Like Mary, Mother of Sorrows

A meditation by Chiara Lubich (May 1987)

There are a great many ways of honouring Mary.
But there is one which is the best of all: imitating her, act as she would on earth, as if her other self. I believe it would be the way to please her most, because it enables her, in a certain way, to return to the earth.

This is what we need to aim at, without excluding all the other possibilities we have for honoring Mary. Imitating her.

But how? What do we imitate in her?


Let's imitate her in what is essential. She is a mother, Jesus' mother and spiritually our mother. From the cross, Jesus gave her to us as such in the person of John. We have to be like her other self, as a mother. In practice we have to state this intention: during the Marian Year I will behave toward every neighbour I meet, or for whom I shall be working, as though I were their mother. If we do that, we will discover a conversion in ourselves, a revolution, not only because we will find ourselves acting as a mother even to our own mother or father from time to time, but because we will have adopted a particular, specific attitude.

A mother is always welcoming, always helpful, always hopeful, and covers up everything. She forgives everything in her children, even if they are delinquents or terrorists.

The fact is, a mother's love is very similar to the charity of Christ of which Paul speaks about.
If we have the heart of a mother, or to be exact, if we propose to make Mary’s heart our own, who stands out as the most perfect model of motherhood, then we shall be ever ready to love others in all circumstances, so that we keep the Risen One living in us. We will play perfectly the part asked of us to keep Jesus, the Risen One, present in our midst.


If we have the heart of this mother, we will love everybody, not just the members of our own Church,
but those of others too. Not only Christians, but also Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc., and all people of goodwill, everyone dwelling on the earth, because the maternity of Mary is as universal as the Redemption.


Even when she is not loved back, she always loves, and loves everyone.So here we have our intention for the next two weeks: to live like Mary, as if we were mothers to
everyone.