Mary Gives Us the Courage to Go On

We may well ask how the Blessed Virgin helps us. She certainly prays for us, and in my own case I have often asked my best Friend’s mother to put in a good word. Anyone familiar with Marian devotion knows that Our Lady may help us in two ways. First, through her intercession we may realize that things did not go as badly as we might have expected them to, or perhaps they even vastly improved (which is rare). The second aspect we experience with this devotion is that we receive the courage to go on. In the film The Passion of the Christ, Mary is portrayed as the one who goes on in the worst of circumstances; it is a most powerful image. Many Protestants are more interested in Mary than they have been for centuries because of that portrayal. Surely, the Mother of Christ prayed at every step of her Son’s passion that “it wouldn’t happen,” that he wouldn’t be scourged, crowned with thorns, made to drag the cross, or crucified. But all those things did happen. What did she do? She remained faithful and believing, and although it is not emphasized in the gospel, she surely had the most incredible and rewarding experience that any human being in great suffering ever had. I cannot help thinking how beneficial it would be if we had some record of the Blessed Virgin’s response to the resurrection of Christ… This mysterious aspect of Our Lady’s Sorrows is often most helpful to me.