My heart ached for them. A family I loved was fractured and breaking under weight of personal sin. My job was simply to love them through it. I couldn’t fix anything. I couldn’t change minds or offer pardons. I couldn’t make the pain go away. And so I sat in the shade of the Our Lady of Sorrows statue and let my heart love them in the midst of their mess. It was the first time I began to understand Our Lady.

I came to the Faith from a Protestant background, and I admit to having very little interest in the Blessed Mother. She didn’t bother me, and I was okay with people honoring her. I just didn’t have any attachment to her personally. Mary was an enigma to me, but one I didn’t really want to contemplate. Like an independent youth, I wanted to carve out my own relationship with the Lord separate from her, or my earthly family, or anyone else. I wanted it to be just Jesus and me. Yet, Our Blessed Mother never lost sight of me. She knew there would come a time when I wasn’t sure what to do with the pain I felt because of the sufferings of loved ones, and she would be there to help.

When I read the Gospel today, I have a deep appreciation that some of Jesus’ last words uttered were about his mother as He was dying on the Cross. He gives us Mary our mother, as a gift to the world. Mary is there to love us through our messes. She is there to pray for us, to hurt with us, and to point us to her Son.

I invite you to invite her into your prayer life and offer a Hail Mary or a Rosary today for all the sorrows of the world.

[bctt tweet="Mary is there to love us through our messes. // @maryruthhackett" username="blessedisshe__"]

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