Our Lady of Sorrows

Blessed Mother,


You knew

not only how to carry

your own deep sorrows with dignity

but to make room

to hold the sorrows of another.


You were not afraid

of annihilation


Not alarmed

by a fresh dismemberment.


You were the centrifugal force

of love

that holds the accelerating universe

in a wide offering

of ever-expanding joy

amidst the pain.


You are not destroyed.


Wholly identified

with the four directions of the Holy Cross

there is no place your passion does not reach

because you stand with Him.


And we who dare

in microscopic measures

to accept the task


desire to stand

in fresh alignment

with the one who chose


to receive

Everything.



Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, 15th September 2012