During Holy Week this year, we held Prayer Services and Easter Celebrations for our young people at Mercy Home. Holy Week this year fell on the last week of Women’s History Month. Throughout the month, we honored women from many diverse arenas of life—those women who have made a profound difference in the world and in our lives. Our Easter gatherings this year offered us a special opportunity to focus on women, particularly those mentioned in the Scriptures as we celebrated the Triduum.  

In my reflection, I talked about the awesome responsibility Mary of Nazareth accepted when the angel Gabriel came to her at the Annunciation.  The angel told her that she was favored among all women to be the mother of our Savior. Mary loved and nurtured Jesus throughout his life and accompanied him in the events we recounted during Holy Week. Mary wept at the foot of the cross as her beloved Son was crucified.

Also in my reflection, I spoke to our young people about St. Veronica, who is never mentioned by name in the Bible, but whose compassion is immortalized in the Sixth Station of the Cross. St. Veronica encountered Jesus as he carried his cross to Calvary. Moved by compassion and love for him, Veronica used her own veil to wipe the face of Jesus that was covered with blood, sweat, and dirt.

Tradition holds that the image of Jesus’s bloodied face was left on the veil. The very image profoundly demonstrates the sufferings of Christ for our waywardness. In this moment, we witness St. Veronica’s bravery, compassion, and kindness. Can you imagine?  Would you have the courage?

Another faithful disciple I reflected on at the Prayer Service was St. Mary Magdalene. She was with Jesus throughout his ministry and witnessed his miracles, his death, burial, and resurrection. 

I read the passage to our young people from St. John’s Gospel that recounts Mary’s early morning arrival at the tomb. Mary had gone to the tomb to complete the anointing of Jesus’s body. When she arrived, she found the stone that had covered the entrance of the tomb had been rolled away.

Mary ran and told Peter and John, “They have taken him from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” Peter and John raced to the tomb; they find the tomb to be empty except for the burial cloths.  They could not grasp the true significance of what they saw.