Devotion to Our Lady of Syracuse: the words of John Paul II
On November 6, 1994, John Paul II, on a pastoral visit to the city of Syracuse, during the homily for the dedication of the Shrine to the Madonna delle Lacrime, said:
«Mary's tears belong to the order of signs: they testify to the presence of the Mother in the Church and in the world. A mother cries when she sees her children threatened by some evil, spiritual or physical. Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Lacrime, you arose to remind the Church of the Mother's cry. Here, within these welcoming walls, those who are oppressed by the awareness of sin come and here experience the richness of God's mercy and his forgiveness! Here the tears of the Mother guide them.
They are tears of pain for those who refuse the love of God, for families broken up or in difficulty, for the youth threatened by the consumer civilization and often disoriented, for the violence that still flows so much blood, for the misunderstandings and hatreds that they dig deep ditches between men and peoples. They are tears of prayer: prayer of the Mother who gives strength to every other prayer, and also begs for those who do not pray because they are distracted by a thousand other interests, or because they are obstinately closed to the call of God. They are tears of hope, which dissolve hardness hearts and open them to the encounter with Christ the Redeemer, source of light and peace for individuals, families, the whole of society ».
THE MESSAGE
"Will men understand the arcane language of these tears?" Asked Pope Pius XII, in the Radio Message of 1954. Maria in Syracuse did not speak as to Catherine Labouré in Paris (1830), as in Maximin and Melania in La Salette ( 1846), as in Bernadette in Lourdes (1858), as in Francesco, Jacinta and Lucia in Fatima (1917), as in Mariette in Banneux (1933). Tears are the last word, when there are no more words. Mary's tears are the sign of motherly love and of the participation of the Mother in the events of her children. Those who love share. Tears are an expression of God's feelings towards us: a message from God to humanity. The pressing invitation to the conversion of the heart and to prayer, addressed to us by Mary in her apparitions, is once again confirmed through the silent but eloquent language of the tears shed in Syracuse. Maria cried from a humble plaster painting; in the heart of the city of Syracuse; in a house near an evangelical Christian church; in a very modest home inhabited by a young family; about a mother waiting for her first child with gravidic toxicosis. For us, today, all this cannot be meaningless ... From the choices made by Mary to manifest her tears, the tender message of support and encouragement from the Mother is evident: She suffers and fights together with those who suffer and struggle to defend the family value, the inviolability of life, the culture of essentiality, the sense of the Transcendent in the face of the prevailing materialism, the value of unity. Mary with her tears warns us, guides us, encourages us, consoles us
Supplication
Our Lady of Tears, we need you: the light that radiates from your eyes, the comfort that emanates from your heart, the peace of which you are Queen. Confident we entrust you with our needs: our pains because you soothe them, our bodies because you heal them, our hearts because you convert them, our souls because you guide them to safety. Deign, good Mother, to unite Your tears to ours so that Your divine Son will grant us the grace ... (to express) that we ask you with such ardor. O Mother of Love, of Pain and Mercy,
have mercy on us.