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Jesus and his mother, Mary, await generous souls who are willing to make reparation for all those who are in danger of losing their souls to hell. Will you be a generous soul? Let us pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for all of the graces that we need to be a brilliant light and a holy comfort to others each and every day in this darkened and sometimes frightening world.

Seeking beauty is the pathway to seeking joy, and as women, we are endowed with unique gifts that allow us not only to long for that joy that is a reflection of our longing for heaven, but to create and birth things that are noble, good, and lovely in unique and creative ways. We see beyond the material pursuit of simple pleasure to the longing for joy that points our eyes and hearts toward the eternal.

Her eyes of mercy are surely the greatest vessel of mercy, for their gaze enables us to drink in that kindness and goodness for which we hunger with a yearning that only a look of love can satisfy. Mary’s eyes of mercy also enable us to see God’s mercy at work in human history and to find Jesus in the faces of our brothers and sisters. In Mary, we catch a glimpse of the promised land—the Kingdom of mercy established by the Lord—already present in this life beyond the exile into which sin leads us. 

While hanging on the cross, Jesus said to his Mother, “Woman, behold your son.” And to John, his beloved disciple, he said, “Son, behold your Mother.” This was more than a son’s dying request to secure the care of his mother after he was gone. It was Jesus’ request for Mary to be Mother to all human beings for all time. Despite his extreme suffering, Jesus did not issue this request out of desperation, but rather he spoke it with great feeling and purpose.

Our Lord knows your suffering, and he spoke those words just for you.

When we are weary, downcast, beset with cares, let us look to Mary, let us feel her gaze, which speaks to our heart and says: “Courage, my child, I am here to help you!”  

Let us beg her to turn her eyes of mercy towards us, especially in times of pain, and make us worthy of beholding, today and always, the merciful face of her Son Jesus.

— from Mother Mary: Inspiring Words from Pope Francis

With the Eucharist, we join with our fellow Catholics, our neighbors, and our friends to be fed by the Lord. We celebrate together, not alone. In this way, Mother Church keeps our faith from being a solitary experience. If there were no Church, there would be no real community of believers. We might have our personal “spirituality,” but we would lack the support, the fellowship, and the mutual encouragement that comes from belonging to a family of faith.

I began to see that the intent of Christ was never to relegate redemption to the spiritual realm, leaving us to wait desperately to shed this cumbersome physical world. No, he is in all things and he holds everything together. He is in the bread we eat, he is in the touch of our neighbor, he is in the tears of our children, he is in the dirt we dig up, and he is in the voice of the poor. 

I can’t escape the million proofs of a Creator’s delight in creation nor his determination to use it to woo me on earth.

Today I was very moved when, after Mass, I visited a home for children without families. How many people work in the Church to make that home a family! This is what it means, in a prophetic sense, to build a family.

You may be poor yourselves in material ways, but you have an abundance of gifts to offer when you offer Christ and the community of his Church. Do not hide your faith, do not hide Jesus, but carry him into the world and offer the witness of your family life!

We are members of the Church. As such, through the Eucharist, our lives are united to Christ and his offering. The sacrifice of Christ made present on the altar enables all Christians to join themselves to his offering.

So, each one of us helps Mother Church to make her sacrifice. We jointly offer our praise, our sufferings, our prayers, and our work together as a community of faith. And through the sacramental mystery, these little offerings of ours are joined to the one supreme offering of Jesus: his death on the cross.