The devotion to the Sorrowful Mother, extremely popular above all in areas around the Mediterranean, developed around the end of the 11th century. Connected with this devotion is the Stabat Mater, attributed to Jacopone da Todi (1230-1306). We find the first liturgical celebrations for the sorrowful Mary, or the Feast of Our Lady of Compassion, “standing” at the foot of the Cross, in the 15th century. Prior to that, in 1233, the Ordo Servorum Beatae Mariae Virginis (Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commonly known as the Servites) was founded. They greatly contributed to the spread of the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows, so much so that in 1668 they were granted permission to celebrate a votive Mass to the Seven Sorrows of Mary. In 1692, Pope Innocent XII authorized the celebration of a Feast in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows on the third Sunday of September. This proved only to be temporary because later, on 18 August 1714, the feast was transferred to the Friday before Palm Sunday. On 18 September 1814, Pope Pius VII extended the liturgical feast to the entire Latin Church, transferring it to the third Sunday of September. Pope Pius X ( + 1914) fixed the date of the feast on 15 September, the day after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It would no longer be known as the “Seven Sorrows of Mary”, but “Our Lady of Sorrows”.
Source: Vatican News
Scripture: Hebrews 5:7-9
In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard for His godly fear. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered; and being made perfect He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.
Writings
(Year A). It is especially consoling to note –and also accurate in accordance with the Gospel and history – that at the side of Christ, in the first and most exalted place, there is always His Mother through the exemplary testimony that she bearsby her whole lifeto this particular Gospel of suffering. In her, the many intense sufferings were amassed in such an interconnected that they were not only a proof of her unshakeable faith but also a contribution to the Redemption of all. In reality, from the time of her secret conversation with the angel, she began to see in her mission as a mother her “destiny” to share, in a singular and unrepeatable way, in the very mission of her Son.
…It was on Calvary that Mary’s suffering, beside the suffering of Jesus, reached an intensity which can hardly be imagined from a human point of view but which mysteriously and supernaturally fruitful for the Redemption of the world. Her ascent of Calvary and her standing at the foot of the cross together with the beloved disciple were a special sort of sharing in the redeeming of her Son. And the words which she heard from His lips were a kind of solemn handing-over of this Gospel of suffering so that it could be proclaimed to the whole community of believers.
As a witness to her Son’s passion by herpresence, and as sharer in it by her compassion, Mary offered a unique contribution to the Gospel of suffering…She truly has a special title to be able to claim that she “completes in her flesh” – as already in her heart – “what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.
In light of the unmatchable example of Christ, reflected with singular clarity in the life of His Mother, the Gospel of suffering, through the experience and words of the Apostles, becomesan inexhaustible sources for the ever new generationsthat succeed one another in the history of the Church. The Gospel of suffering signifies not only the presence of suffering in the Gospel, as one of the themes of the Good News, but also the revelationof the salvific power and salvific significanceof suffering in Christ’s messianic mission and, subsequently, in the mission and vocation of the Church.
…The Divine Redeemer wishes to penetrate the soul of every sufferer through the heart of His holy Mother, the first and most exalted of all the redeemed. As though by a continuation of that motherhood which by the power of the Holy Spirit had given Him life, the dying Christ conferred upon the ever Virgin Mary anew kind of motherhood– spiritual and universal – towards all human beings, so that every individual, during the pilgrimage of faith, might remain, together with her, closely united to Him unto the cross, and so that every form of suffering, given fresh life by the power of this cross, should become no longer the weakness of man but the power of God.(Pope St. John Paul II; Salvifici doloris)
Musical Selection
O Mother of Sorrows, turn now Your gaze, And shorten the weight of my sorrowful days. You know the anguish, the sighs and the moans — Before You, dear Mother, I kneel and atone.
Hide me beneath the shade of Your hand, Be my true strength when I cannot stand. When darkness falls, please don’t leave me alone — Lead me through tears and dreams to my home.
For You endured deep wounds and pain, As Jesus died in grief and shame. Your life was woven with sorrow’s thread, The chalice of bitter grief You had to tread.
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Look on my burden, behold my cross, Come close, O Mother, in all my loss. Teach me to carry suffering with grace, And hold me gently in Your embrace.
And when the hour of death draws near, Turn all my shadows to light and cheer. Come, Blessed Mother, and take my hand — To where no sorrow will ever stand.
Collect
Lord our God,
in your mysterious wisdom
you fill out the Passion of Christ
through the suffering that his members endure
in the many trials of this life.
As you chose to have the mournful Mother
stand by your Son in his agony on the Cross,
grant that we too may bring love and comfort
to our brothers and sisters in distress.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
