The Seven Sorrows Of Mary
Steven Hepburn takes us through the devotion that helps us see the sufferings of Jesus on passion week through the eyes of Our Lady. Stephen Watt and Corrie Young also contribute this week.
This week we delve into the Seven Sorrows for Lent and present to you two seperate articles from our new contributors: Give Up Dopamine For Lent - by Corrie Young and Stephen Watt begins his new series entitled: Athens to Glasgow - The place of philosophy in the Scottish Church . We also have the usual Scottish Saints whose recent feast days include St Marnock, St Fergus and St Baldred. Click the links here or at the bottom of the email.
The painting is The Seven Sorrows of Mary (The Ashwellthorpe Triptych) by the Master of the Magdalen Legend (c.1483–c.1530).
The Seven Sorrows or Dolors is a medieval devotion meditating on the Sorrows Mary suffered during the Passion Week as well as three earlier Sorrows Our Lady experienced. The suffering Christ is the centre of our world as Catholics and all the more during that Easter week, but it is also possible through the Seven Sorrows to ‘see’ more of what Christ did for us through the eyes of Our Lady. Below to help you prepare for Easter week in particular, but also take you through Lent, Steven Hepburn presents the Seven Sorrows of Mary.
The format is as follows - you will find the techniques to praying the Sorrows on here as well as links to reflections Steven has written for his own blog but has allowed us to reproduce here. To see more of Stevens work click here.
The painting, by Bartolome Esteban Murillo, is Christ Bearing the Cross.
There is an ancient Catholic devotion known as The Seven Joys of the Virgin, often associated with a prayer called The Franciscan Crown or Seraphic Rosary. As Our Lady of Light and the mother of the One who is the source of all joy there is no doubt that Mary experienced much happiness in her earthly life. Yet it is as Our Lady of Sorrows that many Catholics most love to think of her. There is wisdom in this; all the joys we can experience in time are but a foretaste or shadow of the state of joy which eternity provides. Only in time do we experience the fullness of the reality of sorrow (the damned are regretful, not sorrowful.)
The sadness’s of Mary’s life, like those of her Son, the Man of Sorrows, were cups which she drank to the bitter dregs just as we do. Her earthly sorrow was like our earthly sorrow. The only difference being that with her perfect faith in, perfect hope about and perfect love for Jesus she was able wholly to unite her sorrows to His and offer them through the Spirit to the Father as an oblation of charity for sinners, the most effective of all intercessory prayers.
Surely the most poignant of Mary’s sorrows was that occasioned by the encounter which tradition tells us that she had with her Cross-bearing Son on the Via Dolorosa. This was to be the last time, before death had its brief triumph, that they would meet. The last time that she would touch Him. Perhaps she held His hands in hers, or gently stroked that bruised, bleeding and thorn-pierced face which she had loved with all her heart for over thirty years.
It may be they exchanged a few words. If all she said was “My Son! My Son!” and all He said was “Mother!” it would, nonetheless be one of the most profound and heartrending conversations ever to take place on this earth. Most of all they would have looked into each other’s eyes one final time. What would they see? In the eyes of Our Lord there would of course be pain, the pain of betrayal and abandonment as well as that caused by scourging and the weight of the Cross. There would too be fear, the coming agony on Golgotha was something from which His flesh shrank. No doubt also there would be compassion, compassion for His betrayer, for His faithless friends, for His torturers and executioners, for all whose weakness and sin had brought Him to this Way of the Cross. Above all there would be compassion for His afflicted mother whose presence both strengthened and weakened Him, such is the paradox of love.
And in the eyes of Mary? Anguish, of course, who can be more anguished than a mother watching her child going towards agony and death? And such a child! Such a mother! There would be love too, the motherlove that sees not only the big picture but the tiny details, blood trickling towards a blackened eye, a body trembling under the weight of the hard and heavy Cross. More than that, deep down there would be a look of trust. Like her ancestor Abraham on Mount Moriah Mary could not doubt that the Father would be faithful to His promises. Somehow what the Archangel had said- “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.“- would come true despite all the horrors that she was witnessing on that first Good Friday.
Sorrow also would be visible in the eyes both of the suffering Son and of his distressed mother. A sorrow for loss and for the sin which brought this particular loss into the world. But it would not be sorrow without hope, sorrow without end, sorrow without consolation. Our Lady is a symbol to us of a great truth. The Christian life promises no exemption from suffering and death, pain and bereavement. It certainly makes no promise of prosperity or worldly success. What it promises is that no night is without an end, no death without a resurrection and no desolation need be endured alone. If we are with Him as she was with Him, if we love Him as she loves Him, then these things which we cannot escape will be transmuted, if not in time then in eternity, and our sorrow will become gladness, our mourning will turn into joy.
Reflections
1st Sorrow: The Prophecy of Simeon
2nd Sorrow: Flight into Egypt
3rd Sorrow: Jesus Lost
4th Sorrow: Via Dolorosa
5th Sorrow: At the Foot of the Cross
6th Sorrow: Pietà
7th Sorrow: The Entombment of Christ
The Technique
+ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; He descended into hell; on the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from there He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God; despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.
1 I meditate on the First Sorrow, when Mary, Virgin Mother of my God, presented Jesus, her only Son, in the Temple, laid Him in the arms of holy Simeon, and heard his prophetic word, “Thy own soul a sword shall pierce,” foretelling thereby the Passion and Death of her Son Jesus.
–Our Father
–Hail Mary x7
After the words ‘Hail Mary‘ add-
“who accepted that your own soul would be pierced for love of your Son”
then pause for a few moments before continuing with ‘full of Grace‘.
2 The Second Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin was when she was obliged to fly into Egypt by reason of the persecution of cruel Herod, who impiously sought to slay her beloved Son
-Our Father
-Hail Mary x7
“who for love of your Son fled into darkness and exile.”
Glory Be.
3 The Third Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin was when, after having gone up to Jerusalem at the Paschal Feast with Joseph her spouse and Jesus her dear Son, she lost Him on her return to her poor house, and for three days bewailed the loss of her beloved only Son.
-Our Father
-Hail Mary x7
“who filled with anxiety desperately searched for your Son”
Glory be.
4 The Fourth Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin was when she met her dear Son Jesus carrying on His tender shoulders the heavy cross whereon He was to be crucified for our salvation.
-Our Father
–Hail Mary x7
“who, deeply distressed, encountered your cross-bearing and suffering Son.”
Glory be.
5 The Fifth Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin was when she saw her Son Jesus raised upon the Cross, and Blood flowing from every part of His Sacred Body ; and when then, after three long hours’ agony, she beheld Him die.
-Our Father
-Hail Mary x7
“who fully entered into the agony and death of your Crucified Son.”
Glory be.
6 The Sixth Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin was when she saw the lance pierce the Sacred Side of Jesus, the nails withdrawn and His Holy Body laid in her arms.
-Our Father
-Hail Mary x7
“who held the pierced and lifeless body of your Son next to your Immaculate Heart.”
Glory be.
7 The Seventh and last Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin was when she saw the Holy Body of her Son buried in the tomb.
–Our Father
-Hail Mary x7
“whose Son was hidden from you by the darkness and silence of the tomb.”
Glory be.
In veneration of the tears shed by Mary in her sorrows-
Hail Mary x3
Pray for us, Virgin most sorrowful.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, thy mother, whose most holy soul was transfixed with the sword of sorrow in the hour of Thine own passion, may intercede for us before the throne of Thy mercy, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen
Hints
When praying this at home I find sitting in front of an icon of Our Lady and a Crucifix helps me to maintain focus.
It is possible to obtain (or make) rosary beads specially designed for the Seven Sorrows and it makes things easier if this is used while praying.
The whole chaplet can take a long time if prayed meditatively, it sometimes occupies me for more than an hour. If you don’t have that sort of period at your disposal it is better to fit a few prayers into what you do have available and come back to the others later. If you insist on praying the whole sequence then you may be sacrificing content for the sake of form, which is a bad bargain to make.
As in any form of meditation or contemplation the mind is easily susceptible to distractions. If you notice you have drifted away from where your mind should be just continue with the next part of the prayer paying close attention to the words as a way of re-centering yourself in the privileged moment of contact with God.
By Steve Hepburn - A Scot abroad in Devon.
