Sorrowful exaltation

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. Fittingly, this day follows the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The prophecy of Simeon came true when he told the Virgin Mother, "and you yourself a sword shall pierce." As she stood at the foot of the Cross, weeping, she had only this one consolation: the salvation promised to Israel, her people, would now come into fulfillment.

For by His Cross and Ressurrection, we have been set free!

Indeed we should exalt!

When we stand before the altar of sacrifice, 320 E. Fulton, our hearts may be heavy with sorrow, like Mary. We know the crucible of pain that persists week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade. We stand and watch, helpless, like John, the wife of Clophas, and the others mentioned in the Gospels. Our hearts grieve knowing the unholy acts being performed behind implacable, nondescript office windows. We do not need to see the blood or the wounds, like Thomas, to know that this is real and not some dream.

Yet, are we very different from Thomas? Do we also believe, do we also trust to our very core that this will change? Do we know that already the Lord has triumphed here on Fulton Street? Do we stand- after our sorrow- do we stand exalting the glory of God? Do we praise the Lord for what He has wrought in this very place of abortion?

That we stand in prayer is in fact our triumph! God has called us to be at this place of healing. 320 Fulton is now rendered a site of worship! It is now a place where justice is revealed!

At least...it CAN be...if you, dear reader, will join us. Stand with us. Stand with the lambs who, like Mary, will be pierced before the day is through. You do not stand in vain!

Come, all you nations, let us bow in worship to the blessed cross of the Lord through which eternal justice came to us. He who deceived Adam, the first man, was conquered by a tree, and the same who fettered the royal creation by his guile has been cast down into nothingness. The serpent's venom has been washed away by the divine blood of Christ, and the curse of the sin has been lifted by a rightful sentence when the just Christ was condemned unjustly.
By God's plan, death that had come from a tree would be conquered by a tree, and suffering would be haled by the suffering of the Lord. Glory be to the active presence of your providence in our lives, O Christ our King: through it, you have wrought salvation for all.
--from the book, Byzantine Daily Worship (via Magnificat Press)