The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is liturgically celebrated every 15th of September. Due to this feast, the month of September has been set aside to honour Our Lady of Sorrows. The title ‘Our Lady of Sorrows’ honours the trials of Mother Mary and therefore this feast follows immediately after the feast of the Exaltation of the holy Cross on 14th September. This feast, like all other feasts, gives glory to God for the work of our salvation that God has accomplished through His creature, Mary. This feast reminds us of the profound union of heart that existed between Mother Mary and Jesus, our saviour, through which she experienced many interior sorrows, particularly the anguish when she watched the Passion and finally the Death of Jesus. That is why, as we face our own sorrows, pain and temptations, we should turn to Our Lady of Sorrows and meditate on her Seven Dolours.

Other names of Our Lady of Sorrows, are Mater Dolorosa, Our Lady of Dolours, Our Lady of Seven Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows. The Blessed Virgin Mary, first learned about the “Sword “that would pierce her heart, while presenting the child Jesus in the Temple with St. Joseph, on the eighth day of Jesus’ naming and circumcission. Simeon told Our Blessed Mother that” a sword will pierce through your own soul”(Lk 2:35),indicating the sorrows that Mother Mary would experience while accompanying her Son to Calvary. This very prophecy of Simeon was the first sword that pierced her heart. It is the first scriptural record of Mary knowing that her Son would suffer. The next six sorrows are the fulfilment of Simeon’s prophecy, as under:- +The flight into Egypt +Loss of Jesus for 3 days. +Meeting Jesus on the way to Calvary. +The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus. +Body of Jesus being taken from the Cross. +The burial of Jesus. As we honour our Blessed Mother’s sorrowful Heart, it is important to understand that a ‘Sorrowful Heart’ is not the same as a ‘Sad Heart’. Sadness is the result of self-pity or an unhealthy attachment to something that is lost. Sorrow is one of the Beatitudes and therefore one of the healthiest qualities one can possess. ”Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted “…(Mt.5:4)…To mourn is to have a sorrowful heart. A heart that mourns is a heart that loves; a heart that witnesses sin and grieves over it. Let’s reflect on our own sorrows. Is it self-centred, dwelling on our own wounds, or is it selfless, grieving in a holy way over the sins we witness? When our sorrow is holy, we are filled with compassion, which means ‘to suffer with’. In comparison let us ponder on the Holy and Sorrowful Heart of Mother Mary. She witnessed the brutal treatment of her Son, His rejection, suffering and death. She did not despair, become angry, withdraw into self-pity as she witnessed it. Instead she felt holy sorrow; she grieved over sins that inflicted sufferings on her Son, but longed for the Grace of her Son to pour forth upon those who rejected Him and sinned against Him. As Pope Francis said “And how she bore the sorrows, how she bore them well, with strength, with tears. It was not a false distress; it was just a heart destroyed with grief “. Today let us ponder on the holy and sorrowful heart of our Blessed Mother. As St. Louis de Montfort said, ”If you put all the love of all the mothers into one heart, it still would not equal the love of the Heart of Mary for her children.” This means that she suffers for us all as well, and we can turn to her as we turn to our own mothers in times of joys and sorrows. She knows our sorrows and our pains, because she too suffered from Bethlehem to Calvary. The only way to understand the depth of the heart of Mother Mary is through prayer. Jesus will reveal her Immaculate Love for you and inspire you to imitate her more fully, and share in that perfect love between our Immaculate Mary and her Divine Son. May our Blessed and most merciful Mother, remind us always of the Sorrows of her beloved Son. May we learn from Mary to trust when all hope is gone and to love Christ her Son, and the Son of God !!

J. Rodrigues