Ever since I heard the news about Notre Dame, as my wi-fi-less plane from Rome landed in Newark Monday, I couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that the world seemed to have the heart of Mary on their hearts. She who knew every sorrow, the deepest sorrow, surely was present as the world seemed to watch and mourn. Here it was, Holy Week, and we were all talking about “Our Lady.”

Here’s a little from the book Mysteries of the Virgin Mary: Living Our Lady’s Graces by Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P., which is a great little entry into getting to know the Mother of God, throughout the life of Jesus, and under some of her various titles:

Despite the enormity of evil and anguish, there was something even greater present that kept the Blessed Mother by Jesus’ side. It was the promise of a love that exceeds the horrific weight of human sinfulness. Our Lady of Sorrows saw beyond the abomination, and it was that sight – that certainty – that made her steadfast at the cross. For the Blessed Virgin was destined to be the mother of the indestructible love that would be born from the destruction of her Son. The hope of that unseen chance held Mary fast in the face of an atrocity that goes beyond what anyone can fathom. Pope John Paul II asserted, “Mary’s hope at the foot of the cross contained a light stronger than the darkness that reigns in many hearts. In the presence of the redeeming sacrifice, the hope of the Church and of humanity was born in Mary.

Can we be renewed in that this Holy Triduum and Easter? Is that some of the message from the debris in Paris?