Visiting one of the many churches Madrid is enlivened with, I am always drawn to Our Lady of Sorrows. I was consecrated to her in 2019. To bear such a weight in her son's crucifixion, the son of God, is not something I am personally capable of comprehending.
This lovely and most wise Mother started a stir in my pilgrimages mediation.
In my search for wisdom, Our Lord placed an interesting locution of sorts in two places that came together nicely.
First was in the reading of Wisdom 1:6
"For wisdom is a kindly spirit, yet she does not acquit blasphemous lips; Because God is the witness of the inmost self and the sure observer of the heart and the listener to the tongue."
Our Lord does not stop me from my sins, he sees me clearly, and without the façade that the worldly me has created.
He allowed me to digest his words and place them within the context of the life I am choosing to lead for myself. He presented me with this image in his church. God, the father, is looking down on his resurrected son. On the left is a tiny devil playing some sort of instrument.
After contemplating why this menacing figure was added to such a profoundly merciful image, the Lord placed upon my heart this thought:
"Satan is like a spoiled child who screams loudly when he does not get what he wants. He desires only to disrupt our peace, destroy the life God gave us and distract us from what is right and good."
He then placed in my mind the times I exhibited anger, pride, envy and showed me how I mirrored the evil one's desires for me in these behaviors. He showed me that when I do not forgive, take myself too seriously, and want more than what the Lord has offered me; it is equivalent to rejecting God's graces.
Tonight, at mass, I will beg pardon for my offenses. I pray that He allows me to see my sins more readily and correct them before they become an action. Pray for me.