Our Lady Of Sorrows

Today, being a week before Good Friday and most importantly, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows(which is also celebrated on Sept. 15), I took the liberty of posting an abridged version of Fr. Francis Cuthbert’s work “Our Lady of Sorrows.”  It reads as follows….

“One  of the Wise Man’s most pathetic exhortation is that a son should never forget the travailing and the sorrows of his mother. In order, therefore, that we  bear in mind the bitter anguish which lacerated Our Lady’s heart, we must reflect today upon that scene of woe in which her seven-fold sorrow culminated, in which the waters rose up around her, and closed over her head in a sea of anguish, such as never before flooded the heart of mortal man. Though the magnitude of her grief surpassed all other human sorrows, yet She did not allow it to master her as to make her swoon away, and thus be unable to feel the keenness of the sword which wounded and tortured her.  Not one circumstance of those three cruel hours escaped her notice. Her chalice was indeed a deep bitter one, but she drained it to the very dregs. she stood beneath that cross!                                                       Strong men had fled away from that spectacle. Some turned away their their eyes, that they might not witness the terrible anguish which the mutilated victim endured. But Mary stood by Him till the end. From the sorrows of the most holy Mother, learn that all sorrow is the effect of sin. Look back at your life, and call to mind the numberless times in which you have sinned against your Lord. Each of these sins had its share in causing Mary’s bitter tears. When, therefore, you contemplate the sorrows of Our dearest Mother, fall upon your knees before her, look up into the face of your saviour, smite your breast, ask pardon for having been the cause of His and of her sufferings; and promise that by resisting evil for the future, and by living a holy life, you will endeavour to blot out the evil of the past.”

Mater Dolorosa, Ora Pro Nobis