Sept. 15, 2020: Our Lady of Sorrows

 Sept. 15, 2020: Our Lady of Sorrows

At the Cross on Calvary, Jesus made a last request to his mother before he died, “Behold your son!” Blessed Mother was prepared for that very moment to accompany her Son to the Cross. Blessed Mother grew to understand that her life was to play an important role in the life of Jesus—at the Annunciation (when Blessed Mother learned she would be the mother of Jesus), the Visitation (when her cousin Elizabeth recognized her as the ‘mother of my Lord’), the Nativity (at the Birth of Jesus) and the finding of Jesus in the temple (when Jesus proclaimed that he must be in His father’s house). She celebrated the greatest joys of being a mother and wept over the deepest sorrows, and pondered it all in her heart.

Our Lord asked his own mother at the Cross to take care of each and every one of us, so that we can cling to her in the darkest moment of our lives. Blessed Mother’s mission and role can be heard in the words spoken by Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego, “Listen, put it into your heart, my youngest and dearest son, that the thing that frightens you, the thing that afflicts you, is nothing: do not let it disturb you…Am I not here, I who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need something more?” 

St. John Paul II said that “Mary’s sharing in the drama of the cross makes the [crucifixion ] more deeply human and helps the faithful to enter into the mystery…. Mary’s hope at the foot of the cross contains a light stronger than the darkness that reigns in many hearts.”  While she was overcome with great sorrow at Calvary, Blessed Mother was also not without hope. When we find ourselves suffering the loss of someone we love, when we go through difficult trials, or a prolonged illness, our Blessed Mother invites each of us to stand with her suffering Son beneath the Cross where drops of grace flow from the pierced side of Jesus and renew us. Together we join her and generations of faithful in prayer, “Behold the wood of the Cross, on which is hung our salvation. O come let us adore.”

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Pray the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady

The Seven Sorrows Rosary goes back to the Middle Ages but has gained new popularity following the Church-approved Marian apparitions in Kibeho, Rwanda in the 1980s. In her apparitions, Our Lady of Kibeho recommended that people pray the Chaplet (or Rosary) of the Seven Sorrows to obtain the favor of repentance.

Father Leszek Czelusniak, MIC, who is in charge of the Marian mission in Rwanda, interviewed Nathalie, one of the visionaries of Kibeho and asked her to summarize the messages of Mary. Here was Nathalie's response:

"The Holy Virgin insisted on the need for prayer. She said that the world is bad. It is necessary to pray, to pray, to pray a lot for this world that is bad, to pray for sinners, to pray for their conversion. She insisted a lot on the need for conversion: Convert to God! Convert to God! Convert to God! While saying that people don't respect God's commands, that people have a hard heart, she also asked us to meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary and to recite it every day. She also taught us the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows. She asked us to pray it every Tuesday and Friday. She asked us to obey the Church, to love God in truth, and to love our neighbor in humility and simplicity. She spoke of the need for mortification, a spirit of penitence and sacrifice. She also spoke of the need for suffering, to bear our sufferings every day. She said that no one enters heaven without suffering. She also told us that acts of charity for the poor make us beautiful flowers that God likes. She wanted a chapel to be constructed here in Kibeho, so everyone would remember her visit and pray for the Church and religious. Holy Mary spoke to us in Kinyarwanda [the language of Rwanda] with her very soft voice."

As for the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows, it reminds us that Mary plays a key role in our Redemption and that she suffered along with her Son Jesus to save us. It is prayed using a special rosary comprised of seven "decades" containing seven beads each.

https://youtu.be/evCBWjMjwgA