Our Lady of Tears
O Mother robed in quiet light,
Whose heart once cradled Heaven’s King,
You walk again through shadowed fields
Where broken bells no longer ring.
You see the smoke that veils the sky,
You hear the cries no words can hold;
The child who calls for vanished arms,
The young grown weary, fierce and old.
Your tears fall soft on bloodied earth,
Like dew upon a wounded land;
Each drop a prayer, each sigh a plea
We scarcely pause to understand.
For where a soldier falls in dust,
Or limps through life forever scarred,
You stand beside him in his night,
A mother keeping solemn guard.
Where hunger gnaws at empty homes,
And silence answers orphaned cries,
You gather sorrow to your heart
And lift it gently to the skies.
O Lady, still you call to us -
Not with the thunder war has known,
But in the hush between the guns,
A voice of mercy, soft and lone:
“Let peace be sown where hatred grew,
Let love make whole what fear has torn;
For every child of God is mine -
No life was made for grief or scorn.”
Yet still we turn, yet still we wound,
Yet still the earth drinks bitter rain…
How long, O Mother, must you weep
Before we learn from human pain?
Teach us to lay our weapons down,
To see your Son in every face;
To choose the path of sacrifice,
And build a world of healing grace.
O Lady of the silent tears,
Pray we may hear, and not delay -
That we, your children, rise at last
And answer peace… today.
Image courtesy of Chatgpt with CN Whittle. "Virgin Mary protects amid war's ruin"
