The word ponder means “to weigh.” Do people need to weigh something about which they are absolutely certain? Does that describe the Virgin Mary’s faith at every point of her life? Isn’t it more likely that at the foot of Jesus’ cross, Mary said to herself in her own way, The Lord is in this somewhere? Children understandably tend to take an either/or approach to life: faith or doubt? Adults who regularly choose a both/and approach can incorporate all of life’s experiences into a growing faith.
Doubt can either drive faith or kill it. The choice is ours.
—from Franciscan Spirit’s “Doubt: Engine or Enemy of Faith?“
by Pat McCloskey, OFM