‘At the Cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus at the last’. These are the opening words of the hymn, ‘Stabat Mater Dolorosa’, considered to be one of the greatest Latin hymns of all time. The first of the mysteries of the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows is the prophecy by Simeon in Luke that a sword would pierce the Virgin’s heart. This surely happened as she stood by the Cross of her Son. We see her tranquil, every line expressing again her ‘Fiat’ in the midst of pain.

May we, like her, pronounce also our own ‘Fiat’ in our own pain, whatever that may be. This is not passivity, but a full engagement in the purposes of God.

May God bless you this day, and may Our Lady be close to you in all that you undertake, or suffer.