The object of this feast is to remind the faithful of the spiritual martyrdom of the Mother of God, and her compassion with the sufferings of her Divine Son. The seven great events of sorrow in her life were: Prophecy of Simeon, Flight into Egypt, Three Days’ Loss of Jesus, Meeting Jesus on the Way to Calvary, Mary at the Foot of the Cross, Jesus Taken Down from the Cross, and the Burial of Jesus.There was between Jesus and His Mother all the union and interchange of kinship and tender love that exist between a fond mother and her child. Added to this was the intense love with which she loved Him as her God, so that we may truly say there never could be a love between a human soul and God greater that the love between Jesus and Mary.
To what shall we compare, to what shall we liken, the sorrows and suffering of this Virgin daughter of Zion? Truly, her heart was filled with the reproaches and the reviling’s of those who upbraided, scoffed at, and blasphemed her Son as she stood beneath His Cross of shame. “Come, all who pass by the way, look and see whether there is any suffering like my suffering” (Lamentations 1:12).
PRAYER: God, You willed that the compassionate Mother of Your Son should stand near the Cross on which He was glorified. Grant that your Church, having shared in Christ’s Passion, may also participate in His Resurrection. Amen.