Today We think of Our Mother Mary.

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.   As I said my rosary this morning, I began to weep at the fourth Mystery the Carrying of the Cross.   I could see the scene before me as Jesus came out of the residence of Pontius Pilate.   He was beaten, scourged, with those thorns on his head, and a garment of mockery around him which soldiers had used to call him King.   His suffering was on his face, and he was a pitiful sight.    But what could his Mother do but show her own pain and anguish, and suffer with him as they both made their way to Calvary.   Never in history has there been so much love between a mother and son.   Mary too had begun her own passion, her own sacrifice of redemption.   Two hearts united in love of each other and for every man, woman, and child his cross would save.     When he fell, like an anxious mother of his childhood, she reached out to help him.  Then the journey over, she stood beneath the Cross, willing her son to die, and not face any more suffering.   Then her son looked down at her and said "Woman behold your son, son behold your mother" and those words filled the hearts of the early christians who cried out "She is our Mother also".

Today there are so many young people suffering.   There are so many young people denied love and understanding.    They have no hope for their future and need, not just an adviser, but someone who will talk  to them about the love of Jesus and Mary.   Yet even in the Catholic Church there are few who will bring them this treasure.    How can a Church that spoke of her wonders for two thousand years suddenly abandon her.   She is not at the fringes of our Catholic Faith but, with Jesus, she is at the very centre with her son.   At every Mass she is there with us offering Jesus to the Father and embracing us her children.   

At Lourdes when little Bernadette asked her who she was she eventually joined her hands together and said the beautiful words "I am the Immaculate Conception"   When Gabriel announced her as full of Grace, that grace was in her from her very conception.    And no sin in her later life could be told of her.   But do not think she could not be tempted.   She battled with the devil probably daily as the enmity foretold in Genesis grew between them.    But she crushed him.   Yes, Mary is our Mother, but let us pray that our children will meet her again and learn from her the meaning of love, a love they so badly need.     

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