Stabat mater dolorosa

BFFK and I are currently watching Kitty Bear flip out in the apartment because the weather is changing outside....it's no longer "Africa-Hot". It's just regular, old, hot. The cat only knows how to cope with the change by running around in circles/up the door frames/into the rooms.

Confession: I shut the doors to my room and bathroom when she wasn't looking in hopes that Kitty Bear would crash into the doors and go "splat". So far....no "splat". Oops.

Also at the moment, BFFK and I are watching the season premiere of one of my favorite shows "Parenthood". If you've never seen it, you're missing out. I'm not saying that everything on the show is morally perfect, but what I am saying is that it is pretty true to life. It's a show about these 4 siblings, their own families, and their parents who all live in the same town. It's all about the different forms and ways to parent and the funny/hard things families experience. It's hilarious and honest - two of my favorite things. Check it out.

Speaking of parenthood, today is one of Momma's feast days: Our Lady of Sorrows.

I like the title of "Our Lady of Sorrows". I mean, who hasn't at one point or another been sorrowful? I can remember being somewhere in Italy and buying a little statue of OLOS. She looked really sad. But hopeful at the same time.

There's been a feast for OLOS since, like, the 12th century or something. (That's a long time.) But ever since Jesus' Crucifixion, nay, the Prophecy of Simeon, Our Lady has been OLOS. She didn't even fully know that when she said "Fiat" how much was going to come along with it.

"The child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." (Luke 2:33-35)

Mary was amazed, blessed and pierced. (Joseph too, he was in important man in salvation history, let's be honest.)

Mary shows us that if we want to follow her Son, if we want to bring Him into the world, then it's gonna take us becoming amazed, blessed and, at some point, pierced in a way. Mary may not of necessarily known what it would feel like to have her heart pierced. She knew it was coming for 33 years. And even when it was pierced, she was sorrowful WITH HOPE. This blows my mind.

It's so freaking difficult for me to suffer and have hope. When we are sorrowful or suffering it's so hard to get out of our own little bubble and see the bigger picture. The pain overtakes us and we are frozen in the moment, unable to move from the sorrow, and even if we are able to move, we don't want to because it's just plain easier to be sad than to have hope. Despite the Truth we may hear or see, it's hard.

In those times, I try to look to Our Lady of Sorrows and I think of her hope. She had a faith like Abraham...knowing that the sacrifice of her only Son was going to break her human heart completely, but that God the loving Father is bigger than death and those things we don't understand. She hopes in the hard times, for me, for you, for all of humanity. She doesn't give up. Our Lady of Sorrows has the Divine Wisdom to hope and the Heroic Patience to wait in complete trust. She has the Lively Faith to know that despite even death, God is bigger than the mystery of it all.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us. 

"Make me feel as thou hast felt;
make my soul to glow and melt
with the love of Christ my Lord."