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.

At the cross, your sorrow sharing,
All your grief and torment bearing,
Let me stand and mourn with you.

For Reflection:              

This stanza from Stabat Mater draws our attention to the fact that Mary stood under the Cross. What does it mean to stand? Reverend Weaver offers one characteristic of Mary’s stance: bravery. He says, “United with her heroic Son, Mary gives a shining example of the fortitude which must be practiced in the battle of life.” And of what is this fortitude the fruit? Prayer, says Father Weaver: “…prayer which comes from a heart that is in harmony with the Heart of God has tremendous power.” To what extent is your prayer life yielding the fortitude you need to stand with Mary? In what one way can you improve it today?

Mother, may this prayer be granted:
That Christ’s love may be implanted
In the depths of my poor soul.

For Reflection:             

To love as Jesus loves. Mary lived this level of spiritual perfection. Dare we hope for it? Dare we wait for it? Henri Nouwen says that waiting is hope and tells us that “Hope is trusting that something will be fulfilled, but fulfilled according to the promises and not just according to our wishes.                                   

In the Novena to Our Lady of Hope, we read these verses from Sirach. Church fathers tell us they refer to Mary: I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth; in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come to me all that desire me and be filled with my fruits (Sirach 24:24-26).           

Mary makes us a promise. Come to her and she will fill us with her own beatitude. “O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Grace, Hope of the world. Hear us, your children, who cry to you.”

Virgin, ever interceding,
Hear me in my fervent pleading:
Fire me with your love of Christ.

For Reflection:             

Perhaps that which hinders us most from attaining “open-ended waiting” is our limited capacity to love. Today’s GraceLine contains the solution to this – we need Mary’s love of Christ since our own love is so weakened by concupiscence and sinfulness. St. Louis de Montfort tells us that if we consecrate ourselves to Jesus through Mary, our Mother gives us the operations of her soul. That means, we can receive her own love of Christ as our own. Is God asking you to make this consecration? Renew it? Live it more fully? How can you begin to do so today?