“Truly, O Blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart….
He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known.
She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since His.” -St. Bernard of Clairvaux
The devotion to the Blessed Virgin springs from the loving heart of her son who gave Mary to the beloved disciple to be our mother also. Jesus gave himself up totally for our salvation. He emptied himself in an undying love for humanity.. And what else is left to offer on earth? The last member of the Holy Family-His beloved Mother. We can never love Mary more than Jesus because Mary’s YES to God was from the beginning to the end, she shared in the mystery of the Lord’s passion.
At the presentation of Jesus in the temple together with St. Joseph, she was told that sword will pierce her soul, so that thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.
Man’s desire is insatiable and his heart is deeper than the ocean. The thoughts of many heart is wicked and sinful but when we recognize the salvation wrought by Christ with the shedding of his blood and the privilege of Mary- Our Lady of sorrow, we are wrapped up in an inexhaustible source of grace and become aware of his endless sacrificial love for us all.
Undeniably great is the mystery of our devotion says Paul in his first letter to Timothy that is being read today.
St. Anselm opined that;
While other martyrs suffered by sacrificing their own lives,
the Blessed Virgin suffered by sacrificing her Son’s life,
a Life that she loved far more than her own;
so that she not only suffered in her soul
all that her Son endured in His Body but moreover,
the sight of her Son’s torments,
brought more grief to her heart,
than if she had endured them all in her own person”.
This is a great mystery beyond all telling.
More so, St. John Paul II speaking on Our Lady of Sorrows urges us to make a sincere devotion to her saying ;
“Turn your eyes incessantly to the Blessed Virgin; she, who is the Mother of Sorrows and also the Mother of Consolation, can understand you completely and help you. Looking to her, praying to her, you will obtain that your tedium will become serenity, your anguish change into hope, and your grief into love.
PRAYER
Take Mary into thy lives is the key to Peace because she totally surrendered everything to God. Let us offer our prayers, sufferings and supplication without complaint in honor of such great a mother.
O mother of sorrow, who are the smile of God, the reflection of the light of Christ, the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, the sacred vessel of Honour smile upon us and pray for us now and at that hour of our death. Amen.
Stabat Mater
At the cross her station keeping.
Stood the mournful mother weeping
Close to Jesus to the last.
Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
She beheld her tender Child,
All with bloody scourges rent.
