Mother Mary, pray for me. When my happiness was threatened, when my loved ones suffered and struggled in the throes of death, as my mother your heart broke for me. Even now, as I continue to wander in fearsome darkness, you are with me still. St. Rita is remembered as the patroness of impossible causes; join your prayers with hers and mine, that our petitions would not go unheeded. Help me to find joy and consolation even in the midst of tears. Blessed Virgin, Faithful Widow, remember me.
CHAPTER TWO
CRY OF SEPARATION
Second Station
Jesus Accepts the Cross
Mary…
Many of us spent long hours at the bedside of our husbands, anticipating the separation that would come. Others of us experienced the tragedy of our spouse's sudden, unexpected death.
Just as nothing you could have said would have persuaded Jesus to evade the cross, we had no choice but to accept what we could not change.
The heaviness of that cross drained us, even as we persevered in hope. Holy Mary, pray for us, that with each passing day this temporary separation will lead to everlasting joy.
Jesus, You endured all the trials we face, up to and including that final, wooden cross. You are with us every moment, in the pain and up to those final moments of our husband's earthly life.
Then and now, You want us to rest our weary heads in Your lap so that You can console us ... but we are too busy coping to come to You. As we look upon the second station and see You accepting Your cross, let us also see that You were holding us up through the intensity of our pain and loss.
The Scriptures tell us that not even death "shall separate us from the love of God" (Romans 8:39). How does this apply to my situation?
Walk with me, Jesus … (insert your own prayer here)
ROMANS 8:35-39
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish,
or distress,
or persecution,
or famine,
or nakedness,
or peril,
or sword?
As it is written:
"For your sake we are being slain all the day,
we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that...
neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Have you been feeling "cut off " from those around you … even from God, at times?
Tell God about it. He understands. Don't be afraid.
Feelings are fleeting. Feelings are not facts. Hold on to the truth of God's Word: Nothing can separate us from God's love. No one can pull us from the loving, prayerful gaze of our Blessed Mother.
Complete this thought: "I do feel close to God and my loved ones when …"
Walk with me, Jesus, when … [fill in the rest of your prayer here].
A HEART IN THE CLOUDS
"On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves –
I sought him but I did not find him...”
Song of Songs 3:1
For the Christian couple, the separation death brings is only temporary... and yet the pain runs sharp and undeniably penetrating. When her husband Ludwig (Louis) died, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary wept bitterly for days. Saint Jane de Chantal was prostrate with grief for four months over the accidental death of her husband. She had great difficulty forgiving the hunter, who mistook Jane's husband for an animal he was hunting in the forest, and shot him.
A few months after her husband's death, Saint Elizabeth Seton wrote the following to a friend: "I have been to my dear husband's grave and wept plentifully over it with the unrestrained affection which the last sufferings of his life, added to remembrance of former years, had made almost more than precious ..."
She writes about visiting a museum and loving the masterpieces of art, and feeling "alone but half enjoyed" herself, since she missed so much the joy her husband would have had in pointing things out to her. After one excursion she wrote to this same friend: "My poor heart was in the clouds, roving after my William's soul and repeating, 'My God you are my God, and so I am now alone in the world with you and my little ones, but you are my Father and doubly theirs.'"
"My poor heart was in the clouds roving ..." observed St. Elizabeth Seton. Where has your heart been roving lately?
You are my God ... and I feel so alone as I wander these empty halls late at night. Please walk with me, Jesus. Holy Mary, Exalted Widow, stay beside me through the night.
ST. ELIZABETH SETON: A JOURNEY OF FAITH
‘I have invariably kept in the background and avoided even reflecting voluntarily on anything of the kind knowing that Almighty God alone could effect it if indeed