When we receive hurting ones, we gather them to our heart as Mary did and embrace them as a wounded Christ. We cradle them with care and reverence in the lap of our compassion. A lap is that part of us that we naturally have when we sit down; it allows us the ability to hold things there. A lap is a place of comfort where little ones are cradled, where children feel sheltered and protected. It is while lying on the lap of the mother that the child is nurtured and often where children are rocked to sleep.
— Joyce Rupp, Your Sorrow Is My Sorrow