Meditation for First Saturday of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The following is an excerpt from Father Benedict Groeschel's book, "Rosary, Chain of Hope."

"The bitter and iniquitous humiliation of the crown of thorns is almost incomprehensible to us. When most Western people think of thorns, we think of rose bushes, whose thorns are bad enough. But the spinae of Jerusalem grow three or four inches long. They were wove into something like a helmet and pressed down into the skull, ripping the flesh in every direction, perhaps even penetrating parts of the skull where there might have been an anatomical fissure around the edges. How terrible was this pain, how unimaginable! How did Christ even survive such an ordeal! And it was accompanied by mockery - mockery of the Son of God, the King of Kings.

In all our lives we live through unnecessary pain, and we may encounter the mockery of what is very good and very holy. By our own failures we have sometimes even participated in that mockery. The image of the crown of thorns should reach deeply into our souls. In the midst of the bitter sufferings that come to all of us at times, we should have hope because Jesus Christ sanctified suffering and the grief of death and the horror of mental illness. Mother Teresa used to say that mental illness is Jesus' crown of thorns. These words can be an immense consolation and hope to those whose lot it is to wear this crown."