Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Hello Everyone:
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Today is the feast of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Like Jesus Christ, Our Blessed Mother’s sufferings were for all of us, and we know this from the writings of the early Church Fathers and the saints who were privileged to receive the graces to know of her sufferings. They were consummated on Calvary and began for Her at Her conception.  It is hard for us to comprehend that this information about Her future sorrows was made known to Her so young but it was necessary so that Her “Fiat” was understood. She was privileged to know of the future of the Son of God and how She herself would be a part of it for our salvation. It is only just that God the Father would allow Her this in order for a true surrender to His Most Holy Will.

Being that Mary was full of grace, it is always beautiful to meditate upon Her love and self-sacrifice. If we could go back to the day when we had nursing sisters and envision one bending over the bed of a dying man left to his own misery and uttering the words which give him back his childhood, we would have a figure of Our Blessed Mother who bends over the world in agony with all the tenderness and charity which suffers much more from its compassion than the sufferer from his disease. Our Lady knows what the disease is which all of us are ill with and She knows full well who must be the Victim for all these wounds.

St. Paul tells us: “He was made sin for us.” II Cor 5:21

This is the center of the mystery of suffering. Jesus felt Himself identified with Evil whose horror He knew in the vision of God and felt Himself as made to bear the responsibility for all man’s denials of God. What was Mary’s role in this giving of self. She brought a Mother’s heart to the death agony of God. And She alone realized the immensity of the tragedy which centered all of human history in the crucifixion of Love.

At the cross, He gave Her to us, “Behold Thy Mother”.

She is bound to us with the same love which binds Her to Him. Therefore, She stands as long as the divine agony endures. She knew all the outrages which men would inflict on Her beloved Son and which She already knew by the Sacred Scriptures; outrages which were to cause Him to die before Her very eyes and on an infamous Cross, exhausted of His blood, abandoned by all. By this bitter knowledge, which for so many years afflicted Her Heart, may we ask Our Good Queen and Mother to obtain the grace that during our lives and at our death, we may always keep the Passion and Death of Jesus and Her Sorrows impressed upon our hearts now and forever.

​Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us!

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