Our Lady of Sorrows

This is it.  This is the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows which is in St. Lucy's Church in Newark, NJ.  This was the statue (about 6 feet tall) that  gave me my love for today's feast day.

If yesterday's Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross gave us an appreciation for Jesus' embrace of the Cross, today's feast of O.L. of Sorrows gives us the insight into how we can live out this embrace of God's will.

In Redemptoris Mater, Pope John Paul II wrote that Simeon's prophecy about the "sword piercing Mary's heart" was like a second Annunciation.  I like to see it as the continuation of the first one.

She would have to see her Son suffer, so that the greater gift of salvation could occur.

We whine a lot.  Too much traffic.  The line at the drive-thru is too busy.  Why didn't my child get to be the center of attention in gymnastics or karate or the Yearbook Club?

Priests?  Man, we take whining to the realm of art form.  But that's another article.

A lovely feast day today.