March 24

Fairest maid of all creation,

Queen of hope and consolation,

Let me feel your grief sublime.

For Reflection:

Though we pray these words with faith and love, it is not possible for us to feel the full measure of Mary’s grief simply because she is the “fairest maid of all creation.” Conceived without sin and never having sinned, she experienced the agony of Christ as deeply as He – especially His love for the souls for whom He was dying. Reverend Garrigou- Lagrange says, “Mary’s heart, like Christ’s whole bruised and crushed being, was transformed with anguish by the sins of mankind, being altered more than the bodies and hearts of the sick, the dying, the martyred.”

You are one of those souls for Whom Jesus and Mary suffered a grief sublime. In light of this, pray again the last line above. May our grief be the grief of true repentance. Journal your thoughts.