At Our Lady’s Feet

By Fr. Christopher Foeckler, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

The ancient icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa is the beloved Patroness of the Polish people. Since 1380 it has been venerated at Jasna Gora, a monastery outside the city of Krakow. The famous icon of the Black Madonna and Child Jesus has a peculiar feature of two small slash marks on the face of Our Lady, the result of a desecration by an enemy soldier in 1430. Attempts to repair the slash marks have never been successful and there is a tradition that Our Lady herself asked to leave them there as a reminder that she always accompanies the people who love and venerate her in good times as well as bad.

During the month of June, most of the professed members of Miles Jesu met for our periodic Ordinary General Assembly in which the most important matters for our little Ecclesial Family are discussed and decided. For practical reasons, we held the meeting in Lublin, Poland, trying to facilitate the attendance of as many members as possible. Everything about the trip and the meetings was filled with blessing, peace, and productivity.

We started the week of meetings with a prearranged Mass at the altar of Our Lady of Czestochowa in the Cathedral of Lublin. There an official replica of the original presides on the Blessed Mother side of the main sanctuary of the Cathedral. This particular icon, although a replica, has its own special feature in addition to the famous slash marks. Sometime during the second World War tears were seen rolling down Our Lady’s face and the dried markings of them still remain as a further testimony to Our Lady accompanying the people through thick and thin.

The wounds and tears of Our Lady of Czestochowa seem to be a stark reminder of Our Lady on Calvary where Simeon’s prophecy of the piercing sword was most fulfilled while the sorrowing Mother of the Lord watched and joined her beloved Son spiritually in His agony on the Cross. As on the icon itself and its replica in Lublin, the marks of the sword and dried tear drops also point to the ultimate victory of the Risen Lord Who will dry every tear of the sorrowing and heal the wounds of those who love Him and trust in Him by His own wounds. Our Lady of Sorrows is a testimony, not only to the sufferings of the faithful, but especially to the ultimate victory and peace of those who, with Our Lady, stand faithfully on their own life’s hill of Calvary which will lead to victory and peace in Christ her Son!

I have a certain hope that Our Lady of Czestochowa accompanied our little family of Miles Jesu during our Assembly in Poland and gave us the fruits of her victory in answer to our prayers at the foot of her altar in the Cathedral of Lublin.

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows to all our readers this month of September!