To Christ through Mary

I am still making my way through Born From the Gaze of God: The Tibhirine Journal of a Martyr Monk (1993-1996). Right now, it is my morning spiritual reading. For this, I choose books I can read just bit from each day. Hence, it takes time for me to finish these books. It's a nice change of pace for someone who reads a lot of books. This book are the published journals of Blessed Christoph LeBreton, OCSO, who, along with six of his confreres, was murdered by Islamic insurgents in Algeria in 1997.

Our Lady of Sorrows, possibly by Carlo Dossi, 18th century

I just so happened that last Tuesday, 15 September, the observance of the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows (one day after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross), that in normal course of reading through Bl. Christoph's journal chronologically, I came upon his entry for 15 September 1994. It just so happened that in 1994 the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows fell on the same as the Jewish Day of Atonement- Yom Kippur:

Yom Kippur. Peace through the blood of the Cross...

        Today- Our Lady of Sorrows...
Mom [Mary] has given us a mission to fulfill: to offer up our lives that the world may be saved, that the Lord may do his will in... us, through Mom's hands

Doing Christ's will through Mary's intercession. The last words Mary speaks in the Gospels is at the Wedding Feast. What does she say? To the waiters at the wedding, with reference to Jesus, she says: "Do whatever he tells you" (John 2:5).

The Miracle at the Wedding Feast of Cana, which in Saint John's Gospel marks the beginning of Jesus's public ministry, is the second Luminous Mystery of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary. The fruit of the this mystery is To Christ Through Mary. Being a model disciple, Our Blessed Mother always draws us to her Son, not to herself. Like her Son, she bids you take up your cross.

Liturgically, Saturdays are devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. As one of the intercessions for Morning Prayer in the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin May on Saturday asks:

Saviour of the World, your mother stood at the foot of your cross,
        -grant, through her intercession, that we may rejoice to share in your passion

If I may be permitted to indulge in a bit of sentimentality; this post reminds me of those spontaneous posts I used to compose in my early years of blogging.