Eventide & Altar

From that hour the disciple took her into his own home. It is the simplest sentence in the passion narrative and one of the most profound. The dying Son arranges for the living Mother. The act of care from the cross - the last practical thing Jesus does before handing over his spirit - is making sure she is not alone.

Blood and water flowed from his side. The Church has always read this as the sacraments - baptism and Eucharist - flowing from the pierced heart of the Lord. Mary stands at the moment of the Church's birth, as she stood at the moment of the Incarnation. She is present at the source.

In the evening of life, the Mother of the Church is the companion for those who have been standing at the foot of things for a long time. She knows the standing. She knows the not-understanding and the staying anyway. The Rosary prayed in the evening of life is the prayer of the person who has been at the foot of many crosses and who asks for the one who was at the foot of all of them to pray alongside them.

The Joyful Mysteries are Mary's mysteries - the yes before the cost was fully known, the visit to Elizabeth, the Nativity, the Presentation, the finding in the Temple. Pray them tonight on the last evening of May as a meditation on the whole arc: the yes at the beginning, the standing at the end, and everything she pondered in between.

• For those in the evening of life who are standing at the foot of something costly, that the Mother of the Church would be their companion there, we pray to the Lord.
• For those who have been present without understanding - who have stayed when they could not explain why - that Mary's model of pondering presence would sustain them, we pray to the Lord.
• As May ends, for all whose devotion this month was offered for a specific intention, that her intercession would bring it to her Son, we pray to the Lord.

Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother. Tonight, ask Mary explicitly to pray for one person you are carrying - one person at the foot of whose cross you have been standing. Give her the name and ask her to bring it to Jesus.