The description of Abba’s love for us in grief reaches the depth of my motherly heart. I can relate to this love and sorrow. I desire for my children to remain home, that is, in the Catholic Church, being nurtured by all the Sacraments. I desire for them to come to personally know the love of Abba through a personal relationship with Christ and to want to seek God above all else. But I feel powerless to bring them home into the embrace of the Holy Trinity.

The words from Fr. Nouwen: “The Father’s seeing is an eternal seeing,” are a confirmation for my heart, for they, too, hold the mystery contained in the Simple Path. The Lord has taught me how to live my maternal sorrows with Him. As my sorrows draw me into His sorrows, I encounter God’s gaze of love and grief. They are indeed one. I choose to remain in this embrace of sorrows with my God in His long waiting as the most important work I can do to help my children find their way home. I live this union with my Father, through Christ, in the cloister of Mary’s solitude.