Do This in Memory of Me: Be with Mary, The Strong Ones

By: Laura Catherine Worhacz

Dearest Eucharistic Family,​

Grace comes forth from doing the right.  

“With our Lord in the tomb, keep the Blessed Virgin company. Alone and grieving, she had only a few poor Christians and St. John, who could hardly replace our Lord. She had been very strong, the strong woman, till the very moment of our Lord’s death. She was standing (cf. Jn 19:25), according to the Gospel, and not as represented in some paintings. She stood, facing the cross. When our Lord died, the redemption was complete. The Blessed Virgin must have collapsed under the weight of sorrow.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard) 

During my recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land, there were many moments of grace that overtook me to the depths of my being. Walking where Jesus was sent into the world by Our Father was overwhelming and surreal, truly like a dream. Being in the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, the place of Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection, I was captured by the view of the mosaics that overshadowed the stone building; it takes your breath away.   

The gift received for all of us remains in the life freely given to us out of Jesus’ love. His death to teach us to be humble and obedient to the right way of living that flows from a heart united to God is his hope for us. 

The immensity of Jesus’ love was found ever more on pilgrimage as the Liturgy was offered in the Garden of Olives by Rev. Father William Fickel, SSS. The seventeen pilgrims saw father in red through the olive trees celebrating Mass where the disciples were sleeping and Jesus praying through the night... intense. Walking the Via Dolorosa, praying the Stations of the Cross in the Lenten Season... unforgettable. We are truly lost without HIM.  

Tomorrow, we enter into Holy Week.  

What have I done this Lenten Season as a genuine offering from the heart? 

What have I learned?  

And how have I grown in holiness?  

The answer is different for each of us. Yet we are all called to be Christ’s disciples, his apostles of love to proclaim liberty to oppression, the chains that bind us. Grace is given in doing the right. The Sacraments for us to be freed from our sins and begin again our life’s journey. Our true pilgrimage of the heart made one at the cenacle of the Altar transforms us from this life to the Heavenly Jerusalem. 

This past week another situation of a family separated by abuse and horrifying realities was brought to my attention. What can we do? Pray the mystery, and long for the right to freely choose to love as we have been loved. To forgive as we have been forgiven and know that in CHRIST JESUS, all can be saved. All may be sanctified, be made holy. God is with us, seeing every circumstance and ready to consecrate it on the Altar to be transformed into a living faith that will change our world. 

Our mother, our blessed mother, is the first to be made strong in Jesus’ love. She did the right, always said yes, trusted in her father and loved His children, made them her own. Mary has taught us the way to salvation. May we follow Mary, walk with Mary as she walked with the first pilgrims of the Holy Land, still walking now with us. We belong to God.  

​Easter is coming; much work is needed to PROCLAIM JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!  
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Laura Catherine Worhacz

Laura Catherine Worhacz is a Lay Associate of the Blessed Sacrament and author of Consecration to Jesus Through Our Lady of The Blessed Sacrament. She is also the Director of Mothers of The Blessed Sacrament. She lives in Trinity, FL with her husband and their two daughters.