A Reflection on Our Lady of Sorrows

Mater Dolorosa by El Greco

In Conversation with God

One of the stated missions of Joe Catholic is to provide resources to aid people in learning, living and sharing the faith. Today, we would like to introduce you to a wonderful work by Father Francis Fernandez entitled In Conversation with God. The seven volume set reflects on the daily readings drawing from Church documents, the Church Fathers, writings of the saints and papal documents. This excerpt is taken from Volume 7, Feasts, July-December.

Our Lady of Sorrows

Today's feast follows immediately upon the Triumph of the Cross. The Church reminds us of the special union that Mary shared in the Sacrifice of her Son on Calvary. The Christian faithful have long meditated upon this momentous scene as it is recorded by the four Evangelists. During the fourteenth century a Sequence for the Mass, Stabat Mater Dolorosa, came into popular use in some countries. In 1814, Pope Pius VlI extended the devotion to the whole Church. In 1912, St Pius X decreed that the feast would be celebrated on September 15. The Blessed Virgin exemplifies for us the co-redemptive meaning of our own pains and sufferings. 

24.1 The suffering of Mary is united to Christ's suffering.

O sweet Mother, font of love,

Touch my spirit from above,

Make my heart with yours accord.

Make me feel as you have felt,

Make my soul to glow and melt, 

With the love of Christ, my Lord.

(Sequence of the Mass, Hymn, Stabat Mater)

Jesus wanted to associate his Mother with the work of redemption and make her a participant in his supreme sacrifice. As we celebrate the co-redemptive suffering of Mary today the Church invites us to offer our many little difficulties and voluntary mortifications for the salvation of souls. Through union with the Lord's work of redemption Mary underwent the torments of any good mother who sees her son in the throes of death, but in addition her pain had the salvific quality of Christ's own Passion. She who is full of grace and the most pure handmaid of the Lord. offers up all of her actions in intimate union with her Son. Their value, therefore, is virtually without limit.

We will never entirely comprehend Mary's immense love for Jesus which is the cause of her great suffering. The Liturgy applies the words of the prophet Jeremiah to the sorrowful Virgin as to Christ himself: All you who pass by the way, look and see, was there ever a sorrow to compare with my sorrow.(Lam. 1:12) The anguish of Our Lady is greater on account of her eminent holiness. Her love for her Son allows her to endure His sufferings as though they were her own: 'When the soldiers strike the body of Christ, it is as if Mary is subjected to every blow. When they pierce his head with thorns, Our Lady feels their sharp penetration. When the same men offer Him gall and vinegar, the Blessed Mother tastes all the bitterness. As they spread His body on the cross, Mary is torn from within. (A. Tanquerey, The Divinization of Suffering, 109) The more a person loves, the more he or she identifies with the pain of the beloved. A brother's death is more upsetting than a pet's. A son's dying is more trying than a friend's. To get a grasp of Mary's grief at the crucifixion we need somehow to appreciate the great extent of her love for her love for her son. (St Alphonsus Liguori. The Glories Of Mary, 2,9).