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What do we think of when we think of a “mother?” In his book, Hail, Holy Queen, Dr. Scott Hahn outlines for us how mothers and children are literally “made for each other:”
Nature keeps mother and child so close as to be almost indistinct as individuals during the first nine months of life. Their bodies are made for each other. During pregnancy, they share the same food, blood, and oxygen. After birth, nature places the child at the mother’s breast for nourishment. The newborn’s eyes can see only far enough to make eye contact with Mom. The newborn’s ears can clearly hear the beating of a mother’s heart and the high tones of the female voice. Nature has even made a woman’s skin smoother than her husband’s, the better to nestle with the sensitive skin of a baby. The mother, body and soul, points beyond herself to her child (pp. 15-16).
A mother is someone who cares for us tenderly, someone we can run to whenever we are hurt or sad, someone in whom we can always find understanding and compassion. A mother is always ready to comfort us, to care for our needs, to help us go on, and even to help us grow up.
Mary Immaculate is our Mother of tender compassion, and therefore, a mother who understands all our sorrows because her own life was full of them.
The greatest saints of the Church have always turned to the compassionate heart of our Spiritual Mother in heaven. For example, several times The Blessed Virgin spoke to the great apostle of Divine Mercy, St. Maria Faustina Kowalska about her maternal tenderness. She told her, “Know my daughter, that although I was raised to the dignity of the Mother of God, seven swords of pain pierced my heart” (Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul [Marian Press, 1987] n. 786). On another occasion, Our Lady told her, “I know how much you suffer, but do not be afraid. I share with you your suffering, and I shall always do so” (n. 25). Thus, Mary, “full of grace,” is the Mother who understands our joys, our sorrows, and our true needs better than anyone.
Saint Maria Faustina knew all this very well, which is why she placed her complete trust in Mary right from the beginning of her life: a childlike trust that knew no bounds. In the early pages of her Diary, for example, she consecrated her whole being to Mary, entrusting her life to Mary with these words:
O Mary, my Mother and my Lady, I offer You my soul, my body, my life and my death, and all that will follow it. I place everything in Your hands (n. 79).
Later, when Faustina went to the Shrine of Mary in Czestochowa in Poland to pray there before the great icon of Our Lady, she wrote:
The Mother of God told me many things. I entrusted my perpetual vows to her. I felt that I was her child and she was my Mother. She did not refuse any of my requests (n. 260).
Toward the end of St. Faustina’s life, Mary encouraged her again to place complete childlike trust in her:
My daughter, at God’s command I am to be in a special and exclusive way your Mother; but I desire that you, too, in a special way be My child (n. 1414).
Saint Faustina’s childlike trust in Mary was especially evident during times of great suffering. It was then, above all, that she placed herself in the arms of her Mother Mary and entrusted herself completely to Mary’s tender care and heavenly intercession. For example, in the Diary, Faustina prayed:
Mother of God, Your soul was plunged into a sea of bitterness; look upon Your child and teach her to suffer and to love while suffering. Fortify my soul that pain may not break it. Mother of grace, teach me to live by [the power of] God (n. 315).
As her physical and spiritual sufferings in her own life increased, St. Faustina again entrusted herself to the care of the Mother of God and fortified herself by meditating on Mary’s own patience and courage:
O Mary, today [probably it was Good Friday] a terrible sword has pierced Your holy soul. Except for God, no one knows of Your suffering. Your soul does not break; it is brave because it is with Jesus. Sweet mother, unite my soul to Jesus, because it is only then that I will be able to endure all trials and tribulations, and only in union with Jesus will my little sacrifice be pleasing to God. Sweetest Mother, continue to teach me about the interior life. May the sword of suffering never break me. O pure Virgin, pour courage into my heart and guide it (Diary, n. 915).
Whether in times of sorrow or joy, the Blessed Virgin Mary was the one St. Faustina turned to, again and again, to help her live in close union with Jesus Christ. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Mother of God often appeared to St. Faustina or spoke to her right before Holy Communion, as if Mary’s special office were to prepare Faustina for receiving Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. (For example, see entry numbers 449, 597, 608, 846, and 1414.) Thus, she writes in entry number 840:
I am spending this time with the Mother of God, and preparing myself for the solemn coming of the Lord Jesus. The Mother of God is instructing me in the interior life of the soul with Jesus; especially in Holy Communion.
This is precisely what we should expect. Jesus says to us in the Book of Revelation: “Behold. I stand at the door and knock: If any man hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (3:20). So, at each Holy Communion, Jesus stands at the door of our hearts and knocks — but He will not force His way in. As He said, He waits for us to “open the door” and let Him in of our own free will. We may think to ourselves: “Of course I will let Him in; I will welcome Him and accept Him as my Lord and Savior every day of my life, and at every Holy Communion.” Sadly, however, it is not so easy! The door of the human heart is heavy with pride, the hinges rusted by doubts, the latches chained by fears. It is not so easy to swing such a door open, even if we want to do so. And that is another reason we have such need of Mary, our Mother of Mercy. She is always ready to help us by her prayers to open the door of our hearts to her Son.
We, too, can come to know and cherish Mary as St. Faustina did: as our own Spiritual Mother who intercedes for all our needs. Relating to Mary in this way was not just a special privilege given to the saints; it is open to all the People of God. Fr. Peter Cameron, O.P., humorously sums up this truth in his book Mysteries of the Virgin Mary (p. 57):
