Category: MATER DOLOROSA – Mother of SORROWS

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, MARIAN DEVOTIONS, MARIAN REFLECTIONS, MARIAN TITLES, MATER DOLOROSA - Mother of SORROWS

September Devotion – The Seven Sorrows of Mary

Posted on by AnaStpaul

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 Mary

1. 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.

sept-month-of-the-seven-sorrows-1-sept-2018.jpg

Posted in FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, LENT 2019, MATER DOLOROSA - Mother of SORROWS, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on the CROSS of CHRIST, STATIONS of the CROSS, The HOLY CROSS, The PASSION, The STATIONS of the CROSS

The Stations of the Cross – 14 April – The Fourth Station – Jesus meets His Mother

Posted on by AnaStpaul

The Stations of the Cross – 14 April – Palm Sunday, Year C

Meditations on the Stations of the Cross
By Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

Begin with an Act of Contrition

The Fourth Station
Jesus meets His Mother

V. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R. Quia per sanctam Crucem tuam redemisti mundum.
V. We adore You, O Christ and we bless You.
R. Because by Your holy cross, You have redeemed the world.

JESUS rises, though wounded by His fall, journeys on, with His Cross still on His shoulders.   He is bent down but at one place, looking up, He sees His Mother.   For an instant they just see each other and He goes forward.

Mary would rather have had all His sufferings herself, could that have been, than not have known what they were by ceasing to be near Him.   He, too, gained a refreshment, as from some soothing and grateful breath of air, to see her sad smile amid the sights and the noises which were about Him.   She had known Him beautiful and glorious, with the freshness of Divine Innocence and peace upon His countenance; now she saw Him so changed and deformed that she could scarce have recognised Him, save for the piercing, thrilling, peace-inspiring look He gave her.   Still, He was now carrying the load of the world’s sins and, all-holy though He was, He carried the image of them on His very face. He looked like some outcast or outlaw who had frightful guilt upon Him.   He had been made sin for us, who knew no sin, not a feature, not a limb but spoke of guilt, of a curse, of punishment, of agony.

Oh, what a meeting of Son and Mother!   Yet there was a mutual comfort, for there was a mutual sympathy.   Jesus and Mary—do they forget that Passion-tide through all eternity?the fourth station - jesus meets his mother - 14 april 2019 palm sunday.jpg

V. Have mercy on us, O Lord.
R. Have mercy on us.

I love You, Lord Jesus,
my love above all things,
I repent with my whole heart
for having offended You.
Never permit me to separate myself
from You again
grant that I may love always
and then do with me
what You will.
(St Alphonsus Liguori)

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Bei love you lord jesus act of contrition by st alphonsus liguori 14 april 2019.jpg

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, HYMNS, MARIAN DEVOTIONS, MARIAN POETRY, MARIAN PRAYERS, MARIAN TITLES, MATER DOLOROSA - Mother of SORROWS, Our MORNING Offering, PRAYERS of the CHURCH

Our Morning Offering – 15 September – STABAT MATER

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 15 September – The Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

STABAT MATER

At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,
All His bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword had passed.

Oh, how sad and sore distressed
Was that Mother highly blest,
Of the sole begotten One!
Christ above in torment hangs.
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying glorious Son.

Is there one who would not weep,
Whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ’s dear Mother to behold?
Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain,
In that Mother’s pain untold?

Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
She beheld her tender Child,
All with bloody scourges rent.
For the sins of His own nation,
Saw Him hang in desolation
Till His spirit forth He sent.

O thou Mother: fount of love!
Touch my spirit from above,
Make my heart with thine accord.
Make me feel as thou hast felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ my Lord.

Holy Mother, pierce me through;
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Savior crucified.
Let me share with thee His pain,
Who for all my sins was slain,
Who for me in torment died.

Let me mingle tears with thee,
Mourning Him who mourned for me,
All the days that I may live.
By the Cross with thee to stay;
There with thee to weep and pray,
Is all I ask of thee to give.

Virgin of all virgins best,
Listen to my fond request:
Let me share thy grief divine.
Let me to my latest breath,
In my body bear the death
Of that dying Son of thine.

Wounded with His every wound,
Steep my soul till it hath swooned
In His very blood away.
Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,
Lest in flames I burn and die,
In His awful Judgment day.

Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence,
Be Thy Mother my defense,
Be Thy Cross my victory.
While my body here decays,
May my soul Thy goodness praise,
Safe in Paradise with Thee.
Amen

Note:  This text of the Stabat Mater is one of over 60 translations of this famous Latin hymn that can also be recited in prayer. It is often used when praying the Stations of the Cross. The original Latin text of the Stabat Mater has also been set to music by such composers as Haydn, Rossini, and Poulenc.stabat-mater-as-a-prayer-15-sept-20181 (1).jpg