This is Adolphe-William Bouguereau’s painting “Virgin of Consolation”.

I wept the first time that my eyes fell upon it.

As you can see, the red-eyed mother has lost her son and she has collapsed onto the Blessed Virgin Mary’s lap in exhaustion. The weeping mother’s hands are hardly held together in prayer. The poor mother has nothing left within her.

The Blessed Mother knows the pain of seeing her own Son die before her eyes, so she raises her hands and eyes in prayer to her Son, the Lord of Life. Stunning. It resonates with everything Catholic within me.

It is like a Pieta within a Pieta.

Dei Genetrix, ora pro nobis.

This is Adolphe-William Bouguereau’s painting “Virgin of Consolation”.

I wept the first time that my eyes fell upon it.

As you can see, the red-eyed mother has lost her son and she has collapsed onto the Blessed Virgin Mary’s lap in exhaustion. The weeping mother’s hands are hardly held together in prayer. The poor mother has nothing left within her.

The Blessed Mother knows the pain of seeing her own Son die before her eyes, so she raises her hands and eyes in prayer to her Son, the Lord of Life. Stunning. It resonates with everything Catholic within me.

It is like a Pieta within a Pieta.

Dei Genetrix, ora pro nobis.