00:28Transcription by CastingWords
00:30There are certain sounds that stay with us all of our lives.
00:35The soft voice of a mother singing beside a bed.
00:38The creak of a rocking chair in the quiet of the evening.
00:42The whisper of bedtime prayers.
00:45The sound of footsteps coming quickly when a child cries in the night.
00:52Many of us remember nursery rhymes and lullabies long after we have forgotten so many other things.
00:59There's something about the voice of a mother that settles deeply into the soul.
01:05Even elderly men and women, after long lives and many years,
01:10will sometimes call out for their mother in moments of sickness or fear.
01:15Because somewhere deep within us is the memory of what it felt like to be protected,
01:22to be watched over, to belong completely to someone who loved us before we had done anything to deserve it.
01:31A mother loves shapes a child, and long before the child understands it.
01:38She is there for scraped knees and fevers and nightmares.
01:43She is there teaching little hands how to fold in prayer.
01:48She is there saying things children hear so often,
01:51they almost become part of the walls of the house.
01:55Be careful.
01:56Look both ways.
01:58Tell me the truth.
02:00Call me when you get there.
02:03Stay away from danger.
02:05Wear your coat.
02:07Come home before dark.
02:09Simple words, ordinary words.
02:11But behind them is something extraordinary.
02:15Behind them is watchfulness, protection, sacrifice, love.
02:21A mother carries burdens no one sees.
02:25She stays awake when everyone else is sleeping.
02:29She notices changes no one else notices.
02:32She hears pain hidden behind silence.
02:35She worries quietly.
02:37She prays quietly.
02:39She sacrifices quietly.
02:42And often the world never fully knows how much of itself was held together by the hidden love of mothers.
02:51And perhaps that is why the loss of a mother leaves such a deep ache in the human heart.
02:57Some listening today were blessed with mothers whose love reflected something beautiful and safe and steady.
03:05But others were not.
03:07Some lost their mothers when they were very young.
03:11Some grew up in homes where tenderness was missing.
03:15Some never truly felt protected.
03:18Some never heard the words, I love you.
03:21Some were wounded by the very person who should have sheltered them.
03:26And these wounds do not simply disappear because years pass.
03:32People carry them quietly into adulthood.
03:35Into marriages, into friendships, into old age.
03:41There are people who spend their whole lives searching for something they cannot quite name.
03:48A place to rest.
03:49A place to belong.
03:51A place where they feel safe enough to stop being afraid.
03:55And sometimes what they are truly grieving is the absence of a mother's love.
04:03There are souls who move through life spiritually orphaned.
04:07And perhaps that is why the gift Christ gave them from the cross was so full of mercy.
04:13Because in the Lord looked down upon humanity and gave us his mother, woman, behold thy son.
04:26And then to St. John, behold thy mother.
04:31I think many converts to the Catholic faith, and many cradle Catholics as well, discover something profound when they truly
04:41come to know Mary.
04:43There is a part of the soul that finally begins to rest.
04:47Not because Mary replaces God.
04:50Not because she is worshipped.
04:52But because Christ and his mercy knew the human heart needed a mother.
04:58A mother who comforts.
05:00A mother who listens.
05:02A mother who intercedes.
05:04A mother who stays.
05:07And for many wounded souls, devotion to Our Lady becomes the first place they are ever truly feel safe enough
05:15to stop running.
05:19Perhaps that is why so many people find themselves weeping before a statue of Mary.
05:24Without even fully understanding why.
05:28Because something deep within the human heart recognizes a mother's love.
05:35And perhaps that is why heaven has sent Our Lady again and again throughout history.
05:44As Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.
05:47As Our Lady of Lourdes in France.
05:52As Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal.
05:56As Our Lady of La Salette in France.
06:01As Our Lady of Akita in Japan.
06:04As Our Lady of Good Success in Ecuador.
06:08As Our Lady of Nock in Ireland.
06:11As Our Lady of Potmaine in France.
06:15As Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in France.
06:19As Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land.
06:23As Our Lady of Sorrows at the Foot of the Cross.
06:30And in countless places known and unknown.
06:34Across centuries of human sorrow and wandering.
06:38Our Lady has continued to call her children home.
06:44Again and again heaven reaches toward wounded humanity through the heart of a mother.
06:52And perhaps that is the great tragedy of our age.
06:59Not merely that the world has grown sinful.
07:03Humanity has always struggled with sin.
07:06But that so many no longer recognize the voice of their mother.
07:13We live in a time.
07:15Where people are drowning in noise.
07:17But starving for tenderness.
07:20Connected to everyone and yet deeply alone.
07:22There is danger everywhere.
07:25Division everywhere.
07:27Fear everywhere.
07:29Restlessness everywhere.
07:33And beneath much of it.
07:35Is the loneliness of souls that no longer know where home is.
07:41A child separated from his mother.
07:44Becomes frightened and restless.
07:47And perhaps spiritually.
07:49That is what has happened to much of the modern world.
07:52People search everywhere trying to fill the ache within them.
08:00Some search through pleasure.
08:03Some through power.
08:05Some through politics.
08:07Some through money.
08:09Some through endless distractions.
08:12Because silence is too painful.
08:17But nothing fully heals the wound.
08:20Because the soul is searching for what it was created to know.
08:24The love of God.
08:26And the tenderness of a mother.
08:28Leading her children safely toward him.
08:33That is why devotion to Mary has brought such healing to so many wounded souls throughout history.
08:41Not because Catholics worship Mary.
08:44We do not.
08:46But because Christ himself.
08:48In his mercy.
08:50Gave his mother to humanity.
08:54And good mothers do not stop loving their children simply because the children wander far away.
09:02A good mother continues to pray.
09:04Continues to wait.
09:05Continues to call.
09:07Continues to warn.
09:09Continues to hope.
09:12And perhaps all the apparitions of Our Lady throughout history are really the same moment repeated again and again.
09:21A mother standing at the doorway calling her children home before darkness falls.
09:30Please listen.
09:32Return to my son.
09:35Turn away from sin.
09:37Pray.
09:38Do not lose your soul.
09:40Come home.
09:44And the darkness in our world is no longer difficult to see.
09:49Families are collapsing.
09:51Children are being corrupted.
09:53Innocence is under attack openly and shamelessly.
09:56And within the church there is confusion, compromise, scandal, silence, and betrayal.
10:03Where souls should have found clarity and truth.
10:09Many souls no longer know truth from falsehood, good from evil, light from darkness.
10:16And perhaps that is part of the great sorrow of our age.
10:20The very places where wounded souls should have found safety have often become places of confusion and disappointment instead.
10:31And in times like these, frightened children look for their mother, not only for comfort, but for protection.
10:51And perhaps that is why devotion to Our Lady matters now more than ever.
10:59Because beneath her mantle there is protection, there is guidance, there is guidance, there is refuge, there is the steady
11:07voice of a mother leading her children safely toward her son, while the world around them trembles.
11:15From the very beginning, God foretold that the serpent would not triumph forever.
11:23And throughout history, Our Lady has stood as the great enemy of Satan, the woman clothed with the son, the
11:32mother whose heel crushes the serpent.
11:36That is why hell hates her, because purity terrifies corruption, humility terrifies pride, and the love of a holy mother
11:47terrifies darkness itself.
11:50At Fatima, after all the warnings, after all the visions, after all the pleas for repentance and prayer, Our Lady
11:59gave the world a promise.
12:01In the end, in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.
12:07Not the darkness, not the confusion, not the culture of death, not Satan.
12:13Her Immaculate Heart will triumph.
12:18And perhaps that is what souls need to remember now.
12:23The safest place in a darkening world is close to the mother,
12:28who always leads her children to Jesus Christ.
12:32May we listen to her voice.
12:36May we stay beneath her mantle.
12:39May we pray the rosary faithfully.
12:42May we remain close to the sacraments.
12:45And may we never wander far from the mother Christ himself gave to us beneath the cross.
12:54May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
13:01Amen.
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