The following passage is from one of my favorite authors, Joyce Rupp, in her book “Your Sorrow Is My Sorrow,” about the seven sorrows of Mary:

“Our Simeon messages are invitations to live each day gratefully and to enter each day fully. They can gift us with deeper awareness of how much love we have taken for granted: our good health, our job, our home, our loved ones. When bad news jars our peace and crowds out our joy, it is a wakeup call: Attend! Notice! Appreciate! Affirm! Beyond the shock of the bad news and its consequences comes the invitation to be grateful for what we simply assumed was ours for the keeping.

“If, like Mary, we live in the fullness of each day, mindfully aware and grateful for that which brings us meaning, happiness, contentment, and security, we will not be spared the devastating emotions that spring up at a time of unwanted news, but we will also not be burdened with guilt or regrets over not having recognized and appreciated what is being taken from us.”