Our Mother of Sorrows

(I was blessed to help compile this book, available from Leonine Press)

Today is one of the two feasts of Our Lady of Sorrows in the year. On this day, we compassionate her in her sorrow before and during the Passion of Her Divine Son.

We attended a funeral on Monday, and the priest reminded us of how we can turn to this Mother for comfort in our afflictions. She knows; she suffered too. A friend of mine used to ask Our Lady to give her a hug, and she always felt consoled afterward.

Here are some words of solace for us in our trials and tribulations, both spiritual and temporal:

"Still, however bitter are these things, O suffering soul, be of good heart and keep thy soul in peace. For in the midst of thy bitterest trials, Christ, the elect of thy heart, chosen out of thousands, the door being shut, -- that is, all the powers of thy soul being as it were shut in by thy trials -- Christ Himself, I say, knows how to enter and to pour into thy spirit a certain new sweetness which thou hast never yet tasted." 

~ Louis de Blois, "Comfort for the Faint-Hearted" imprimatur 1902.