Our Lady of Sorrow, Sacred Heart Dunn, NC ©CAPG

Our Lady’s Compassion in Passiontide (National Catholic Register)

Prayer: Our Lady, Mother of Sorrows pray for Priests, your special sons. Strengthen their faith and love of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, so that they may turn to Him for the grace they need to live a life faithful to their calling. Bring comfort, consolation and courage to those who are suffering under the weight of the Cross. Give them the love of your Son and zeal for the honor and glory of God, and the salvation of souls. Amen

Sabat Mater

Friday in Passion Week: the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary

"The Easter Cycle tells us how the mother of the Savior co-operated in the Mystery of the Redemption. 
It shows her in this season of the Passion at the foot of the Cross where Christ is dying (Introit, Sequence, Gospel). "An ineffable union is established between the oblation of the Incarnate Word and that of Mary; the divine blood and the tears of the Mother flow together and are mixed for the redemption of the human race." (The Liturgical Year by Dom Gueranger: Friday in Passion Week).

"The prophecy of Simeon is realized: a sword of grief pierces the most gentle soul of the glorious Virgin Mary: (collect), who by her unequaled love becomes the Queen of Martyrs (Communion).

As Judith had delivered Israel by killing Holofernes (Epistle), the Virgin is our deliverer with Jesus. Wherefore the Gospel shows us, at the foot of the tree of Passion, in a scene which recalls the tree of prevarication, the maternity of Mary with regard to the Church personified by St. John.

"Let us venerate the Transfixion of the glorious Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross, in order to gather the happy fruit of the Passion of her son" (Collect.)  Daily Missal with Vespers for Sundays & Feasts by Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B. 1925

"Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows. Devotion to the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mother - the seven chief occasions of Mary's sorrow being the prophecy of Simeon - that a sword should pierce her heart; the flight into Egypt; the loss of the Child Jesus for three days; Mary's meeting with Our Lord when He bore the Cross; the Mother's presence at the Crucifixion and death of the Son; the time when Jesus' sacred body was placed in Mary's arms after His death, and the burial of Jesus-is undoubtedly of ancient standing, since the Order of the Servites of Mary, an order especially consecrated to Our Lady and to the honoring of her sorrows, was founded in Florence, Italy, as early as 1233." Our Faith and the Facts: Religion's Story, what Catholics Believe.1927

Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows:

Act of Contrition: O, most loving Redeemer, humbly prostrate at the foot of the Cross, I beg pardon from the bottom of my heart for all my sins which were the cause of Thy bitter Passion, and the overwhelming sorrow of Thy most afflicted Mother. O good Jesus, let not Thy Precious Blood be shed for me in vain. Let the sight of Thy Five Sacred Wounds plead ever to Thy Eternal Father, in behalf of my misery: and through the infinite merits of Thy sacred death and the bitter anguish of Thy holy Mother, grant me grace, dearest Lord, to atone for the past, and to persevere in Thy love and friendship for the future. Amen.

1. Let us meditate with profound humility on the first Sorrow of our Lady, when presenting her Son in the Temple, she heard the words of Holy Simeon, that this Child would be a sword to pierce her soul; a prophecy which clearly announced the Passion and Death of Christ our Redeemer.

one Our Father and seven Hail Marys.

2. Let us meditate with profound humility on the second Sorrow of our Lady, when in order to escape the murderous designs of cruel Herod, she was obliged to fly with her Divine Child into Egypt, and remain in exile there seven years.

one Our Father and seven Hail Marys.

3. Let us meditate with profound humility on the third Sorrow of our Lady, when returning from Jerusalem, with her spouse St. Joseph, to her poor dwelling, she lost her beloved Jesus, and wept His absence for three successive days.

one Our Father and seven Hail Marys.

4. Let us meditate with profound humility on the fourth Sorrow of our Lady, when she met her Divine Son crowned with thorns, and fainting under the load of the Cross.

one Our Father and seven Hail Marys.

5. Let us meditate with profound humility on the fifth Sorrow of our Lady, when she beheld the Crucifixion of her Most Holy Son.

one Our Father and seven Hail Marys.

6. Let us meditate with profound humility on the sixth Sorrow of our Lady, when the body of her Divine Son being taken down from the Cross, she received It into her arms.

one Our Father and seven Hail Marys.

7. Let us meditate with profound humility on the seventh Sorrow of our Lady, when with deep grief she accompanied to the Sepulcher the body of her Son.

one Our Father and seven Hail Marys.

Let us now say three Hail Marys in honor of the tears shed by our Blessed Lady, to beg she will obtain for us, from our Lord, the grace of a like grief for our sins and offenses.

Let us pray:

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 Thy Passion, may intercede for us before the throne of Thy mercy, now and at the hour of our death, through Thee Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Source: Manual of Devotions of the Sorrows of our Blessed Lady, 1868

Compassion of Our Lady (The Month, 1915)

Water and blood-in clear and crimson tide
Drawn by a soldier from His open side
When on the Calvary the Saviour died,
                       Upon the Rood:

Now in one Cup the water and the wine
Mingle together as a mystic sign,
Union of natures human and divine-
                       Water and Blood.

Water and Blood-the sorrows that transfix
Her heart with His, well from her soul's pure pyx
In anguish lachrymal and whitely mix
                       With that red flood:

Now wheresoe'er the Holy Mass is said,
Within one Chalice evermore is wed
Her passion white unto His Passion red-
                       Water and Blood.

M. S. J.