#sevensorrowsofmary

Feast Day Of Our Lady of Sorrows

Feast Day September 15

Our Lady's Seven Sorrows has its origin in Christian devotion which finds it fitting to associate her with the Passion of her Son. The Church, commemorating Mary's suffering, emphasizes her great and courageous love, which caused her to be so closely associated with the work of our Redemption. She was in very truth who, like Judith, faced with the distress and tribulation of her people, spared nothing to save us from ruin. By offering her Son for us, she became our Mother and we became her children. 

One Minute Reflection – 15 September – “Behold, your mother”

One Minute Reflection – 15 September – “Month of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary” and Memorial of the Seven Sorrows of our Mother – Readings: First Timothy 3: 14-16; Psalm 111: 1-6; John 19: 25-27 or Luke 2: 33-35 “Behold, your mother” – John 19:27 REFLECTION – “Woman, this is your son. This is your mother.” By what right is the disciple whom Jesus loved, the son of the Lord’s…

Good Friday

Seven Sorrows of Our Lady

Feast Day September 15 and Friday in Passion Week

Our Lady's Seven Sorrows has its origin in Christian devotion which finds it fitting to associate her with the Passion of her Son. The Church, commemorating Mary's suffering, emphasizes her great and courageous love, which caused her to be so closely associated with the work of our Redemption. She was in very truth who, like Judith, faced with the distress and tribulation of her people, spared nothing to save us from ruin. By offering her Son for us, she became our Mother and we became her children.

Devotion for September: The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

1. The prophecy of Simeon 2. The Flight to Egypt 3. Loss of Child Jesus for 3 days 4. Meeting Jesus carrying His Cross 5. The Crucifixion of Jesus 6. The Pieta – receiving Jesus’ Body 7. The Burial of Jesus

Each month of the liturgical year is devoted to a particular Catholic tradition, usually centered on a Feast during that month. As August is the Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, September follows as the Month of Our Lady of Sorrows. We see this theme of joy followed by affliction mirrored in the liturgical calendar in two September Feasts – the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14 and the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on 15 September. Happy the heart of the blessed Virgin Mary! She, without dying, earned the treasure of martyrdom beneath the Cross of our Lord for her anguish. The name of Our Lady of Sorrows centres on the extraordinary and bittersweet suffering the Blessed Mother experienced during Christ’s Passion. As seen in the artwork below, her agony is composed of “The Seven Dolors,” that pierced the Heart of Mary. During this month of September, we are drawn into the spiritual martyrdom that the Blessed Mother experienced during the physical martyrdom of Jesus. The evils of sin are manifest but conquered through intense suffering. The Blessed Mother’s tears of anguish reflect God’s washing away of sin. If you haven’t ever prayed the Seven Sorrows chaplet, you might want to consider exploring this devotion.

Prayer to our Lady of Sorrows By St Bonaventure (1217-1274) Doctor of the Church

O most holy Virgin, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the overwhelming grief you experienced when you witnessed the martyrdom, the crucifixion and the death, of your divine Son, look upon me with eyes of compassion and awaken in my heart a tender commiseration for those sufferings, as well as a sincere detestation of my sins, in order that, being disengaged from all undue affection for the passing joys of this earth, I may sigh after the eternal Jerusalem and that henceforward all my thoughts and all my actions may be directed towards this one most desirable object, the honour, glory and love to our divine Lord Jesus, and to the you, the Holy and Immaculate Mother of God. Amen

Holy Mother, imprint deeply upon our hearts the wounds of the Crucified Christ.

September: Month of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

1. The prophecy of Simeon 2. The Flight to Egypt 3. Loss of Child Jesus for 3 days 4. Meeting Jesus carrying His Cross 5. The Crucifixion of Jesus 6. The Pieta – receiving Jesus’ Body 7. The Burial of Jesus

The month of September is dedicated to the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Devotion to the sorrows of the Virgin Mary dates from the twelfth century, when it made its appearance in monastic circles under the influence of St Anselm and St Bernard. The Cistercians and then the Servites undertook to propagate it. The Devotion became widespread in the fourteenth and especially the fifteenth centuries, particularly in the Rhineland and Flanders, where Confraternities of the Sorrowful Mother sprang up. It was in this context that the first liturgical formularies in her honour were composed. A provincial council of Mainz in 1423 made use of these in establishing a “Feast of the Sorrows of Mary” in reparation for Hussite profanations of her images.

In 1494 the feast appeared in Bruges, where the Precious Blood of Christ was venerated; later on it made its way into France. It did not, however, become widespread in France before Benedict XIII included it in the Roman Calendar in 1727.

God vouchsafed to select the very things about Him which are most incommunicable and in a most mysteriously real way communicate them to her.   See how He had already mixed her up with the eternal designs of creation, making her almost a partial cause and partial model of it.   Our Lady’s co-operation in the redemption of the world gives us a fresh view of her magnificence.   Neither the Immaculate Conception nor the Assumption will give us a higher idea of Mary’s exaltation than the title of co-redemptress.   Her sorrows were not necessary for the redemption of the world but in the counsels of God they were inseparable from it.   They belong to the integrity of the divine plan.   Are not Mary’s mysteries Jesus’ mysteries and His mysteries hers?   The truth appears to be that all the mysteries of Jesus and Mary were in God’s design as one mystery.   Jesus Himself was Mary’s sorrow, seven times repeated, aggravated sevenfold.   During the hours of the Passion, the offering of Jesus and the offering of Mary were tied in one.   They kept pace together;  they were made of the same materials;  they were perfumed with kindred fragrance;  they were lighted with the same fire;  they were offered with kindred dispositions.   The two things were one simultaneous oblation, interwoven each moment through the thickly crowded mysteries of that dread time, unto the eternal Father, out of two sinless hearts, that were the hearts of Son and Mother, for the sins of a guilty world which fell on them contrary to their merits but according to their own free will.

— Fr. Frederick Faber, The Foot of the Cross.

Mater Dolorosa, please pray for us!

The Octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin and The Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin – Our Lady of Sorrows About this Sorrowful and Glorious Feast:https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/09/15/memorial-of-our-lady-of-sorrows-15-september/ AND:https://anastpaul.com/2021/09/15/saint-of-the-day-15-september-our-sorrowful-mother-mary-the-seven-sorrows/ St AichardusSt Albinus of…