It’s taken me years to understand the religious image of a heart being pierced with a sword, but over time, I’ve been drawn to the Sorrowful Heart of Mary and have come to deeply appreciate its message.
Luke 2:34-35 provides background. When Joseph and Mary take their infant son, Jesus, to the temple, Simeon blesses them, proclaiming, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted.”
He then addresses Mary specifically: “And you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
The image of a heart being pierced with a sword has followed me throughout my life as a mother. So, it wasn’t a surprise to me when Peg Winkelman, a fellow mother, mentioned it while giving her testimony at the second annual Ecclesia Domestica women’s retreat, “My Heart for My Son,” at the Franciscan Convent in Hankinson, North Dakota.
Her story illuminated a time when she was carrying an especially heavy burden while walking with family members struggling with addiction. During that time, she ended up at a prayer event with a friend. Knowing of Peg’s sorrows, her friend sensed the need to pray extra for her, and she wandered off to beg God for mercy for Peg and her family. While in prayer, she saw an image of the Sorrowful Heart.
She didn’t know what it meant, but when they were back together, she described the image to Peg, who was just as uncertain. But like Mary, she “pondered all this in her heart” (Luke 2:19). The friend later gifted her with a painting of the image.
After some time had passed, while in deep prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and while pondering again the image of what Peg now understood was Mary’s sorrowful heart, she was struck with something. She called her friend, excited. “I just saw the roses!”
The Sorrowful Heart comprises an image of a sword pierced through a heart, but it’s encircled with flowers. They’d always been there, but Peg’s heart had to be in the right place to notice.
She understood that though our valleys on earth can be nearly unbearable in moments, we were never promised a rose garden. Nor was Mary. She was rather promised a sword through her heart, but that wound would become her glory, just as Jesus’ crucifixion would become our redemption.
Peg reminded us that this world inevitably brings both swords and roses — joys and sorrows. We might experience the sorrows of life in one moment, and in the next, embrace its sweetness. And aren’t the joys more joyful when we’ve experienced daggers? The roses more pungent?
This was just one of the many beautiful takeaways from the retreat. And I’m heartened to know that men will have their own chance to experience something equally, uniquely transforming at their retreat this month, April 19-21, at the convent. To learn more, visit https://www.ecclesiadomestica.net/ .
[For the sake of having a repository for my newspaper columns and articles, I reprint them here, with permission, a week after their run date. The preceding ran in The Forum newspaper on April 7, 2024.]
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