MARYS for May #25 – Our Lady of Hope

Our Lady of Holy Hope

Beloved:
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence,
keeping your conscience clear,
so that, when you are maligned,
those who defame your good conduct in Christ
may themselves be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.

1Peter 3:15-18

Devotion to this image of Our Lady of Hope has long been associated with the Passionists, whose founder, St. Paul of the Cross, taught that “the whole life of Jesus was a cross” and the life of a disciple of Jesus means remaining on the cross with him. Paul’s successor, Father John Baptist Gorresio, had copies made and it became the custom for each religious to have one of these prints in his room.

Our own founder, Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, teaches us that Jesus associates Mary in the fruitfulness of his sufferings: "It was the will of the Savior of souls that her entire fruitfulness would consist in suffering."

"'Never forget the birthpangs of your mother' (Sirach 7:29). Mary is, after Jesus, the firm basis of our hope."