SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE SORROWS OF MARÍA SANTÍSIMA.

 

PAINFUL MATER

 Note. Unfortunately, the devotion to the seven sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary in these modern times has declined greatly among the Catholic faithful. The "modern devotion" is the culprit of this resounding fall, many souls prefer the "devotion of the divine will" or of the "divine mercy" and many others before that of the seven sorrows.

The Servites was a congregation that was founded on the basis of the contemplation of the seven sorrows of the Blessed Virgin, she was followed by the Franciscans from Saint Francis of Assisi, from here the septenary that they carried in their monks' habits for a long time was born… This humble writing intends to piously advise what "impiously" wants to take away from us, devotion to the seven sorrows of our Lady. She promised that whoever embraces this devotion would comfort her in the most critical pains and moments of our life as we journey through this valley of tears. At the end of this article I will put the seven promises that Our Mother promised to those who want to follow this devotion to her seven sorrows, I hope it will be useful to you as she is doing it for me.

When Mary pronounced the "Fiat" of the Annunciation, she understood that this meant accepting a cup of bitterness and entering forever on the path of sacrifice.

"The whole life of Jesus was cross and martyrdom," says the Imitation; And the same can be said of the life of Mary, as St. Bonaventure, St. Bernardino and other saints teach. The sword that Simeon prophesied pierced her maternal heart, opening a wound that would never be closed.

 Undoubtedly the Nazareth years were the sweet intimacy with Jesus; But that ineffable joy always coexisted in the soul of Mary with the deep pain of thinking that all her efforts to care for Jesus were aimed at preparing the victim for the sacrifice. In this way, joy and pain were always found united in the Heart of Mary, to be our model in the various states of life.

It is probable that God has not made known to him in detail what his pains would be "in the future, but that same uncertainty had its painful side: he could fear everything, because his pains in prospect were as certain as they were indeterminate (1).

The word that Jesus at the age of twelve addresses his parents in the Temple, reminds Mary of the intimate act of expropriation, when in the Presentation to the Temple she offered him to the Divine Father, not to receive him again later, but as a victim destined to the immolation. Yes, Mary knows it and accepts it in her aching heart: Jesus is due to his beloved Father, he is his envoy and he comes to fulfill all his wills, even to death and death on the cross. And the shadow of Calvary is projected again, more different and blacker, on the soul of Mary ...

* * *

Then comes the time of bitter separations. The first she suffered was the death of her virginal husband. There will be no shortage of those who have to make an effort to figure out the close union that existed between the hearts of Mary and Joseph: Accustomed to fixing all their attention on the Virgin and on the mother, they risk forgetting their wife, or at least not to give St. Joseph but a part as exterior in the life of Jesus and Mary. But the reality surely was not that, since Mary was a perfect wife as fully as a virgin and as a mother. This way you can better understand how painful this separation must have been.

 Then came the times when Jesus had to begin his apostolic life: What a cruel separation for his motherly heart! Before separating, Jesus must have thanked him - and what a heart! -, for all that he had done for HIM; he would console her as the most loving of children is capable of doing, he would tell her that they would see each other again "before their time came" ... And Mary, forgetting herself, fully united to God's will, would say the words again of the annunciation "Ecce ancilla ... fiat ..."

And then, simply, without a doubt, for the first time in her life — because her role as mother ended there — Mary knelt to ask for her son's blessing. Jesus blessed her, picked her up and held her in his arms, while the The sacrifice of those two hearts so intimately united rose to the throne of God like a very rich perfume of incense and myrrh ... Since that separation, Mary will not see Jesus again but rarely and for a short time ... in her little house in Nazareth she will live alone (the Church tradition, as drinking from the source of the Gospels, tells us of longer times of the mother's visit to her son, even of sometimes accompanying him in his apostolate. Father la Puente, a Spanish mystic, associates her with the moment of the Last Supper and Saint John the Apostle also brings them together at the beginning of his passion until the very burial of his son, which is also in accordance with logic and his maternal love, perhaps the author of this article wanted to highlight this momentum with more accentuated nuances as to express that, since then, he would no longer have it as long in Nazareth as before the death of Saint Joseph).

Finally came the great sorrows of Mary with the passion of her Son and his death on the cross. Or I will try to describe them, because they are "immense" like the ocean "; I will limit myself to briefly recalling its main moments, for our beloved readers to ponder in their hearts.

The mortal sadness of the last goodbyes, when Jesus, after supper, separated from his mother to go with his apostles to Gethsemane ...

 The mysterious participation of the heart of Mary in the agony of Jesus and all the phases of his passion ...

What Mary suffered throughout that night when she learned of Judas's betrayal, and reunited them from the Sanhedrin in which he was declared guilty of death twice ...

When he heard the insults of the crowd, in the Praetorium, and the cries of the plebs asking for the death of the cross ...

When he saw it, at the time of the "Ecce homo" crowned with thorns and covered in blood ...

When you found him on the road to Calvary with the cross on his shoulders and their eyes met for a moment, what would it feel like to hear the blows of the hammer nailing the feet and hands of his Son? What when listening to his last words of forgiveness for his enemies, of mercy for the good thief, of consolation for all men, giving ourselves as his children, of complaint about the abandonment in which his divine Father left him? What would her maternal Heart suffer when after having said: "Everything is finished" "Father, in your hands I entrust my spirit", did it expire ...?

What a blow to her Heart when the soldier tore the side of her dead Son with the spear! What pain to receive him in their arms, when they lowered him from the cross, and to see closely the wounds of the scourging, the wounds! of the nails and of the spear. What sad consolation in kissing those blessed sores!

What an intimate tear when, wrapped in a shroud and placed in the tomb, the poor Mother covered the adorable face of her Son with a shroud, and closed the entrance to the tomb, she did not see him again! What loneliness when it was necessary to leave the tomb, not to meet with Jesus, but to find the house without him! (3) ... And what a terrible and cruel loneliness for her (3) Heart, the long years that her beloved Son had to survive after his Ascension into heaven! Have we weighed all this when we meditate on Mary's pains? Have those ineffable sorrows of our Mother been honored and grateful?

Let us meditate often on the pains of Mary: this practice pleases her greatly. Jesus Christ himself revealed to B. Veronica that the tears shed when considering his Passion are very pleasant for him; but that, because of the immense love that she professes for her Mother, she prefers that the pains that She suffered at the foot of her Cross be meditated upon.

  (1) Baínvel, Le Salnt Coeur de Marie, p. 227.

(2) Ibidem, p. 222-240.

 (3) Anuario de María, T. II, p. 1'71.

 

Félix de Jesús, M. S. S.

 

Seven graces that the Blessed Virgin grants to the souls that honor her daily (considering her tears and pains) with seven Hail Marys. Saint Bridget.

1st. I will put peace in their families.

2nd. They will be enlightened in the Divine Mysteries.

3rd. I will console them in their sorrows and I will accompany them in their work.

4th. I will give you whatever you ask as long as it does not oppose the will of my Divine Son and the sanctification of your souls.

5th. I will defend you in spiritual battles with the infernal enemy, and I will protect you at all times of your lives.

6th. I will visibly assist you at the moment of your death: you will see the face of your Mother.

7th. I have obtained from my Divine Son that those who spread this devotion (to my tears and pains) are transferred from this earthly life to eternal happiness directly, since all their sins will be erased, and my Son and I will be “their eternal consolation and joy.”