Our Lady of Sorrows

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Today is one of two days on the traditional Catholic calendar devoted to commemorating the Seven Sorrows of Mary. The official feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows is September 15, but on the old calendar it was also commemorated on the Friday before Palm Sunday.

Almost two years ago, a friend from an online Catholic homeschooling board contacted me about my rosaries. She had seen my blog and asked me if I could make a chaplet of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. I did a little research, as at the time I had no idea what the chaplet was. I told her, yes, I could create a chaplet, and that was my very first connection to Our Lady of Sorrows. Today, through my rosary blog, countless other people have contacted me to make a Seven Sorrows Chaplet. And recently, since this book, Our Lady of Kibeho by Immaculee Ilibagiza was published, I receive several requests every week for an Our Lady of Sorrows chaplet. If I was in business it would certainly be a windfall. As it is, I am developing a very strong connection with Our Lady and her Seven Sorrows.

I feel somehow I have been chosen by our mother, Mary, to bring others to this great devotion. I feel she must be speaking to me, calling me, and her other children, to her Son through her great sorrows.

Today's Divine Intimacy mediation is about the Seven Sorrows of Mary. What beautiful insight it offers to our personal suffering, as we draw to the end of this Lenten season.

"We find in Simeon's prophecy the first explicit announcement of the part the Blessed Virgin was to have in the Passion of Jesus: 'Thy own soul a sword shall pierce' (Lk 2:35). This prophecy was fulfilled on Calvary. 'Yes, O Blessed Mother,' says St. Bernard, 'a sword has truly pierced your soul. It could penetrate Your Son's flesh only by passing through your soul. And after Jesus had died, the cruel lance which opened His side did not reach His soul, but it did pierce yours. His soul was no longer in His body, but yours could not be detached from it.' This beautiful interpretation shows us how Mary, as a Mother, was intimately associated with her Son's Passion.



The sight of Mary at the foot of the Cross makes the lesson of the Cross less hard and less bitter; her maternal example encourages us to suffer and makes the road to Calvary easier. Let us go, then, with Mary, to join Jesus on Golgotha; let us go with her to meet our cross; and sustained by her, let us embrace it willingly, uniting it with her Son's.

'O Mary, Mother of Jesus Crucified, tell me something about His Passion, for you felt and saw it more than all the other who were present, having contemplated it with the eyes of your body and soul, and given it all the attention possible, O you who love Him with such great love' (St. Angela of Foligno).

'Oh, how fair you are to behold during your long martydom, enveloped in a majesty both strong and gentle, for you have learned from the Word how those should suffer who are chosen victims by the Father, those whom He has elected as associates in the great work of the redemption, whom He has known and predestinated to be conformed to His Christ, crucified for love.

'You are there, O Mary, at the foot of the Cross, standing, in strength and courage; and my Master says to me, 'Ecce Mater Tua.' Behold your Mother. He gives you to me for my Mother! And now that He has returned to His Father, and has put me in His place on the Cross so that I may fill up those things which are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh for His body, which is the Church, you are still there, O Mary, to teach me to suffer as He did, to let me hear the last song of His soul which no one but you, O Mother, could overhear,' (Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity).

That my desire for suffering will not be sterile, help me, o sweet Mother, to recognize in each daily suffering the Cross of your Jesus and to embrace it with love."

Stabat Mater

At the cross her station keeping,
Mary stood in sorrow weeping
When her Son was crucified.

While she waited in her anguish,
Seeing Christ in torment languish,
Bitter sorrow pierced her heart.

With what pain and desolation,
With what noble resignation,
Mary watched her dying Son.

Ever-patient in her yearning
Though her tear-filled eyes were burning,
Mary gazed upon her Son.

Who, that sorrow contemplating,
On that passion meditating,
Would not share the Virgin's grief?

Christ she saw, for our salvation,
Scourged with cruel acclamation,
Bruised and beaten by the rod.

Christ she saw with life-blood failing,
All her anguish unavailing,
Saw him breathe his very last.

Mary, fount of love's devotion,
Let me share with true emotion
All the sorrow you endured.

Virgin, ever interceding,
Hear me in my fervent pleading:
Fire me with your love of Christ.

Mother, may this prayer be granted:
That Christ's love may be implanted
In the depths of my poor soul.

At the cross, your sorrow sharing,
All your grief and torment bearing,
Let me stand and mourn with you.

Fairest maid of all creation,
Queen of hope and consolation,
Let me feel your grief sublime.

Virgin, in your love befriend me,
At the Judgment Day defend me.
Help me by your constant prayer.

Savior, when my life shall leave me,
Through your mother's prayers
receive me
With the fruits of victory.

Virgin of all virgins blest!
Listen to my fond request:
Let me share your grief divine

Let me, to my latest breath,
In my body bear the death
Of your dying Son divine.

Wounded with His every wound,
Steep my soul till it has swooned
In His very Blood away.

Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,
Lest in flames I burn and die,
In His awe-full judgment day.

Savior, when my life shall leave me,
Through your mother's prayers
receive me
With the fruits of victory.

While my body here decays
May my soul your goodness praise,
Safe in heaven eternally. Amen Alleluia.

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