When a women begins to mature in her moth­er­hood (nat­ural or spir­i­tual), her focus begins to change from “what do I need from my chil­dren” to “how can I form them and pre­pare them to do the WILL OF THE FATHER and for their return to HIM?”  This aspect of moth­er­hood will grow and mature to the degree that each one of us expe­ri­ences per­son­ally the impor­tance of doing the WILL OF THE FATHER. 

     Of extreme impor­tance to the moth­er­hood of Mary was to accept that the Will of the Father included the suf­fer­ing and death of her Son. This can only be accom­plished through an inti­mate rela­tion­ship in prayer with God. Med­i­tat­ing on the lives of Jesus and Mary will form this in us so that we too may even begin to accept all the suf­fer­ing that the Father per­mits in the lives of our children. 

The fol­low­ing quote from 2Mac6:30–31, express this well:

“The Lord in his holy knowl­edge knows full well that although I could have escaped death, I am not only endur­ing ter­ri­ble pain in my body from this scourg­ing, but also suf­fer­ing it with joy in my soul because of my devo­tion to Him.  This is how he died, leav­ing in his death a model of courage and an unfor­get­table exam­ple of virtue not only for the young but for the whole nation.”

     Let us pray to our coura­geous mother, Mary, the Queen of all Chris­tians, to obtain for us the virtue of a heroic courage for the good of all our chil­dren, nat­ural and spir­i­tual.  I encour­age you to read and med­i­tate on 2Mac 6: 12 through chap­ter 7:1–42.  These chap­ters are pow­er­ful in empow­er­ing one with true heroism.