terrible earthquake.
https://www.ncregister.com/cna/statue-of-mary-untouched-in-earthquake-that-demolished-cathedral-in-turkey
That the statue did not tumble from its stand when jolted by the quake and destroyed, like the cathedral (Annunciation Cathedral) that contained it, is surely miraculous.
Annunciation Cathedral is in Alexandretta (aka İskenderun) a city in the Turkish province of Hatay, the capital of which is Antakya (ancient name: Antioch) on the Asi River (ancient name: Orontes). Antioch on the Orontes was one of the places where Saints Peter and Paul laboured for Christ, and where members of the Church were first assigned the appellation of “Christian”. In fact, the statue pictured in the report looked very much like that of Mary under her title “Help of Christians”.
The Church took root in Antioch and thrived, and that place thus has the distinction of being one of the Church’s five ancient patriarchates: Antioch along with Jerusalem, Rome, Alexandria and Byzantium/Constantinople. Sadly, the Christian population has since shrunk and today is but a small portion of the total population. Perhaps the statue of the Mother of God with her Son in her arms was protected by heaven during the quake because God wants the survivors to remember that He and His Mother have not deserted them.
The picture at the top of Father’s post highlights how much Our Lady loves her Son and we sinners He suffered and died to redeem. She – Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate – will never desert us and that gives much needed comfort in the tumultuous times through which we all are living.