It is most profitable for our souls to reflect often that our lives as followers of Jesus Christ cannot be separated from the Holy Cross. The Blessed Mother freely chose to be a sacrificial victim herself, offering her Divine Son to the Heavenly Father without considering her own desires or affections. On Calvary was the perfect act of propitiation and expiation for the sins of mankind, in the brutal suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The aspect of Mary's perfect act of most painful resignation to the will of God is something that seems almost forgotten in this age of self-divination and doctrinal dilution. Souls that are gravely ill with sins need this Queen of Martyrs to rescue them from the pit of their anticipated Hell, lest the words of the Seraphic Doctor come true to their horror: "Those who neglect a devotion to the Blessed Mother will die in their sins." True devotedness includes the honoring of Our Lady will all of the titles of grandeur that are her due. The title that we ought to emphasize very often is that of "Mother of Sorrows". It seems prudent to include some nourishing words from Saint Bonaventure's Praise of the Holy Cross.

Be you tempted or afflicted,

Be you faint and almost vanquished,

Be you overwhelmed in loss;

Linger not in sloth or slowness,

But with instant resolution

Mark your forehead with the Cross.

In your laughter and your weeping,

In your song and in your sadness,

When you work and when you rest;

Be you coming, be you going,

Be you healed or yet in sorrow,

Press the Cross upon your breast.

In the midst of burdens crushing,

Trials heavy, hardships bruising,

Hold the Cross that all consoles;

In the midst of pain and anguish,

Sweetest refuge is accorded

Unto Cross abiding souls.

BB, OFM