Part of the Mary Moment Monday series

This year, Holy Week feels different than it has in the past. Maybe I’m paying better attention. Maybe it’s been the kind of year where I’m in the right kind of state of mind. Maybe I’m cooperating with some sort of grace.

On Saturday morning, I went and picked up a few things for Easter baskets, and being in our local Catholic bookstore gave me many other things to think about. I didn’t have the kids with me, so I could meander and read book covers, examine the statues, think about all sorts of gift ideas.

My five-year-old daughter has been asking since Sunday morning when we will get our feet washed, and so I’m already reflecting on Holy Thursday. I share some of my thoughts in this week’s “Mary in the Kitchen” on the Catholic Foodie show.

On the one hand, Easter morning. On the other, Holy Thursday. What comes next is Good Friday, and Mary at the foot of the cross. It’s an image I’ve held close in my heart all year.

Did she know, on Monday of the first Holy Week, what was coming? Did she have a sinking feeling, even as she had a certainty that salvation was ahead? Which of the Psalms did she embrace

Silence helps me reach out to Holy Week, embrace the beauty and the difficulty, see what’s ahead beyond the pain. The Anchoress made me think about the need to cultivate silence this week. It’s a way to be closer to Mary, I think, which brings us closer to Jesus.

There’s no reason to think that Mary wasn’t silent during Holy Week. On the other hand, I think she probably said quite a bit to God. As the women in her life held her hand and kept her company, she must have been reaching out, in the silence of her heart, to her Father, her Spouse, her Maker.

I want to do that this week. I want to be like Mary. I want to be strong enough to hold Jesus at His most painful moment.

I can only do that, though, with His help.

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