In your hour of need look to your mother

The newborn baby endures many hardships. Breathing air, sensing temperature changes, experiencing hunger, just to name the obvious few. The baby cries out, this is the only mode of communication given to the newborn. The little one cannot defend himself, she cannot feed herself. In anguish he grasps at his face, painfully scratching it with the little hands that he is unable to put to good use. She startles easily, and she is completely helpless. The little one is experiencing a whole new world, and finds it harsh in many ways.

A baby quickly learns that crying brings a loving response from his mother. She cannot explain how it is that her wet bottom feels better. The tiny human being does not understand why snuggling is comforting to him. How it is that she knew how to suck and swallow milk, and how her mother knew where to get the nourishment never even occurs to the infant. The little one's needs are being met, and the baby understands that this mother person is the best thing in the whole new and seemingly hostile world.

This physical reality is also true in the spiritual realm. Here, too, we have only to cry out to our Blessed Mother, and she will be there to care for us. Hardships, struggles, and suffering are all best brought to Mary. She knows what to do in our time of need. And she is happy to help. At the same time, she will lead us to her Son. She is the one who brought forth our Redeemer in the first place, and she continues to do exactly that. She knows our Lord better than any of us, for she is His mother. If Jesus trusted her to be His mother at the most tender time of His human life, we can trust her to be our mother, too.


"If there is anyone who is not enlightened by this sublime magnificence of created things, he is blind. If there is anyone who, seeing all these works of God, does not praise Him, he is dumb; if there is anyone who, from so many signs, cannot perceive God, that man is foolish." -St. Bonaventure