Monday, September 15, 2014

Our Lady of Sorrows


Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows.  This is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is not another Virgin Mary as some Protestants and atheists such as the late Christopher Hitchens thought.  There is only one Virgin Mary. The Church has several titles for her.  This title is a commemoration of the sorrows that Mary faced.

A chaplet remember these exists and is comprised of saying one Our Father and seven Hail Marys after each of these events:

The Prophecy of Simeon. (Luke 2:34–35) or the Circumcision of Christ
The Flight into Egypt. (Matthew 2:13)
The loss of the child Jesus in the Temple. (Luke 2:43–45)
Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary.
Jesus dies on the cross. (John 19:25)
The piercing of the side of Jesus, and Mary's receiving the body of Jesus in her arms. (Matthew 27:57–59)
The body of Jesus is placed in the tomb. (John 19:40–42)
These Seven Sorrows should not be confused with the five Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.

Mary suffered a lot during her lifetime.  While she didn't suffer like her son Jesus, Mary did suffer with Him as she watched Him carry the Cross and die.  Mary was like any mother who suffers whenever a child suffers. Imagine watching your son being harassed, arrested, spit on, and killed?  The pain can be immeasurable. This tells us how human Mary was despite knowing her son was God.

Celebrating Our Lady under this title of Our Lady of Sorrows began in Cologne, Germany.  Prior to this in 1233, the Servite Order. Devotion began to spread throughout Europe among different orders with some even adopting the black scapular which is used by the Servite Order.

Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows should recall the passion of Christ and how we should unite our suffering to His. As a role model, Mary shows us how to be truly human experiencing sorrow and suffering for the sake of Christ and not use it to bring self-pity or give up on life. I recall this feast day well because it was the first time I ever drank from the chalice.

May Our Lady of Sorrows pray for us.  

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for reading and for your comment. All comments are subject to approval. They must be free of vulgarity, ad hominem and must be relevant to the blog posting subject matter.

Labels

Catholic Church (743) God (400) Atheism (340) Jesus (328) Bible (299) Jesus Christ (276) Pope Francis (228) Atheist (226) Liturgy of the Word (192) Science (151) LGBT (145) Christianity (136) Pope Benedict XVI (79) Rosa Rubicondior (79) Gay (77) Abortion (75) Prayer (65) President Obama (57) Physics (53) Philosophy (52) Liturgy (50) Vatican (50) Christian (49) Blessed Virgin Mary (43) Christmas (43) Psychology (40) New York City (39) Holy Eucharist (35) Politics (34) Women (34) Biology (30) Supreme Court (30) Baseball (29) Religious Freedom (27) NYPD (26) Traditionalists (24) priests (24) Space (23) Pope John Paul II (22) Evil (20) Health (20) Racism (20) First Amendment (19) Pro Abortion (19) Protestant (19) Christ (18) Theology (18) Child Abuse (17) Evangelization (17) Illegal Immigrants (17) Pro Choice (17) Apologetics (16) Astrophysics (16) Death (16) Donald Trump (16) Police (16) Priesthood (16) Pedophilia (15) Marriage (14) Vatican II (14) Blog (11) Divine Mercy (11) Autism (10) Gospel (10) Jewish (10) Morality (10) Muslims (10) Poverty (10) September 11 (10) Eucharist (9) academia (9) Easter Sunday (8) Gender Theory (8) Human Rights (8) Pentecostals (8) Personhood (8) Sacraments (8) Big Bang Theory (7) CUNY (7) Cognitive Psychology (7) Condoms (7) David Viviano (7) Ellif_dwulfe (7) Evidence (7) Barack Obama (6) Hell (6) Hispanics (6) Holy Trinity (6) Humanism (6) NY Yankees (6) Spiritual Life (6) Babies (5) Cyber Bullying (5) Massimo Pigliucci (5) Podcast (5) Pope Pius XII (5) The Walking Dead (5) Angels (4) Donations (4) Ephebophilia (4) Gender Dysphoria Disorder (4) Pope Paul VI (4) Catholic Bloggers (3) Death penalty (3) Evangelicals (3) Pluto (3) Pope John XXIII (3) Baby Jesus (2) Dan Arel (2) Eastern Orthodox (2) Encyclical (2) Founding Fathers (2) Freeatheism (2) Oxfam (2) Penn Jillette (2) Pew Research Center (2) Plenary Indulgence (2) Cursillo (1) Dan Savage (1) Divine Providence (1) Fear The Walking Dead (1) Pentecostales (1)