Mary knows our earthly reality and the desolation that humanity tends to create. She has witnessed the worst. We need only to consider her terrifying existence under the brutal conditions of Roman rule that brought her Son to his savage end. However, Mary chooses to follow her Son’s mission.
She appears here as a sorrowful mother, crushed by the sins of the world. Today, she continues her melancholy mission of accompanying sinners on their road to conversion. In our struggles and crosses, Mary is in this world, oppressed by sin. Whatever life situation, whatever cultural situation, Mary is present. She is present to poverty and hardship. She is present to hubris and vanity. Her presence is a suffering presence; her being-with-us is sharing the human condition.
—from the book Universal Mother: A Journal for Finding Yourself in Mary
by Holly Schapker and Cecelia Dorger
