September is Dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows

September is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. We especially recall the seven sorrows which Our Lady suffered as the mother of Christ, Our Lord Incarnate, culminating with Jesus’ Passion and Death. This devotion focuses intently on the spiritual martyrdom of Mary, and her sorrow at the sufferings of her Divine Son. Mary reminds us of the evil of sin and shows us the way to true repentance.

On the Seven Sorrows of Mary

[In approaching our Lady] God vouchsafed to select the very things about Him which are most incommunicable, and in a mysteriously real way communicate them to her. See how He had already mixed her up with the eternal designs of creation, making her almost a partial cause and partial model of it. Our Lady's co-operation in the redemption of the world gives us a fresh view of her magnificence. Neither the Immaculate Conception nor the Assumption will give us a higher idea of Mary's exaltation than the title of co-redemptress. Her sorrows were not necessary for the redemption of the world, but in the counsels of God they were inseparable from it. They belong to the integrity of the divine plan. Are not Mary's mysteries Jesus' mysteries, and His mysteries hers? The truth appears to be that all the mysteries of Jesus and Mary were in God's design one mystery.

Jesus Himself was Mary's sorrow, seven times repeated, aggravated sevenfold. During the hours of the Passion, the offering of Jesus and the offering of Mary were tied in one. They kept pace together; they were made of the same materials; they were perfumed with kindred fragrance; they were lighted with the same fire; they were offered with kindred dispositions. The two things were one simultaneous oblation, interwoven each moment through the thickly crowded mysteries of that dread time, unto the eternal Father, out of two sinless hearts, that were the hearts of Son and Mother, for the sins of a guilty world which fell on them contrary to their merits, but according to their own free will.

Adapted excerpt from The Foot of the Cross, By Fr. Frederick Faber.

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Prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows

Almighty God, who willed that, when your Son was lifted high on the Cross, his Mother should stand close by and share his suffering, grant that your Church, participating with the Virgin Mary in the Passion of Christ, may merit a share in his Resurrection. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Mary our Mother and intercessor, pray for us.