The Seven Sorrows Devotion

From the blogger: The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady is a powerful devotion and one particularly suited for the spiritual warfare of our times. The Church has honored our the Blessed Virgin Mary's sufferings under the following seven sufferings:

1) The Prophecy of St. Simeon

2) The Flight into Egypt 

3) The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple

4) Mary meets Jesus on the Way of the Cross

5) Mary stands at the foot of the Cross

6) The piercing of Jesus's side and the taking down of the body of Jesus from the Cross

7) The Burial of Jesus

This devotion can be practiced by either reciting 7 Hail Mary's in honor of the Sorrows or the recitation of the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows. I urge any Catholic reader of this blog to please institute this devotion in your life, it will purify from sin and especially any persistent sin you may have difficulty in overcoming. Our Lord promised four special graces for this devotion:

1) Those who invoke the Heavenly Mother through her sorrows will obtain true sorrow for their sins before death.

2) Our Savior will protect them in their tribulations, especially at the hour of death.

3) He will impress upon them the memory of His Passion, and will reward them for it in Heaven.

4) He will commit such devout servants to the hands of Mary, that she may dispose of them according to her pleasure, and obtain for them all the graces she desires.

Father Faber also enumerates a few more graces:

1) This devotion has a remarkable connection with great interior holiness.

2) It reveals the emptiness of worldly joys. Worldliness finds no soul harder to attack than one entrenched in the sorrows of our Blessed Lady. The world can graft itself upon nothing in this devotion.

3) It gives us a permanent share in the sorrow for sin which Jesus and Mary felt.

4) It keeps our thoughts close to Jesus Christ, and to Him Crucified.

5) It communicates to our souls the spirit of the Cross and gives us strength to endure our own sufferings with resignation to the Holy Will of God.

6) This devotion is wholly covered with the Precious Blood of Jesus and leads us directly into the depths of the Heart of our Savior.

7) Anyone who during his lifetime has cherished compassion for this afflicted Mother may consider this as a most assured sign of predestination.

Please pray to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows!

The Weaver

The Virgin's festival incites our tongue today to herald her praise. Mary is the handmaid and Mother, Virgin and Heaven, the only bridge of God to men, the awful loom of the Incarnation, in which by some unspeakable way the garment of that union was woven, whereof the weaver is the Holy Ghost; and the spinner the overshadowing from on high; the wool the ancient fleece of Adam; the woof the undefiled flesh from the virgin; the weaver's shuttle the immense grace of Him Who brought it about; the artificer the Word gliding through the hearing.

                                                                          - Saint Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople (+ 447): sermon preached in 429 at Ephesus

The Sorrowful Hail Mary composed and promulgated by Blessed Pope Pius IX

Hail Mary, full of sorrows, the Crucified is with thee; thou are pitiable among women, and pitiable is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus! Holy Mary, Mother of the Crucified, implore for us, the crucifiers of thy Son, tears of contrition, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

-An indulgence of 100 days for this prayer promulgated by Blessed Pope Pius IX.

The Atheist

If anyone does not believe that Holy Mary is the Mother of God, such a one is a stranger to the Godhead. If anyone shall say that Christ passed through the Virgin as through a channel and was not formed in her both in divine and human fashion - divine because without a husband's cooperation, human because conceived in accordance with human law- such a one too is an atheist. If anyone shall say that a man was made, and that afterwards God entered into him- he renders himself liable to damnation.

                                                                            -St. Gregory Nazianzen, Doctor of the Church (+390)

The Hail Mary (2)

I come to you, therefore, with humility and reverence, with devotion and confidence, and with the greeting of Gabriel on my lips - a greeting that I joyously repeat with head bowed in respect and with hands open in deep devotion. I pray that this greeting may be repeated a hundred, a thousand, and even more times on my behalf by all the heavenly spirits. Indeed, I do not know anything dearer and more worthy I can offer you than this greeting.

Listen now to one most enamored of your name: "Heaven rejoices and earth is amazed when I say: Hail, Mary! Satan flees, hell trembles when I say: Hail, Mary! The world becomes contemptible, the flesh foul, when I say: Hail, Mary! Sadness disappears and joy returns when I say: Hail, Mary! Tepidity  vanishes and the heart is inflamed with love when I say: Hail, Mary! Devotion grows, compunction is born, hope intensifies, and consolation is increased when I say: Hail, Mary! The soul is renewed and the inclination to good is strengthened when I say: Hail, Mary!"

So intense is the sweetness of this blessed greeting that it cannot be expressed in human words. It remains forever loftier and more profound than any creature can grasp. Therefore, I kneel again before you, Most Holy Virgin Mary, and say: "Hail, Mary! full of grace."

My most merciful Lady, Holy Mary, accept this very devout greeting and, with it, me as well, so that there may be something in me that pleases you, strengthens my trust in you, enkindles in me an ever increasing love, and keeps me forever devoted to your holy name.

                                                                            - Blessed Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Mary, Book 1

Beyond Compare

It is truly proper to glorify you, O Theotokos, the ever-blessed, immaculate, and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim; who, a virgin, gave birth to God the Word, you truly the Theotokos, we magnify.

                                                                                      -Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

Scriptural Sources for the Seven Sorrows of our Lady

1. The Prophecy of Simeon (Luke 2: 25-35)

And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was in him. And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came by the spirit into the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law; He also took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said; Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word, in peace: Because my eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people: A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people, Israel. And his father and mother were wondering at these things which were spoken concerning him. And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, his mother: Behold, this child is set for the ruin, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed.

2. The flight into Egypt (Matthew 2: 13-15)

And when they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt, and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him. Who, rising up, took the child and his mother by night, and retired into Egypt: and he was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: out of Egypt have I called my son.

3. The loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2: 42-51)

And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem, according to the custom of the feast. And after they had fulfilled the days, when they returned, the child, Jesus, remained in Jerusalem, and his parents knew it not. And thinking that he was in the company, they came a day’s journey, and sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance. And not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions. And all, that heard him, were astonished at his wisdom and his answers. And seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee, sorrowing. And he said to them: how is it that you sought me? Did you not know, that I must be about the things that are my Father’s? And they understood not the word that he spoke unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth: and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart.

4. Mary meets Jesus on the way of the Cross (Luke 23: 26-31)

And as they led him away, they laid hold on one Simon, of Cyrene, coming from the country: and they laid the cross on him to carry after Jesus. And there followed him a great multitude of people and of women: who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning to them , said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold the days shall come, wherein they will say: blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the paps that have not given suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us, and to the hills: Cover us. For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?

5. Mary stands at the foot of the Cross (John 19: 25-27)

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw his mother, and the disciple standing, whom he loved, he saith to his mother; Woman, Behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple; Behold thy mother. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own.

6. The taking down of the body of Jesus from the Cross (John 19: 33-38)

But when they came to Jesus, as they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers opened his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he that saw it, gave testimony; and his testimony is true. And he knoweth that he saith true, that you also may believe. For these things were done, that the Scripture might be fulfilled; You shall not break a bone of him. And again another Scripture saith; they shall look on him whom they pierced. And after these things, Joseph of Arimathea (because he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews) besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted him. He came, therefore, and took away the body of Jesus.

7. The burial of Jesus (John 19: 40-42)

They took, therefore, the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as it is the custom with the Jews to bury. Now there was in the place, where he was crucified, a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein no man had yet been laid. There, therefore, because of the Parasceve of the Jews, they laid Jesus, for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.