Loretto Stands with Mary at the Foot of the Cross

The Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross is our full title. “I Am the Way,” Loretto’s Constitutions, # 1, tells us, “Our charism of loving service, rooted in Jesus on the cross and Mary at the foot of the cross, shapes and forms us as a religious community in the Church.” 

What is the vision we as Loretto members have standing under the cross? This is the week for us to think about that question for Sunday is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. What do we see from the foot of the cross? The answer for Loretto members is simple, yet profound. We see suffering. We see love.

Loretto’s Constitutions tell us, “As friends of Mary we seek compassionate ways to serve the suffering Body of Christ.” Here are just a few examples of the needs we must all see: people who are poor and homeless, those discriminated against on account of race and gender, the underemployed, those sick with COVID-19, migrant children displaced from their parents. The list is long. All you have to do is look around.

At the foot of the cross, we must see love. And if we haven’t put love into action, we must cry, “Forgive us.” We ask God’s forgiveness, our own self-forgiveness, the forgiveness of each other. Palm Sunday is a good day to stand under or look at the cross and ask God for forgiveness and for the grace to forgive and to love. Hold your palm branches high.