Station IV:  Jesus meets His mother

No matter how difficult it was for her, our Blessed Mother never counted the cost or let her fear get between her and her tortured Son.  As she was there for You, Lord, we know she is there for us in our pain and suffering, doubts and fears…. ready, willing and able to comfort us as she comforted You on Your way to Calvary… to give us her strength when it doesn’t seem we can endure our trials on our own. 

O Jesus, may we go to Mary often so that we might see the same love in her eyes that she had for You at Calvary…and when we come to the cross, you might see our ecce, fiat and magnificat . Lord, help me to give love freely without measuring the reward or the cost because I can never outdo the love You and Your Mother have for me.

After each Station, pray “Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.  Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee”

by Mary Fischer

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Arise, O Lord, and let Thy enemies be scattered, and let them that hate Thee flee from before Thy Face. (Ps 68:1)

What a moment! What a sorrow! What looks I behold, exchanged between this Man-God and His tender Mother! What tears bathe their faces! O heavenly Father, I offer Thee these tears as expiration of all my self-indulgence and the little resignation I show to the holy will. Grant me, as Thou didst Mary, to encounter the look in the Face of Jesus in all my sorrows.

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“Your own soul a sword shall pierce.”  (Lk 2:35) 

The day has come for Simeon’s prophecy to be fulfilled in Mary. She sets out toward Calvary where she knows that her Son is to be crucified and on the way she meets Him. What immense sorrow to see Him in this terrible state! 

Mary is one with Jesus in all His sufferings. She knows that all things must be accomplished for our salvation. She takes her share in the sufferings of Jesus and following Him to Calvary where she will become our Coredemptress. 

Mary, behold your Son! By the love that you bear towards Him, obtain for us that the remembrance of His sufferings follow us. It is in His Name that we ask this of you. Christ Jesus, behold your Mother! For her sake, grant that we may compassionate Your sorrow so that we may become like You. Amen.

Blessed Columba Marmion

The post The Piercing of the Sword first appeared on AirMaria.com.

To sensitive souls the pain they cause others is far worse than any sufferings that they may endure themselves. They may have much to endure, but to see others in pain causes them deeper grief.

Jesus and Mary meet. Alone He could have suffered with joy so that she, His dearest Mother, might have been spared the agony of seeing all He must endure. With one look of pity, Jesus read the anguish of that cruelly lacerated heart, with one long gaze of infinite love and pity, Mary sees the depth of her Son’s woe, His long hours of torture, His utter weariness, His sorrow, His grief, His anguish. May she not help him? At least lift for one moment that Cross?

The Servant of God, Fr. Willie Doyle, S. J.

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