Our Morning Offering – 23 March – Saturday of the Second Week of Lent, Year C “Marian Saturdays”
In his General Audience on Ash Wednesday, 5 March 2014, Pope Francis highlighted the special protection and help of the Blessed Virgin for the journey of Lent:
“Let us give thanks to God for the mystery of His crucified love, authentic faith, conversion and openness of heart to the brethren. These are the essential elements for living the season of Lent. On this journey, we want to invoke with special trust the protection and help of the Virgin Mary.
May she, who was the first to believe in Christ, accompany us in our days of intense prayer and penance, so that we might come to celebrate, purified and renewed in spirit, the great paschal mystery of her Son.”
These words of Pope Francis help us to appreciate one reason why Mary is the perfect companion for Lent. She is the model of the perfect disciple because she entrusted herself completely to God. At the Annunciation, Mary tells the angel: “I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
In 1974, Pope Paul VI taught that Mary is “worthy of imitation because she was the first and the most perfect of Christ’s disciples” (Marialis Cultus, No. 35).
Lent is a perfect time to renew our devotion to Mary as our spiritual mother who cares for us in the midst of challenges and difficulties.
My Sorrowful Mother,
Help Me to Bear My Crosses
By St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
My sorrowful Mother,
by the merit of that grief
which you felt
at seeing your beloved Jesus
led to death,
obtain for me the grace
to bear with patience,
those crosses which God sends me.
I will be fortunate
if I also shall know how
to accompany you
with my cross until death.
You and Jesus,
both innocent,
have borne a heavy cross
and shall I,
a sinner who has merited hell,
refuse mine?
Immaculate Virgin,
I hope you will help me
to bear my crosses with patience.
Amen
AnaStpaul 
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