Marking 10 years since the beloved foundress of EWTN passed away, the most important legacy Mother Angelica left us was her example and teaching on the value of suffering.
Mother Angelica always, tenderly and with deep affection, kissed the pierced side of Jesus on the Cross when I held it up for her to kiss on Good Friday. She was there. This is something that remains engraved in my memory from the many times I witnessed this during her life.
The last Good Friday of Mother Angelica’s life, March 25, 2016, I was asked to come to her room immediately after the celebration of the Passion of the Lord at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama. Mother had been bedridden for years, her bones becoming fragile. She was suffering intensely as I prayed, and, taking the crucifix off the wall in her room, I touched the pierced side of Jesus to her lips for the last time.
Throughout her life, Mother Angelica suffered, often intensely, in several ways: the abandonment by her father and the insecurity and poverty this brought about for her and her mother; being shunned because of her parents’ divorce; a chronic
