THE SEVEN SORROWS OF MOTHER MARY - 15 SEPTEMBER

 

THE SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF MEDITATING ON THE SEVEN SORROWS OF MOTHER MARY 

⬅️ The Seven Joys of Mary

The seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary that have made the strongest appeal to devotion are:

– the prophecy of Simeon,

– the flight into Egypt,

– the three day’s loss of Jesus, aged twelve,

– the meeting with Jesus carrying His Cross,

– His Death on Calvary,

– His being taken down from the Cross,

– His burial in the tomb.

Simeon foretold to the Mother the opposition the Redeemer would arouse. When she offered her forty-day-old Child to God in the Temple, he said: “This Child is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be contradicted. And your own soul a sword shall pierce” (Lk 2:34-35).

Mary’s sorrow on Calvary was deeper than any sorrow ever felt on earth, for no mother in all the world had a heart as tender as the Heart of the Mother of God. As there was no love like her love, there was no sorrow like her sorrow. She bore her sufferings for us that we might enjoy the graces of Redemption. She suffered willingly in order to prove her love for us, for true love is proved by sacrifice.

It was not because she was the Mother of God that Mary could bear her sorrows, but because she saw things from His point of view and not from her own – or rather, she had made His point of view hers. We should do the same. The Mother of Sorrows will be on hand to help us.

Devotion to the Sorrows of Mary is the source of great graces because it leads into the depths of the Heart of Christ.

If we think frequently of the false pleasures of this world, we shall embrace patiently the sorrows and sufferings of this life, and we shall be penetrated with a sorrow for sin.

The Church encourages us to give ourselves over to the love of Mary completely and bear our cross patiently with the Mother of Sorrows. She earnestly wants to help us to bear our daily crosses because it was on Calvary that her dying Son entrusted us to her care. It was His last Will that she should be our Mother. It was also His last Will that we love His Mother as He did.

PRAYER:

Mary, most holy Virgin and Queen of Martyrs, accept the sincere homage of my childlike love. Into your heart, pierced by so many swords, welcome my poor soul. Receive it as the companion of your sorrows at the foot of the Cross, on which Jesus died for the redemption of the world.

With you, O sorrowful Virgin, I will gladly suffer all the trials, sufferings and afflictions which it shall please our Lord to send me. I offer them all to you in memory of your sorrows so that every thought of my mind and every beat of my heart may be an act of compassion and of love for you.

Dearest Mother, have pity on me, reconcile me to your Divine Son Jesus, keep me in His grace, and assist me in my last agony, so that I may meet you in heaven together with your loving Son. Amen.