About Our Shrines and Statues
The Pieta
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The wall shrine on the Gospel Side of the church possesses the figure of our Sorrowful Mother holding the dead Body of her crucified Son. Back in the 16th Century, Michelangelo created the first and most famous Pieta – as this statuary scene is called. His Pieta today graces Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Body of Christ in our Pieta is a new form of flesh-like marble.
In Sacred Scripture, Mary stands out as the Mother of Sorrows. Only forty days after the birth of her Son, while she stood before the priest in the Temple of Jerusalem, Simeon warned her that a sword of sorrow would pierce her soul. Much would she suffer because of her Divine Son. He would have to hurt the one He loved more than anyone else in all the world. So it is in life – those who love the most, suffer the most. Seven great sufferings are recorded in the life of the Blessed Virgin. But her greatest sorrow was to stand at the foot of the Cross watching Him die because of our sins. After His death, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus unfastened His torn and bloody Body and placed it in the arms of our afflicted Lady. She brought Him into the world and gave Him to us; we by our sins have Him back to her in this condition. When sorrows come into our own life, we should turn to our Sorrowful Mother who bore so much for us.