Mary, fount of love's devotion,
Let me share with true emotion
All the sorrow you endured. For Reflection:
Rev. Bertrand Weaver, C.P. writes in his book, His Cross in Your Life, that God willed to have Mary at Calvary as an “associate teacher of wisdom.” He says that, “By accepting grief ‘great as the sea,’ she united with her Divine Son in giving mankind an example of bowing before the Will of God when it could not have been more difficult.” Nouwen may have put it this way: Mary’s life was a study of open-ended waiting, a characteristic of which is “giving up control over our future and letting God define our life.”
If you truly pray the above stanza of Stabat Mater you are asking for the same grace. You are asking to live open-ended waiting. To what extent are you really willing to pray for this? What would encourage you? What would hinder you? Give all to Mary, Fount of Love’s Devotion.
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Should the president's ill-fated health care reform survive scrutiny at the U.S. Supreme Court, acupuncturists and practitioners of "oriental medicine" are attempting to convince the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to classify acupuncture as an "essential health benefit" (EHB) under ObamaCare.
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Even though stay-at-home moms have been taking a beating lately, a new survey by human resources consultant
Salary.com says the skills required of the average woman who chooses to stay home with the kids should earn her a hefty six figure income.
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In spite of the fact that increased access to the morning after pill in the UK has resulted in nothing more than increasing the rate of sexually transmitted diseases, a new program will now offer a courier service to deliver the pills in a more timely manner.
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Bishop Daniel Jenky of the Diocese of Peoria told 500 men at a recent men's march that the time has come for "heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism."
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Christ she saw with life-blood failing,
All her anguish unavailing,
Saw him breathe his very last.For Reflection:
With Jesus, Mary had sojourned the agonizing road to Calvary. She had watched Him be beaten and tormented, ridiculed and spat upon. She had watched Him fall. And get up. Fall. And get up. Fall. And get up. She had watched nine inch nails pierce His hands and feet. She had seen Him hoisted into the air on a cross. And now she watches Him take His last breath as His life’s blood runs out. The soldier’s lance pierces them both. In light of this verse and meditation, read John 3:16. Substitute your name for “the world.” Sit with this truth and let it take hold of you. Journal your insights and reflections.
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In spite of priest scandals, internal dissent and widespread mockery in secular societies throughout the globe, traditional Catholicism is becoming increasingly more popular.
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Now that wedding season is upon us, don't be surprised if you see young women walking around with feeding tubes in their noses. It's a controversial new diet trend among brides-to-be who are turning to feeding tubes in order to shed unwanted pounds before their big day.
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Months after national charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure (SGK), flip-flopped on its decision to cut funds to Planned Parenthood, the organization is still suffering from the fallout.
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Christ she saw, for our salvation,
Scourged with cruel acclamation,
Bruised and beaten by the rod. For Reflection:
Henri Nouwen also tells us that waiting is active, not passive. It requires the gift of receptivity, an openess to that which God is doing in the midst of the waiting.
Meditate on the words “Christ she saw…” As this verse says, Mary’s eyes surely saw her Son’s physical condition while she gazed upon Him. But what else might Mary have been seeing as she held vigil at the foot of the Cross? What might she have seen God doing in the midst of this holocaust? What might He be doing as you “hold vigil” in your current waiting period?
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