September Devotion
The Seven Sorrows of Mary
Christians of the twentieth century can truly identify with Our Lady’s experience of Sorrow. The message of the Stabat Mater focuses on the spiritual and emotional bond which unites Mary and all Christians to the death of her Son on the Cross. From this bond, each Christian can recognise the incredible compassion and holiness in Mary’s character. The Blessed Mother demonstrated her maternal compassion to all generations of Christians by her presence and participation with her Son Jesus in the Sacrifice of the Cross.
There is a mother-son bond that unites Mary with Christ Jesus during His experience of suffering and death. This empathetic bond indicates that Our Lady shared in her Son’s suffering. Mary is Our Lady of Sorrows precisely because her Son, Christ Jesus, bore the sins of the world during His passion and death. As the faithful disciple, Our Blessed Mother invites us to unite our personal suffering with her own. We can share in Jesus’ burden on the Cross, just as Mary did at Calvary.
As Our Lady of Sorrows, Mary also reminds us that Christians are called to expiate for his or her own sins and the sins of their neighbours, and the sins of the world. We can share in the bond between the Blessed Mother and Our Lord through fasting, prayer, and contrition for sin. Our Lady of Sorrows teaches us that the Crown of eternal life in Heaven can be reached when we each choose to share with Our Lord in His suffering and death on the Cross at Calvary.
The compassion of Mary is part of the mystery of the Church community’s sharing in, and offering, the Sacrifice of Jesus for the salvation of the world. Each member of the Church has a role to play in redeeming the world. Our Lady of Sorrows is a guide who inspires and teaches us how to be compassionate.
The Seven Sorrows of
the Blessed Virgin Mary1. The prophecy of Simeon
2. The Flight to Egypt
3. Loss of Child Jesus for 3 days
4. Meeting Jesus carrying His Cross
5. The Crucifixion of Jesus
6. The Pieta – receiving Jesus’ Body
7. The Burial of Jesus
The name of Our Lady of Sorrows centres on the extraordinary and bittersweet suffering the Blessed Mother experienced during Christ’s Passion. As seen in the artwork below, her agony is composed of “The Seven Dolors,” that pierced the Heart of Mary.
During this month of September, we are drawn into the spiritual martyrdom that the Blessed Mother experienced during the physical martyrdom of Jesus. The evils of sin are manifest but conquered through intense suffering. The Blessed Mother’s tears of anguish reflect God’s washing away of sin. If you haven’t ever prayed the Seven Sorrows chaplet, you might want to consider exploring this devotion.
Holy Mother, imprint deeply upon our hearts
the wounds of the Crucified Christ.
AnaStpaul 
Amen! Mary is the anti-type of the suffering Rachel. Since before the time of Jesus, countless Jews have visited her tomb at Ephrata (by Bethlehem) to supplicate her intercession in heaven. They believe God is more attentive to the prayers to the sorrowful mother than He is to the prayers of the patriarchs and the prophets. We Catholics fulfill this ancient Judaic tradition by petitioning the Virgin Mary in our times of need. Catholic devotion to Mary has its roots in Judaism. John must have had this in mind when he wrote the 19th chapter in his gospel.
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Beautiful – thank you Marian Catholic! It is such a wondrous gift, as we grow up in a Catholic “girls” convent school with the nuns and in a Catholic home to be given this holy Mother as our guide and our example of womanhood. If only, all understood the beauty and efficacy of this loving Mother.
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