From the Cardinal: Mary, mother of compassion and tenderness| October 11, 2024
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Vol. 6. No. 3
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
During the month of October, the Blessed Virgin Mary is honored under the title Our Lady of the Rosary. We observed this Marian feast last week on October 7, and we asked Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary, to help us to meditate on the mysteries of salvation as we invoke her holy name in contemplative prayer.
Do you know the saying of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, “The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother?” Surely this is true, and no mother reflects the heart of God more perfectly than Mary, the mother of Jesus.
The Immaculate Heart is also one of Mary’s many titles. This particular title, which is used to identify Mary’s patronage of our country, calls our attention to the compassion and tenderness that our Blessed Mother is especially known for.
“Compassion” is the ability to share in the suffering of others. Compassion is not superficial or sentimental, but a genuine connection with those who are in any kind of physical, mental or emotional pain. The Gospels frequently portray Jesus as being filled with compassion for people in need. His response to the pain of others was always one of sharing in their suffering and healing their ills.
“Tenderness” is one of Pope Francis’ favorite themes: “Do we have the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us?” the Holy Father asks. “Or do we prefer impersonal solutions, perhaps effective but devoid of the warmth of the Gospel? How much the world needs tenderness today! The patience of God, the closeness of God, the tenderness of God.”
Pope Francis often speaks about God’s closeness, and he frequently speaks of the Church as our mother. For our Holy Father, nothing is worse than the alienation, loneliness and cruelty of a life cut off from God’s love. Mary is a powerful witness to the tenderness of God. She opens her heart to all who call on her, and her love and compassion are always available to us.
One of the great paradoxes of Christian faith is our conviction that the Creator of all things is both a mighty fortress who is all-knowing, all-present and all-powerful, and a still, soft breeze of kindness, mercy and loving care. When St. Thérèse describes the heart of a mother as “the loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God,” she is praising God not for his strength and power, but for his tenderness and mercy.
As St. Thérèse sees things, God’s greatest achievement is the open and loving heart of a mother. There can be no mothers, of course, without children, and we believe that children require loving and stable families for their personal and spiritual growth as human persons.
When God himself became a human—as a sign of God’s infinite, abundant love for all humanity—he chose to be born of a woman and to grow up in a humble family in a remote village in an occupied land.
In this family, God’s Son experienced poverty, persecution and exile. He learned to be obedient to his mother and his foster father, Joseph. And here in the Holy Family, Jesus experienced the tenderness and compassion of Mary, his mother, as well as her constancy and devotion even to the foot of the Cross and in the earliest days of the Church.
“At the center of our faith,” Pope Francis teaches, “is the confession of Jesus, the Son of God, born of a woman, who brings us, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, to adoptions as sons and daughters [cf. Gal 4:4]” (“Lumen Fidei,” #59). Mary points the way to him. Both her life on Earth and her constant intercession from heaven show us how to believe—and how to put our faith into practice.
For the past 2,000 years, Christians have turned to Mary, the first disciple of Jesus Christ, for help in believing and in strengthening our belief. Her witness and her intercession “awaken in us a desire to follow in his footsteps, to go forth from our own land and to receive his promise” (“Lumen Fidei,” #60). Mary helps us be touched by the love of Christ and to touch him in return by our fidelity to his words and example. Mary helps us to completely give ourselves to Jesus through the kind of personal encounter with him that stirs our hearts and fills us with a holy zeal to follow him as missionary disciples without counting the cost.
This truth about Mary is often misunderstood. God’s mother never stands alone. Her special dignity is the result of her closeness to the Blessed Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
“The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother.” Let’s join St. Thérèse of Lisieux and all the saints in praising Mary, the Mother of God and our mother.
May her intercession strengthen mothers and families everywhere. May her tenderness and compassion fill our hearts with the endless love of God, who never abandons anyone!
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark
Pope Saint John Paul II
(A selection from the Pope’s Angelus reflections (Sunday, October 14, 2001))
Dearest Brothers and Sisters,
1. Last Sunday we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The whole month of October is dedicated to this beautiful prayer, which the Christian people love. On account of the present international situation, I have invited individuals and communities to pray the rosary for peace. I also renew this appeal today, underlining at the same time that the rosary is the contemplation of Christ in His mysteries, in close union with the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Contemporary spirituality feels the intense need, so to speak, to focus on the essential. Because of this, there is at present a promising rediscovery of the true nature of the rosary, as a prayer that helps us to stay in Christ’s company, to know Him better, assimilate His teaching, and live His Mysteries. And who, better than Mary, can accompany us in this journey of the mind and heart? This is why we repeat the Hail Mary, which “constitutes the warp on which the contemplation of the mysteries develops” (Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Saint Paul VI Marialis Cultus, n. 46).
May a constant prayer for peace rise in the Church with the praying of the rosary, both by individuals and by communities, keeping our gaze fixed on Jesus Christ, our peace.
2. The recitation of the rosary used to be very much practiced in families, especially at the end of the day…
3. While we recite the Angelus prayer together, let us remember the meeting of the Synod of Bishops, which is being held in the Vatican. We entrust to the Virgin all the missionaries of the Gospel and implore for them the strength to be builders of justice and peace. Such prayer for peace is taking place throughout the world, in this hour charged with great concern. Let us join in fervent prayer to the Lord through the intercession of Mary, Queen of Peace.
A Message from Pope Francis
(A selection from the Pope’s Angelus reflections (Sunday, October 6, 2013))
In this month of October, which is dedicated in a special way to missions, let us bear in mind the many missionaries, men and women, who in order to bring the Gospel, have overcome obstacles of every kind, they have truly given their lives. As St. Paul says to Timothy: “Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but take your share of suffering for the gospel in the power of God” (2 Tim. 1:8). This, however, is for us all; each one of us, in our own daily lives, can testify to Christ by the power of God, the power of faith. The faith we have is minuscule, but it is strong! With this power to testify to Jesus Christ, to be Christians with our life, with our witness!
And how do we draw from this strength? We draw it from God in prayer. Prayer is the breath of faith: in a relationship of trust, in a relationship of love, dialogue cannot be left out, and prayer is the dialogue of the soul with God. October is also the month of the Rosary, and on this first Sunday, it is tradition to recite the Prayer to Our Lady of Pompeii, the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Most Holy Rosary. Let us join spiritually together in this act of trust in our Mother and let us receive from her hands the crown of the Rosary: the Rosary is a school of prayer; the Rosary is a school of faith!
My Prayer for You
Please join me in saying this simple but powerful prayer addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Rosary:
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee!
Blessed are thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.