Sharing Motherhood Sorrows with Mary

by Mary Ann Halloran

Some of the most painful times that I've been through have been watching my children struggle and suffer. A sword pierces my heart. To go along with that, the other painful trauma is hearing the many heart-wrenching stories of mothers crying over their children. It really is hard. It's never easy.

My consolation is that I always go to Mary. I beg her for my children and for other mothers and their children in desperate situations.

Mary saw her Son suffer many times in his life: the Pharisees and religious leaders always trying to trip Him up; He was accused of doing works through Beelzebul; people tried to push Him over a cliff; He was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard, betrayed by friends, etc. It must have been so hard to observe so much injustice to her Jesus.

I know she can relate to our anguish over our children.  She lived through His passion. She saw Him whipped, crowned with thorns, carry His cross and get nailed to it. She never left the cross. She stayed there until the bitter end and held her bloody Son in her arms when He was taken down from the cross. What strength she had!

So I go to Mary our Mother. She understands, she empathizes, she wraps us in her mantle and goes to her Son in prayer for us all.  She is so tender and good.

I recently read an excerpt written by Catherine Doherty, the founder of Madonna House in Canada, that really touched me about our Mother Mary.

Here it is.

“We who believe in Christ, we who suffer, who are in anguish and anxiety, we should stand with Mary under the cross. We will find, through her, the courage to keep believing and to stand still while the Church, the bride of Christ, bleeds from a thousand wounds. We should turn to Mary, who held her Son in her arms, in order to find the strength to bear the burdens which tear the souls of Christians apart.

“We have a Mother who understands, because, before he died, Jesus handed her over to John, the well-beloved disciple, to become his mother—and ours. She not only understands, but she loves both sinners and saints, and holds them in her arms and makes saints out of sinners.

“If we do turn to her, she will lead us to his resurrection. She will give us the courage to sort things out in the silence of our hearts. She will help us to grow in faith and in love and to follow her Son as she did.

“Yes, Mary is a profound mystery of consolation. If we turn to this woman wrapped in silence, she will speak to us. The one through whom God came to us will lead us back to him.”

Take courage. Mary is with you through it all.

God bless,

Mary Ann / Mother Hen