September Devotion: Our Lady of Sorrows
Since the 16th century Catholic piety has assigned entire months to special devotions. Due to her feast day on September 15, the month of September has traditionally been set aside to honor Our Lady of Sorrows. All the sorrows of Mary (the prophecy of Simeon, the three days' loss, etc.) are merged in the supreme suffering at the Passion. In the Passion, Mary suffered a martyrdom of the heart because of Our Lord's torments and the greatness of her love for Him. "She it was," says Pope Pius XII, "who immune from all sin, personal or inherited, and ever more closely united with her Son, offered Him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father together with the holocaust of her maternal rights and motherly love. As a new Eve, she made this offering for all the children of Adam contaminated through his unhappy fall. Thus she, who was the mother of our Head according to the flesh, became by a new title of sorrow and glory the spiritual mother of all His members."
INVOCATIONS
Mary most sorrowful, Mother of Christians, pray for us.
Virgin most sorrowful, pray for us.
TO THE QUEEN OF MARTYRS
Mary, most holy Virgin and Queen of Martyrs, accept the sincere homage of my filial affection. Into thy heart, pierced by so many swords, do thou welcome my poor soul. Receive it as the companion of thy sorrows at the foot of the Cross, on which Jesus died for the redemption of the world. With thee, O sorrowful Virgin, I will gladly suffer all the trials, contradictions, and infirmities which it shall please our Lord to send me. I offer them all to thee in memory of thy sorrows, so that every thought of my mind, and every beat of my heart may be an act of compassion and of love for thee. And do thou, sweet Mother, have pity on me, reconcile me to thy divine Son Jesus, keep me in His grace, and assist me in my last agony, so that I may be able to meet thee in heaven and sing thy glories. Amen.
TO THE MOTHER OF SORROWS
Most holy Virgin. and Mother, whose soul was pierced by a sword of sorrow in the Passion of thy divine Son, and who in His glorious Resurrection wast filled with never-ending joy at His triumph; obtain for us who call upon thee, so to be partakers in the adversities of Holy Church and the sorrows of the Sovereign Pontiff, as to be found worthy to rejoice with them in the consolations for which we pray, in the charity and peace of the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
IN HONOR OF THE SORROWS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
O most holy and afflicted Virgin! Queen of Martyrs! thou who didst stand motionless beneath the Cross, witnessing the agony of thy expiring Son--through the unceasing sufferings of thy life of sorrow, and the bliss which now more than amply repays thee for thy past trials, look down with a mother's tenderness and pity on me, who kneel before thee to venerate thy dolors, and place my requests, with filial confidence, in the sanctuary of thy wounded heart; present them, I beseech thee, on my behalf, to Jesus Christ, through the merits of His own most sacred death and passion, together with thy sufferings at the foot of the cross, and through the united efficacy of both obtain the grant of my present petition. To whom shall I resort in my wants and miseries if not to thee, O Mother of Mercy, who, having so deeply drunk of the chalice of thy Son, canst compassionate the woes of those who still sigh in the land of exile? Offer for me to my Savior one drop of the Blood which flowed from His sacred veins, one of the tears which trickled from His divine eyes, one of the sighs which rent His adorable Heart. O refuge of the universe and hope of the whole world, do not reject my humble prayer, but graciously obtain the grant of my petition.
TO OUR LADY OF SORROWS
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. Honor, glory, and love to our divine Lord Jesus, and to the holy and immaculate Mother of God. Amen. --Saint Bonaventure
Prayer Source: Prayer Book, The by Reverend John P. O'Connell, M.A., S.T.D. and Jex Martin, M.A., The Catholic Press, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, 1954
Lord, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.
God, the Father of heaven,
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, .
God the Holy Ghost,
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Holy Virgin of virgins,
Mother of the Crucified,
Sorrowful Mother,
Mournful Mother,
Sighing Mother,
Afflicted Mother,
Foresaken Mother, .
Desolate Mother,
Mother most sad,
Mother set around with anguish,
Mother overwhelmed by grief,
Mother transfixed by a sword,
Mother crucified in thy heart,
Mother bereaved of thy Son,
Sighing Dove,
Mother of Dolors,
Fount of tears,
Sea of bitterness,
Field of tribulation,
Mass of suffering,
Mirror of patience,
Rock of constancy,
Remedy in perplexity,
Joy of the afflicted,
Ark of the desolate,
Refuge of the abandoned,.
Shiled of the oppressed,
Conqueror of the incredulous,
Solace of the wretched,
Medicine of the sick,
Help of the faint,
Strength of the weak,
Protectress of those who fight,
Haven of the shipwrecked,
Calmer of tempests,
Companion of the sorrowful,
Retreat of those who groan,
Terror of the treacherous,
Standard-bearer of the Martyrs,
Treasure of the Faithful,
Light of Confessors,
Pearl of Virgins, .
Comfort of Widows, .
Joy of all Saints,
Queen of thy Servants,
Holy Mary, who alone art unexampled,
Pray for us, most Sorrowful Virgin,
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Christ, have mercy on us. Christ, graciously hear us.
Have mercy on us.
Have mercy on us.
Have mercy on us.
pray for us.
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That we may be made worthy
of the promises of Christ. |
Let us pray, --- O God, in whose Passion, according to the prophecy of Simeon, a sword of grief pierced through the most sweet soul of Thy glorious Blessed Virgin Mother Mary: grant that we, who celebrate the memory of her Seven Sorrows, may obtain the happy effect of Thy Passion, Who lives and reigns world without end,
Amen.
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The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady
1. The Prophecy of Simeon
2. The Flight into Egypt .
3. The Loss of Jesus in the Temple
4. Mary meets Jesus Carrying the Cross
5. The Crucifixion
6. Mary Receives the Dead Body of Her Son
7. The Burial of Her Son and Closing of the Tomb. |
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Consecration to Our Lady of Sorrows
Most holy Virgin and Queen of Martyrs, Mary, would that I could be in Heaven, there to contemplate the honors rendered to thee by the Most Holy Trinity and by the whole Heavenly Court! But since I am still a pilgrim in this vale of tears, receive from me, thy unworthy servant and a poor sinner, the most sincere homage and the most perfect act of vassalage a human creature can offer thee.
In thy Immaculate Heart, pierced with so many swords of sorrow, I place today my poor soul forever; receive me as a partaker in thy dolors, and never suffer that I should depart from that Cross on which thy only begotten Son expired for me.
With thee, O Mary, I will endure all the sufferings, contradictions, infirmities, with which it will please thy Divine Son to visit me in this life. All of them I offer to thee, in memory of the Dolors which thou didst suffer during thy life, that every thought of my mind, every beating of my heart may henceforward be an act of compassion to thy Sorrows, and of complacency for the glory thou now enjoyest in Heaven.
Since then, O Dear Mother, I now compassionate thy Dolors, and rejoice in seeing thee glorified, do thou also have compassion on me, and reconcile me to thy Son Jesus, that I may become thy true and loyal son (daughter); come on my last day and assist me in my last agony, even as thou wert present at the Agony of thy Divine Son Jesus, that from this painful exile I may go to Heaven, there to be made partaker of thy glory.
Amen. |
Homilies on Our Lady of Sorrows
Starkenburg:Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Sorrows Shrine
Our Mother of Sorrows
ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI, OF THE DOLOURS OF MARY, The Glories [Sorrows] of Mary
Our Lady of Sorrows - Sep 15
From: Colossians 2:6-15
A Warning About Empty Philosophies
[6] As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him,
[7] rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as
you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
[8] See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty
deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental
spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.
Defense of Sound Teaching in the Face of Heresy
[9] For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, [10] and you
have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and
authority. [11] In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision
made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the
circumcision of Christ; [12] and you were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of
God, who raised him from the dead. [13] And you, who were dead in
trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive
together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] having
canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this
he set aside, nailing it to the cross. [15] He disarmed the principalities
and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them
in him.
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Commentary:
4-8. These verses reveal the Apostle’s pastoral solicitude for the
faithful of Colossae. Although physically absent, he is with them in
spirit. He rejoices and gives thanks to God for their steadfastness,
but he leaves them in no doubt about the dangers which threaten their
faith. Clearly he is referring to those who were adulterating the
Colossians’ faith by intruding erroneous ideas. By sophistry and deceit
they were trying to convince the faithful that it was better to have
recourse to angels rather than to Christ, arguing that angels were the
chief mediators between God and men.
The Christian faith is not opposed to human scholarship and science, it
rejects only vain philosophy, that is, philosophy which boasts that it
relies on reason alone and which fails to respect revealed truths.
Over the centuries, people have often tried to adapt the truths of faith
to the philosophies or ideologies which happen to be in vogue. In
this connection Leo Xlll said: “As the Apostle warns, ‘philosophy and
empty deceit’ can deceive the minds of Christians and corrupt the
sincerity of men’s faith; the supreme pastors of the Church, therefore,
always see it as part of their role to foster as much as they can
sciences which merit that name, and at the same time to ensure by
special watchfulness, that human sciences are taught in keeping with
the criteria of Catholic faith—particularly philosophy, because proper
methodology in the other sciences is largely dependent on [correctness
in] philosophy” (”Aeterni Patris”, 1).
“The elemental spirits of the universe”: see the note on Gal 4:3.
9. This is such an important verse that it deserves close analysis.
“Dwell”: the Greek word means a stable way of living or residing, as
distinct from a transitory presence: in other words, the union of
Christ’s human nature with his divine nature is not just something
which lasts for a while; it is permanent. “Deity”: the Greek word can
also be translated as “divinity”; in either case, the sentence means
that God has taken up a human nature, in such a way that, although
it was only the second divine Person, the Son, who became incarnate,
by virtue of the unity of the divine essence, where one divine person is
present the other two persons are also present.
This verse enunciates the profound mystery of the Incarnation in a
different way to John 1:14: “And the word became flesh and dwelt among
us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory; glory as of the
only Son from the Father” (cf. also 1 in 1:1-2).
When the sacred text says that in Christ “the whole fullness of deity
dwells bodily”, it means, St John of Avila explains, “that it does not
dwell in him merely by grace-as in the case of the saints (men and
angels both), but in another way of greater substance and value, that
is, by way of personal union” (”Audi, “Filia”, 84).
In Jesus Christ, then, there are two natures, divine and human, united
in one person, who is divine. This “hypostatic union” does not prevent
each nature from having all its own proper characteristics, for, as St
Leo the Great defined, “the Word has not changed into flesh, nor has
flesh changed into Word; but each remains, in a unity” (”Licet Per
Nostros”, 2).
10. Since Christ is head of angels and men, the head of all creation
(cf. Eph 1:10) and especially head of the Church (cf. Col 1:18), all
fullness is said to reside in him (cf. note on Col 1:19). Hence, not
only is he pre-eminent over all things but “he fills the Church, which
is his body and fullness, with his divine gifts (cf. Eph 1:22-23), so
that it may increase and attain to all the fullness of God (cf. Eph
3:19)” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 7).
Union with Christ makes Christians sharers in his “fullness”, that is,
in divine grace (of which he is absolutely full and we have a partial
share), in a word, in his perfections.
That is why the members of the Church who “through the sacraments
are united in a hidden and real way to Christ” (”Lumen Gentium”, 7)
can attain the fullness of the Christian life.
It was very appropriate for St Paul to be instructing the Colossians in
these truths at this time, because it put them on their guard against
preachers who were arguing for exaggerated worship of angels, to the
detriment of Christ’s unique, pre-eminent mediation.
11-12. This is a reference to another error which the Judaizers were
trying to spread at Colossae and which was already treated in detail
in the letters to the Galatians and the Romans—the idea that it was
necessary for Christians to be circumcised. Physical circumcision
affects the body, whereas what the Apostle, by analogy, calls “the
circumcision of Christ”, that is, Baptism, puts off the “body of flesh”
(an expression which seems to refer to whatever is sinful in man). “We,
who by means of (Christ) have reached God, have not been given fleshly
circumcision but rather spiritual circumcision [...]; we receive it by
the mercy of God in Baptism” (St Justin, “Dialogue with Trypho”, 43,
2). “By the sacrament of Baptism, whenever it is properly conferred in
the way the Lord determined and received with the proper dispositions
of soul, man becomes truly incorporated into the crucified and
glorified Christ and is reborn to a sharing of the divine life, as the
Apostle says: [Col 2:12 follows]” (Vatican II, “Unitatis
Redintegratio”, 22).
As on other occasions (cf. Rom 6:4), St Paul, evoking the rite of
immersion in water, speaks of Baptism as a kind of burial (a sure sign
that someone has died to sin), and of resurrection to a new life, the
life of grace. By this sacrament we are associated with Christ’s death
and burial so as to be able to rise with him. “Christ by his resurrection
signified our new life, which was reborn out of the old death which
submerged us in sin. This is what is brought about in us by the great
sacrament of Baptism: all those who receive this grace die to sin [...]
and are reborn to the new life” (St Augustine, “Enchiridion”, 41-42).
13-14. This is one of the central teachings of the epistle—that Jesus
Christ is the only mediator between God and men. The basic purpose
of his mediation is to reconcile men with God, through the forgiveness
of their sins and the gift of the life of grace, which is a sharing in God’s
own life.
Verse 14 indicates how Christ achieved this purpose—by dying on the
Cross. All who were under the yoke of sin and the Law have been set
free through his death.
The Mosaic Law, to which the scribes and Pharisees added so many
precepts as to make it unbearable, had become (to use St Paul’s
comparison) like a charge sheet against man, because it imposed heavy
burdens but did not provide the grace needed for bearing them. The
Apostle very graphically says that this charge sheet or “bond” was set
aside and nailed on the Cross—making it perfectly clear to all that
Christ made more than ample satisfaction for our crimes. “He has
obliterated them,” St John Chrysostom comments, “not simply crossed
them out; he has obliterated them so effectively that no trace of them
remains in our soul. He has completely canceled them out, he has nailed
them to the Cross [...]. We were guilty and deserved the most rigorous
of punishments because we were all of us in sin! What, then, does the
Son of God do? By his death on the Cross he removes all our stains and
exempts us from the punishment due to them. He takes our charge-sheet,
nails it to the Cross through his own person and destroys it” (”Hom. on
Col, ad loc.”).
15. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. The angelic
principalities and powers are insignificant by comparison with him: God
has overpowered them and publicly exposed them through the death of
his Son. The sentence seems to evoke the idea of the parade of a
victorious general complete with trophies, booty and prisoners.
Some scholars interpret this passage differently; the “public spectacle”,
according to their interpretation, would refer to the fact that the good
angels had been mediators in the revelation of the Mosaic Law (cf.
Gal 3:19) and were being venerated by some contemporary Jews
(among them some converts from Colossae) with a form of worship
bordering on superstition. God would have caused them to become
“a public spectacle” when they acted as a kind of escort in Christ’s
victory parade. Thus, both interpretations lead to the conclusion that
angels, who are Christ’s servants, should not be rendered the worship
due to him alone, even though they do play an important part in God’s
plan of salvation. One of the missions entrusted to them is that of
continually interceding on behalf of mankind.
At the time this epistle was being written there was need to emphasize
first that Jesus Christ is the only mediator. The mediation of angels
depends on him (it is something revealed in fact in the Old Testament:
cf. Tob 12:3, 12ff; Dan 9:2ff; 10:13; Ezek 49:3; Zech 1:9; etc.). The
Blessed Virgin Mary’s mediation, also subordinate to that of Christ, is
something which becomes clearer as the events of the New Testament
unfold. Mary’s mediation is, however, on a higher level than that of
the angels. Pope Pius XII says this, echoing earlier teachings: “If, as
he does, the Word works miracles and infuses grace by means of the
human nature he has taken on, if he uses the sacraments, and his
Saints, as instruments for the saving of souls, how could he not use
the office and action of his most blessed Mother to distribute the
fruits of the Redemption?
“With a truly maternal spirit (our predecessor Pius IX of immortal
memory says), having in her hands the business of our salvation, she
concerns herself with all mankind, for she has been made by the Lord
Queen of heaven and earth and is raised above all the choirs of Angels
and all the degrees of the Saints in heaven; she is there at the right
hand of her only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in most effective
supplication, obtaining whatever she asks; she cannot but be heard”
(”Ad Caeli Reginam”, 17).
“Principalities and powers”: see the note on Eph 6:12.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
