The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, 15 September 2023 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14 ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> John 19:25-27
What a joy for us, sinful children of the Father to be your children too, O Blessed Virgin Mary through your Son our Lord Jesus Christ!
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
John 19:25-27
More than the tears and sorrow on your face portrayed in arts, O Sorrowful Mother, all I see and experience in you is a disciple so absorbed in prayer, so united and close with our Lord Jesus; yours is a different kind of sadness that I feel when I look at your images as our Lady of Sorrows: no pity but dignity, no dramatics nor theatrics but purely noble simplicity.
How sad, dear Mother and Lady of Sorrows that many of us disciples of your Son Jesus have forgotten this very important aspect of discipleship you have shown us, a life centered on prayer that is more than reciting prayers but residing in Christ, of being absorbed in his Passion and Death so that like you, we may be absorbed by his glorious Resurrection!
Indeed, dear Lady of Sorrows, as St. Paul tells us today, "the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ" (1 Tim.1:14); pray for us your children and fellow disciples to be first absorbed in prayers because before everything else came, there was Jesus who first came calling us to be one in him, with him, and through him like you absorbed by his glory in heaven. Amen.
