Worn out with grief

Mother of Sorrow, by iconographer Céline Magnan

As she saw her own Lamb being dragged to slaughter, Mary, the Ewe-lamb, worn out with grief, followed with other women, crying out, ‘Where are you going, my Child? For whose sake are you completing the course so fast? Is there once again another wedding in Cana? And are you hurrying there now to make wine for them from water? Should I go with you, my Child, or rather wait for you? Give me a word, O Word; do not pass me by in silence, you who kept me pure, My Son and my God.’

~ the Ikos of Holy Friday

Mary Speaks

Pietà, by William Bouguereau

O you who bear the pain of the whole earth,
I bore you.
You, who, when your hem is touched, give power,
I nourished you.
Who turns the day to night in this dark hour,
Light comes from you.
O you who hold the world in your embrace,
I carried you.
Whose arm encircled the world with your grace,
I once held you.
O you who laughed and ate and walked the shore,
I played with you.
And I, who with all others, you died for,
Now I hold you.
May I be faithful to this final test:
In this last time I hold my child, my Son,
His body close enfolded to my breast,
The holder held: the bearer borne.
Mourning to joy: darkness to morn.
Open, my arms: your work is done.

"Mary Speaks," by Madeleine L'Engle