When you sojourn to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, you will cast your eyes on a Michelangelo masterpiece. The Madonna della Pietà took 23-year-old Michelangelo just nine months to sculpt from one piece of Carrara marble. This five-foot by six-foot sculpture portrays Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding her Son’s body just after He was taken off the cross. Michelangelo’s masterpiece portrays the sixth in the “Seven Sorrows of Mary.”

As you examine Michelangelo’s artistic interpretation of Jesus in the arms of his mother, you are seeing a snapshot of a painful moment in time.