I am deep into the chapter I’m writing about our Lady of Perpetual Help for a book that goes to press next month. The deadline looms. I want to honor her and glorify God. The book, scheduled for release in early December, features thirty authors covering various titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

I chose Our Lady of Perpetual Help because that was the earliest image I could recall from my childhood, and the title of Mary that has brought forth the most miracles for me. Our family prayed countless rosaries growing up. In my young, inexperienced mind, I wondered why she seemed unhappy. Decades later, as a mother myself, having raised children and all the joys, challenges, and tears that accompany such an indispensable calling, I understood that it was not unhappiness, but rather sadness at the impending Cross of her Son.

Mary was given to all of us by Jesus as He hung on the Cross dying. Every breath brought Him closer to His last, thus of infinite importance.

“When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” (Jn 19:26-27)

Jesus knew we all need a mom, so He gifted us with His perfect Mother. She is flawless, sinless, and His first disciple. Her Magnificat resonates throughout time; behold, all generations will call me blessed.

Friday, September 19th, the Church celebrated the 175th Anniversary of the Apparition of Our Lady of LaSalette. In this apparition, two shepherd children in the French Alps came upon a woman of “resplendent beauty” who was crying, her face buried in her hands. The children approached her,

“the woman spoke of two great causes that estrange people from her son — blasphemy and the neglect of the Lord’s day.” Mary continued by expressing “her deep concern about the empty pews at Mass on Sunday and the irreverent attitude among those who were present. Many chose work or other activities over worship. Worse yet, those inclined to skip Sunday Mass replaced the words of prayer with vain uses of her Son’s name.” [i]

Our Lady of La Salette

Our Blessed Mother was crying copious tears over us, her children. The Queen of Heaven wept inconsolably because we chose to reject Christ and the priceless gift He left us, the Mass and Eucharist. Her Son, who suffered an excruciating death left us this remembrance and heavenly food. On top of that, we use the Holy Name of Jesus in vain, evident in our language and in movies and television.

It hurts my heart to know we cause her such grief and sadness. We, by our free choice, disregard the Son of God and instead seek trivial pursuits like ball games and shopping malls over the Most Holy Mass.

Mother Mary stood by the Cross for three hours as he hung there, suffocating and bleeding to death, gasping for every breath for our sakes. We respond by rejecting Him, His commands, and worse, His love.

I’d be inconsolable too.

As a mom, I hated when my kids fought or spoke unkindly of each other. It breaks my heart when they don’t get along. I cannot fathom the infinite grief that our heavenly Mother endures because of how we treat her Son Jesus, and each other.

A mother is only as happy as her saddest child.

The Blessed Virgin is our Mother.

This beautiful country, the United States, where we are so blessed to live, has become almost unrecognizable from my youth.

We shoot people whose comments or politics make us angry.

We murder innocent children as they pray in the house of God or in classrooms.

We celebrate the cold-blooded assassination of a fellow American, a husband and father, and are more concerned about some late-night host with poor ratings losing his job.

How cold must our hearts be to celebrate such a heinous act of hate on any human being?

We abort millions of unborn children and future citizens because they are inconvenient.

Wake up, America! Who are we becoming that we laugh at the misfortune and horrors that befall those who believe differently than we do?

We can’t murder people we disagree with. Jesus commanded that we love one another and pray for those who hurt us.

Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, two years before becoming our beloved JPII, said this in Philadelphia in 1976.

“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine Providence; it is a trial which the whole Church, and the Polish Church in particular, must take up. It is a trial of not only our nation and the Church, but, in a sense, a test of 2,000 years of culture and Christian civilization with all of its consequences for human dignity, individual rights, human rights and the rights of nations.”

Pope St. John Paul II

Heaven continues to send messengers warning us to return to the Lord, and to pray to avert punishment. If we refuse, it is to our own peril.

If the inconsolable tears of Mother Mary, do not move our hearts, then God help us all.

Our Mother Mary under her many titles, desires to save her wayward children. Never be afraid to call on her. Her name is powerful and demons flee, she is the dispenser of untold graces. We simply must ask.

“Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on you, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations, I shall never cease to call on you, ever repeating your sacred name Mary, Mary. (Prayer to Our Mother of Perpetual Help)

Oh, Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

[i] 175 Years Ago, Mary Appeared at La Salette, and Wept – EWTN Great Britain