Into the Hands of Our Lady

As I prayed the Rosary with my family one night, my mind began to wander from my prayers and worry about many things.  It often does.  Obstinate headstrong thing... 🙄

So I decided to focus on an image of Our Lady.  Images always help me to keep my focus better.  But I was still distracted by a thought.  So what if I surrendered this thought into the hands of our Blessed Mother?  I thought, let her take care of it.  

I pictured her hands open and extended resting in her lap.  

Those hands which were continually joined in perfect prayer.

Those hands that toiled for the Holy Family cooking, cleaning, and mending.  

Mary's hands held the Redeemer of the world.  She rocked Him to sleep, she nursed Him, she cleaned Him, she comforted Him when He was hurt.  She smoothed His brow and wiped tears from his eyes.  She played with him and caressed him.

These hands also held His broken and pierced body after it had been removed from the cross.  She again wiped His eyes and smoothed his blood caked hair.  She caressed His beloved body just as she did when He was a child.

You see, Mary's hands have held joy and pain.  Happiness and sorrow.  

So when we place our hands in hers, extended out to us on her lap, we can trust that she will take care of us.  She will clasp our little hands and bring them in close to her heart.

Her hands are full of the riches of virtue and of life and she dispenses the fruits of honor and holiness.

When we seek to place our hands, our thoughts, our prayers, our worries, and our trust in the hands of Mary, we will find that in her hands is held the Christ, whom we seek.  She cannot be separated from Him.  She will lead and present us to Him.  

So entrust all of your worries, cares, and thoughts to Our Lady.  Place your hands in hers.  Ask her to take you under her mantle of protection and grace.  Clasp her weapon in your hands.  Abandon yourself into the hands of Our Lady.  

“Give yourself up into the arms of your Heavenly Mother. She will take good care of your soul.”

– Padre Pio

In corde Mariae,

Sarah