Virgo Potens

Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 10th Yet they knew full well that they were not in fault, that there had been no failure of their love. Then why should He treat them so, why cause them so much pain? This was the point of the reproach that Mary uttered, associating with herself by a tender movement of her charity the husband who suffered with her in silence: ‘Son, why hast Thou done so to us? Behold Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.’ His answer seems harsh, so harsh that it does not at first yield up all the light that it contains: ‘And he said to them: How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my father’s business? And they understood not the word that He spoke unto them.’ It was the beginning of the third sorrow. ‘They understood not the word that He spoke unto them.’ Yet they knew perfectly well that He must be with His Father, about His Father’s business. The Angel had announced to Mary that His name should be called Jesus, which is Saviour, that He would reign in the house of Jacob forever (Luke i, 31 and 33). Simeon had said further that in spite of the contradictions of which He should be the sign, He would be the glory of God’s people Israel and a light to the revelation of the Gentiles (Luke ii, 32). She had not forgotten any one of these words. Thus she knew the supernatural mission of her Child. She knew that He was more God’s Son than hers, that He belonged to God more than to her. But so far she had no more than an obscure presentiment of the mysterious demands of that grace which had made of her the Mother of God the Saviour. Naturally He must be with His father, but did that mean that He must detach her from Himself? Why must He occupy Himself without her with that business which was to her as it was to Him dearer than life? Did He doubt her love or her fidelity or even her courage — she who would have followed him anywhere! ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)

1 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 10th Third Sorrow. — Does any ordinary mother ever lose her child? Never. How then came it that this Mother lost this Child as we read towards the end of the second chapter of St. Luke’s gospel? It can only have been that He himself brought it about of set purpose. By His own deliberate act He eluded the vigilance of His parents. At a given moment He veiled their eyes and departed from them. ‘When they returned, the Child Jesus remained in Jerusalem. And His parents knew it not. And thinking that He was in the company, they came a day’s journey.’ Not till the evening did the veil fall from their eyes. Then they ‘sought Him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance. And not finding Him, they returned into Jerusalem seeking Him’. It was bitter humiliation, bitterer anguish. (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 9th From the land of Egypt God had once recalled His beloved Son, the people of Israel; to the land of Egypt these two were journeying back bearing a little Child, more precious in Himself than all the children of adoption, since He was the Only-Begotten of the Father, the Word made Flesh. But a day was to come when the Word of Osee (xi, i), ‘I called my son out of Egypt’, would receive a new meaning. Their poverty would continue, but their exile ended. Joseph was able to take the Child and His mother and return into the land of Israel. In the long journeyings between the place of her exile and her own land, one joy at least the Virgin never lost. She had her Child with her. She continued to wrap Him in swaddling clothes as in the stable. She watched over Him unceasingly. He was never away from her. ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)

1 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 9th So much mystery tested not only their courage, but their faith: not that their faith wavered under the trial: rather was it strengthened and purified. This road they were on had seen many a marvel wrought by God long ago; today they trod the road in want and weakness. (continued)

GOLDEN SALUTATION of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY The Blessed Virgin revealed to St Gertrude that she rejoiced to show to those who thus saluted her the inestimable treasure of her loving compassion. And at the hour of his departure, she added, I will appear to him clothed with radiant beauty, and will pour into his soul heavenly sweetness and consolation. HAIL fair Lily of the effulgent and ever-peaceful Trinity. Hail radiant Rose of heavenly fragrance, of whom the King of heaven willed to be born, and with thy milk to be fed; uphold and succor me, a miserable sinner, now and at the hour of my death. Amen. ~ Preces Gertrudianae (1861)

2 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 8th She had been told that her Son was to be a sign which should be contradicted, now she learns the first fruits of this in a hurried flight by night towards a land of exile of which she knew not the customs nor the language nor so much as where it might be. On Christmas night, when she had found no room in the inn, the Child at least, hidden within her, did not suffer physically. All the troubles of the outer world could not reach Him. But now, how could she spare Him the hardships of the road, the chances of the weather, the trials of hunger and thirst and weariness? In the place they had left, the threat of death still remained, since Herod sought the Child to destroy Him. Unimaginable was her dereliction in those days and nights of desert journeying. Surely God would work some miracle for the Child which was His! Incredible that the Child, a tiny frail thing that suffered and said no word, should be His. Incredible that if it were so, God should thus seem to abandon It, in the midst of enemies, to the pitifully inadequate protection of a poor man and his poor wife. ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)

1 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 8th Second Sorrow. — The prophecy was the first sword. Its accomplishment began at once. ‘Behold an Angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the Child and His Mother and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the Child to destroy Him. Who arose and took the Child and His mother by night and retired into Egypt’ (Matt, ii, 13-14). It was the second sorrow. The Virgin who had been given a foreshadowing of what was to be by the prophecies that had been uttered, now began to learn the same things by seeing the prophecies accomplished. (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 7th Beneath Simeon’s words she discovers depths that the old man himself knows nothing of. This prophecy overwhelms her utterly — or rather, fills her to the brim with its bitterness. All her being is wounded with it, all its beauty lost in the grief it promises. Silently she utters her own grief from the depth of her heart: ‘Call me not Beautiful, but Bitter, for the Almighty hath quite filled me with bitterness.’ Yet she was not utterly beaten down. From the very depth of her bitterness the first ray of an ineffable dawn shines out. From now she has the certitude that she is divinely associated in the suffering of her Son. She has the assurance that to soften the cruel edge of the Son’s Passion there will be the tender Compassion of the Mother. Sustained by this sublime hope, she abides in expectation of the sword which shall pierce her heart in the very act of piercing His. Already Simeon’s word has made bloody entry like a sword. The Seven Dolours have begun — those Seven Dolours which are to be like seven dagger thrusts: and indeed the Flemish Primitives, borne on by an inspiration more pious and moving than artistically successful, were to depict them as seven swords meeting in her breast. ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)

1 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 7th ‘And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His Mother: Behold this Child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce . . .’ Here is the first of the seven sorrows, pregnant with all the others of whose coming it gives obscure announcement. It fills the Virgin’s heart with pain beyond speaking. She has just been told explicitly that her Son is to be ‘a sign which shall be contradicted . . . that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed’. He will meet hostility. He is come to save His own, but His own will to destroy Him. (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 6th She herself sang of the mighty things done to her by the Almighty. All these things are in the first chapter of St. Luke’s gospel. Then came the birth of the Child at Bethlehem and the message the shepherds heard by night: ‘For this day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David.’ Mary kept all these words. She pondered them in her heart (Luke ii, 19). All of them shed their own light upon the mystery that God had accomplished in her. Thus Mary knew all. When the time of the purification was accomplished, Mary and Joseph went up to the temple with the Child. Simeon was there, a just man, waiting for the consolation of Israel and with the assurance from the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he took the Child into his arms and blessed God saying: ‘My eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel’ (Luke ii, 32). The Gospel comments: ‘And His father and mother were wondering at those things, which were spoken concerning Him.’ Their astonishment here was not sorrow, it was simply wonder, surprise. They alone knew what the Child was, and behold Simeon cries aloud their secret and proclaims salvation not only for Israel but for the Nations. The hour of sorrow was not yet come for Mary. ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)

1 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 6th I THE THREE SORROWS THAT BELONG TO OUR LORD’S CHILDHOOD BECAUSE natural love is profaned in the world, it is necessary that the purest, tenderest and holiest of natural loves should be offered up in sacrifice, in reparation. The Virgin Mary must be separated from her Child. Her hardest suffering must be to see Him withdrawing Himself from her affection. First Sorrow. — Mary knew from the word of the Angel that the Holy Ghost should come upon her, that the power of the Most High should overshadow her, and that the Child to be born of her should be holy and should be called the Son of God. Later she heard the voice of Elizabeth proclaiming her blessed among women and saluting her as Mother of her Lord. (continued)

Prayer O POWERFUL Virgin, who alone hast destroyed all heresies throughout the world, deliver the Christian world from the snares of the devil, and have compassion on the souls deceived by diabolical cunning, that laying aside all heretical guilt, the hearts of the erring may be converted and return to the unity of the Catholic Faith, through thy intercession with our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen. 100 Days, once a day. Leo XIII, December 19, 1885 ~ The Raccolta (1910)

2 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 5th Twice in the year the Church weeps for the Seven Dolours of Our Lady — on the Friday after Passion Sunday, and on the day after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 15th. The memory of each of these seven griefs is recalled in the responsories at Matins on this latter feast day. The first three belong to Our Lord’s childhood. The last four to His Passion and Death. Between these extremes, other trials came upon Our Lady. We need not say that ‘She had constantly before her eyes, the Passion of Jesus’. St. Therese of Lisieux thinks that it was not so. But it remains that even in moments of happiness she kept that gravity which ever springs in the deepest souls from the remembrance of great sorrows past and the assurance of great sorrows to come. ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)

1 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 5th That word ‘woman’ Jesus was to say to one holier still than the Canaanite and of greater faith. And that time too He was to do what the Woman wished. So much is obvious at Cana. But it is true of other incidents wherein it is not visibly seen, wherein the express desire of the Virgin was not granted. For her deepest desire, the one to which she held closest, was not that which she expressed in words. Beneath all else her desire was to be like her Son. And if He must be set apart for the salvation of the world, she in her turn will be as lonely as He. In their very separation from each other there was a profound unity. She was to follow Him to the very heart of His redemptive work, so that she was to be called Co-Redemptrix . . . (continued)

Short Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her Desolation Hail Mary, full of sorrows, the Crucified is with thee; tearful art thou amongst women, and tearful is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of the Crucified, give tears to us, crucifiers of thy Son, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. ~ Fr. Charles Callan O.P. and Fr. John McHugh, O.P., Blessed Be God (1925)

ASPIRATION Oh Blessed Lady, Spread the effect of grace of thy flame of love over all of humanity.

2 of 2 Month of the The Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 4th Herein then Jesus is less merciful than His disciples. What of the poor mother? Must she lose heart? ‘But she came and adored Him, saying: Lord, help me. Who answering, said: It is not good to take the bread of the children and to cast it to the dogs.’ It was a cruel word, and seemed to leave her no course but to find some lonely place where she might weep the tears of her despair. But she did not despair. ‘She said: Yea, Lord: for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the tables of their masters.’ Where did that poor bruised heart with its poor spurned grief find so instantly all the love that inspired so sublime an answer? Surely it was Jesus who poured that love into her soul at the very moment when by word and gesture He was repulsing her. For in that repulse He brought her love to a higher and higher pitch, just as we dam a river to multiply its power. Assuredly it was Jesus who was working within her, and that is why her faith was marvellous — so marvellous that the Artist is in admiration of what He has made and in some sort falls captive to the beauty of His work: ‘Then Jesus answering, said to her: Oh woman, great is thy faith: be it done to thee as thou wilt: and her daughter was cured from that hour.’ ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)

1 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 4th In the Gospel we find the secret of the surprising harshness that Our Lord often shows to great souls. Consider another instance where He humbles, almost tramples upon, the love of a mother. The episode of the Canaanite woman (Matt, xv, 22-8) sheds a great light. ‘And behold a woman of Canaan who came out of those coasts, crying out, said to him: Have mercy on me, oh Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously troubled by a devil.’ It was not for herself she was praying, but for her daughter. ‘Who answered not a word. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying: Send her away, for she crieth after us: And He answering, said: I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the House of Israel.’ (continued)

MATER PULCHRÆ DILECTIONIS Mother of Fair Love Virtue of the Month SEPTEMBER — MORTIFICATION PRAYER to MARY I love thee, O Mother of Jesus ! who by thy intercession hast obtained for me time for repentance. Amen. ~ St. Alphonsus' Prayer Book (1888)

2 of 2 Month of the The Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 3rd We cannot but be struck as we read the Gospel at the discovery that whenever Jesus meets His Mother, it is always to break something in her, to wound more deeply that poor tenderness of emotion wherewith the heart of the most loving and most holy of mothers was wrung. Yet that tenderness was utterly legitimate. It seems that she received her heart of flesh only that it might be wounded by the Child for Whom alone it beat. It seems as though Jesus treats her with an amazing, an inconceivable harshness. In the natural order no man could be so harsh to such a mother without being guilty of sin, for no mere man could in the very moment of natural harshness be supernaturally so tender. The tenderness of natural love is holy, and each time Jesus wounded it afresh it was to bring to a more burning intensity the flame of the supernatural charity that bound them. Amazing and inconceivable as His harshness may be, it is nought else but the instrument of a tenderness more amazing and more inconceivable still. It is a mask covering the mystery of the tenderest and mightiest of loves. ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)