When we were chatting in the office about what the focus of our reflection could be this month and having noticed the “Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows” -  the idea of sorrow, grief and growth kept coming up. We all have experience of sorrow ourselves, or maybe even know someone in the midst of a sorrowful season right now.

In 1816, a group of young French seminarians had a dream. For several years they had contemplated beginning a special group  - a Society that had Mary’s name. Just as Jesus had a special group ( ‘Jesuits’ )– they wondered if it was Mary’s wish to have a group of “Mary-ists.” When hearing about the idea, one of the group, Jean-Claude Colin had said to himself  “yes that suits you!”

I was talking to a local Māori Catholic recently. She had woken in the night and decided to go outside and sit for a while. It was a clear night with many stars. She had recently lost a brother and was still grieving.