Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday  (Our Lady of Lourdes Parish  May 30, 2026)

Some of you know that St. Ignatius, the Founder of the Jesuits, wrote a detailed outline of a set of meditations that we call the Spiritual Exercises.    A good portion of the meditations are reflections on the stories of Jesus in the gospels and he asks us to consider these events as if we were active participants or observers.  

It is rare that Ignatius would create any additional events to the gospels.   But there are two that relate to the Blessed Virgin Mary.    One is totally imaginative in that Ignatius suggests that we pray over something that surely happened though the gospels do not report it.   That is, surely the risen Jesus appears to Mary, His Mother even before he appears to Mary Magdalen or to Peter or to the men on the Road to Emmaus.   In such a meditation we are encouraged to imagine what is said and done.   Surely hugs and surely tears of joy.    Some Jesuit told me once that he imagined some of the conversation between Mary and Jesus.    Once the two have had a chance to settle into this new reality of life after death, Mary questions Jesus.  “Why did your death have to be so brutal?    It was so hard on you and so hard for us to experience the brutality.”  And they talk about that, Jesus saying that he knew that even innocent children would be killed brutally.   “I wanted to be sure that every murdered person could know that God understood their pain.”

Ignatius also asks us to take time and pray with Mary on the day after the crucifixion…we call it Holy Saturday.    We know surely that John the apostle would have been with her.   But we should go to console her.    She is exhausted and overcome with sorrow.   But at the same time, when engaged with Mary in her mourning, we find her even in Jesus’ death to be as close to him spiritually as she had been physically.   They loved each other so much.    In this situation she is not isolated and alone in her grief but rather she is in solitude with him.   And this solitude she can share with those who mourn with her.  

 I suggest that those who are grieving the loss of a loved one go to this Mary who in solitude is with Jesus.   She will share her love and the love she has for Jesus with those who pray with her.    No one should feel that they must mourn alone.