Her Wounds……Our Gateway to Healing and Wholeness Part 2

Our Lady is gently inviting in those men, women and children who have been victimized by society’s so-called progress which has led to widespread abortion, abuse, use and endless heartache.

Specifically, I believe Mary is calling those who have been wounded by the scourge of abortion to gaze upon her wounds of losing an innocent child, the loss of innocence and the sting of rejection.

Abortion creates a deep wound, one many condemn and fewer understand. The Sexual Revolution has stripped us of our dignity and gift we are meant to embody. Our Lady shares these deep wounds with every generation through this icon. The scars on her cheek prove she stills bears it….out of love for us. Here is why.

By Her Wounds……

When you look upon the Black Madonna, you may notice as I have, that her wounds are the first thing you are drawn to. You may also notice that she is scarred three times, on her cheek. Three is the number of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And it is no mere coincidence that she is holding her son.

The symbolism behind this is so rich. Many of us have heard the verse “By his wounds we are healed.” Through her wounds, she invites us to go into ours and through it we rediscover her own little one, her son who is portrayed in the icon and is the redeemer of all mankind.

It is through her wounds, which serve as the gateway to his, that we find healing and wholeness from every addiction, abortion and ailment our culture suffers from. This icon points to Our Lady as the gateway to his healing hands. Her vulnerability teaches us to be vulnerable and it is through this channel we reach her son, whose vulnerable gift on the cross pierces all evil with Divine Love. It is by way of her stunning vulnerability with her wounds that we reach the gateway to healing, wholeness and newness of life no matter how deep we are into sin.

Traversing into her wounds she leads us to rediscover our true identity: a child of the Father, a brother or sister to the Son, and a human being inflamed with Divine Love of the Holy Spirit. This leads us to become fully who we are once again. She intercedes for us to once again receive our sacred identity as a gift made for the world and those we love.

Personal Experience

In my own experience of dwelling in the deepest pits of despair there was only one person I reached out to, Our Lady. I sought her help asking her for one thing and one thing alone, to move beyond all the pain, fear and anguish of the past. She answered my prayers and then some!

Her maternal care, her intercession and gentle guidance led me into those wounds, those cold dark corners of the past; things I was most fearful and terrified of. She brought light to the darkness, courage in the midst of fear and healing to so many wounds, which had been left untreated. She and her son took the baggage of my past upon themselves so I could freely pursue the life they desired to give me.

Our Lady, is gently calling you through your woundedness, so she, far from shaming you, can make your wounds one with hers and as the Black Madonna so eloquently portrays, bring you to her son who makes all things whole and new! She continues to do it for me, I know she desires to do it for you!

(To read more about the history of the "Black Madonna" visit here )