Our Lady of Sorrows & the Seven Sorrows Rosary Devotion- A Devotion You Can’t Afford to Ignore
The Our Lady of Sorrows & the Seven Sorrows Rosary Devotion, is a perfect devotion for this time.
A lot of us are suffering and it’s a good time to meditate on how our Lady suffered.
According to the visions of St Bridget of Sweden on our Lady of Sorrows (1303-1373):
Our Lady lamented to St. Bridget that very few consoled Her by meditating on Her Sorrows, and “that the greater part of the world lived in forgetfulness of them: ‘I look around at all who are on earth, to see if by chance there are any who pity Me, and meditate upon My Sorrows; and I find that there are very few. Therefore, My daughter, though I am forgotten by many, at least do you not forget Me; consider My anguish, and imitate, as far as you can, My grief. Fatima.org.
Now, I know some people will groan at the thought of one more devotion. Maybe you’re not into devotions. Maybe you don’t think they’re a necessary part of the spiritual life and no Catholic is obligated to have any particular devotion.
Fair enough. Devotions are not mandatory.
However, you might want to take a look at this one. It has been a tremendous blessing in the lives of many of the faithful.
- My Recent, Very Personal Experience With Our Lady of Sorrows
- The Seven Sorrows That Pierced Our Lady’s Heart
- The Seven Graces of this Devotion
- How Even Skeptics Can Still Cultivate a Devotion to the 7 Sorrows of Mary
- Some Interesting History
- Do I need to Buy a Sevens Sorrows Rosary?
- Where to Buy the Seven Sorrows Rosary
- Learn how to pray the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Mary.
- Other Resources
My Recent, Very Personal Experience With Our Lady of Sorrows
One day I woke up feeling very sorry for myself. Have you been there? Today was the day that I picked to have a grand old pity party. Things looked bleak. I even posted about it on social media. Thankfully someone recommended this devotion to me.
I’m not a big devotion person although I have some devotions such as the daily rosary. Since this devotion involved a rosary, it was familiar to me – safe. I decided to pray it because it seemed , fairly comfortable and not too much of a stretch. I know, I know!
And thus I began a journey that would change my way of thinking, incrementally, until it became what is today.
As I began to pray the prayers of this devotion, I started to feel as if I were being transported into another time and place – into a very tiny space, which was at the same time, incredibly large. I was transported directly to the heart of Mary.
Like a baby feeds through the placenta of her mother, I felt as if I was being fed a a very small fraction of the sorrow that the Blessed Virgin experienced. As I united my sorrows to hers and to our Lord’s passion, I realized three things:
- I ain’t got problems.
- Our Lord Jesus Christ understands our pain.
- The Blessed Virgin understands our pain.
7mm Black 7 Sorrows Chaplet
The Seven Sorrows That Pierced Our Lady’s Heart
That day, I united my Sorrows to these Seven Sorrows of Mary:
- The Prophecy of Saint Simeon. (Luke 2:34–35)
- The escape and Flight into Egypt. (Matthew 2:13)
- The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45)
- The Meeting of Mary and Jesus on the Via Dolorosa.
- The Crucifixion of Jesus on Mount Calvary. (John 19:25)
- The Piercing of the Side of Jesus, and His Descent from the Cross. (Matthew 27:57–59)
- The Burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea. (John 19:40–42)
Not only do we get to unite our sufferings and sorrows to Our Lady of Sorrows, we are also promised 7 Graces:
OUR LADY OF SEVEN SORROWS STATUE MATER DOLOROSA BLESSED VIRGIN MARY HANDPAINTED
The Seven Graces of this Devotion
According to St Bridge of Sweden (1303-1373), there are Seven Graces of this devotion.
1. I will grant peace to their families.
2.They will be enlightened about the Divine mysteries.
3. I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.
4. I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my Divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.
5. I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.
6. I will visibly help them at the moment of their death, they will see the face of their Mother.
7. I have obtained this Grace from my Divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors, will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son and I will be their eternal consolation and joy. Catholictradition.org.
What’s that noise? Is it the skeptics whispering, “How do we know these promises are true? This is a private devotion and is not part of the deposit of faith.”
How Even Skeptics Can Still Cultivate a Devotion to the 7 Sorrows of Mary
If you make it a habit to pray this devotion even once a week or once every two weeks and meditate on the promises, you will automatically be attracted to, and seek those things, which allow these promises to be fulfilled. Here are some examples of how this might come to pass.
This devotion will encourage you to pray according to God’s will. After all, we are aligning our sufferings and our crosses the suffering virgin as well as our suffering Lord.
We will grow to accept God’s will and pray according to His will for our lives.
Doesn’t that automatically fulfill the 4th promise which says “I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my Divine Son or the sanctification of their souls”?
Alignment with the will of God, gives you a greater chance of reaching heaven. How much harder will it be to fall into mortal sin when we know it is not God’s will that we fall into mortal sin?
This desire to do God’s will automatically fulfills this promise: “I have obtained this Grace from my Divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors, will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son and I will be their eternal consolation and joy.”
Get the picture?
Some Interesting History
- 1233: seven youths in Tuscany founded the Servite Order (also known as the “Servite Friars”, or the “Order of the Servants of Mary”). Five years later, they took up the sorrows of Mary, standing under the Cross, as the principal devotion of their order.
- 1423: “Our Lady of Sorrows was originated by a provincial synod of Cologne in 1423 as a response to the iconoclast Hussites.”
- Servites eventually developed two popular devotions to Our Lady of Sorrows: 1)Rosary of the Seven Sorrows; 2) Black Scapular of the Seven Dolours of Mary. The Black Scapular is a symbol of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Sorrows, which is associated with the Servite Order.
- 1814: in 1814, Pope Pius VII extends celebration to the whole of the Latin Church. Feast date set for third Sunday in September. 1913, Pope Pius X moved the feast to September 15. This is the current feast date. The East: On February 2, Eastern Catholics commemorate an icon of the Mother of God called, “Our Lady Who Softens Hearts” See Wiki for more history.
Do I need to Buy a Sevens Sorrows Rosary?
Tools of the trade
The easiest way is to pray the chaplet on a Seven Sorrows Rosary. That’s because it has 35 beads instead of 50. However, you can always use a regular 5 decade rosary with 10 beads and just stop after the seventh bead.
Where to Buy the Seven Sorrows Rosary
You can buy from a variety of locations. Amazon and the Catholic Company have beautiful rosaries..
Godspeed on your journey of exploring the Seven Sorrows Devotion!
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***Disclaimer: All my views are my own and not that of the Order of Preachers.***
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Learn how to pray the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Mary.
Prayer booklet used in the video below.
Other Resources
- Seven Sorrows Rosaries: Amazon |Catholic Company
- For those interested in the Servites Third Order, check out A Servant of Mary: Anne Juliana of Gonzaga, Archduchess of Austria, Third Order Servite (1566-1621
- Music: Stabat Mater in Full Score (Dover Music Scores)
- The Servite Order: Official Site
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It’s interesting and a little mind boggling to think about how the Blessed Mother Sorrows over things of the past while seemingly in the state of immense joy in her place as Queen of Heaven
Agree completely since Jesus says to live in the present not in the past! I have a nephew who is very devout Roman Catholic and I have been posting many posts to him and other Roman Catholics that they are supposed to pray directly to the Father in and through The Lord Jesus Christ! That GOD Jates vain repetitions prayets and that Mary’s own words acknowledged that she Wasn’t Perfect and indeed needed Her Saviour…and my spirit hath rejoiced IN GOD my SAVIOUR!! Thank you for your post!
Anonymous – 1) the sacrifice Jesus makes of himself is not an event chained to the past and bounded by time. We are bounded by time, but God is not. Since God is eternal, his actions are eternal, and since Jesus is God, his actions transcend all of time. This is why, in the glory and happiness of heaven, Jesus still appears as a lamb, standing, as though slain. (Revelation 5:6). 2) not all repetitions are vain … again from Revelation, and what do the angels pray in Heaven, without stopping? “Holy, Holy, Holy”! (Revelation 4:8) The exhortation of Jesus in Matthew 6:7 was not against all forms of repetitive prayer, but rather, against the specifically vain type of prayer made by the followers of false religions, and made with the pretense of manipulating the deity. What does Our Blessed Lord command, as an alternative to vain repetitions? In Matthew 9:15, Christ gives us the exact words of a prayer (The Our Father) to recite, over and over again! 3) Mary did not say that she was a sinner. Indeed, only Mary in the Bible is called “full of grace”, because only she, and her Divine Son, were born without any trace of original sin. In Mary’s case, of course her perfection is the result of her Son’s redeeming work, and this is why his is her Savior … this was articulated by Duns Scotus about 800 years ago. Again, God knew that the work of salvation would be complete, before it happened, and so was able to create Mary’s soul to be pure, unstained by the sin of Adam.
*Matthew 6:9-15
Mary is a co redemtorist.
As well as being the mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother was the greatest Disciple of all.
Salvation through Our Lord Jesus Christ and to Jesus through Mary if a person so chooses.
May God Bless you and send the Holy Spirit to enlighten you.
My last comment was in reply to anonymous, July 2019.
p.s. as is this one,
God does not ‘jate’ (I take it you ment hate) repetitive prayer. Why would God dislike his own words or words which were given by Divine Revelation of the Truth.
I can talk forever upon the merit of Mary, as a human being, but I would rather speak to her as a perfect mother. She is Our mother, all that believe and deserves every iota of respect, devotion, and more towards. Mary is and has been beyond the time line and given God’s grace to act according to our Lords call to do. Blessed Mother, Pray for us All! Amen
It is, isn’t it?
The body of Jesus is laid in the tomb. The most tragic day in history ends, Mary alone in sorrow, awaiting the Resurrection.
Amen.
You remind me of a big sister, teaching her brothers and sisters right from wrong. I thank God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Sprit for you. And I thank our blessed Mother for you. We’v been waiting for you! God bless you!
I am humbled by your comment, Charmaine. Thank you! Please pray for me and I’ll pray for you!
Tnx for your inspiration!
Sorrows of our lady’s devotion ,had always help me to turn my own sorrows into joy. I can’t afford to miss it again!.
Having reminded of it.
Thank you so much! The world needs prayer! So does Donald Trump,The U.S.A and my family. L.A.M.
Do you know that a child in the womb of the Mom their cells are also in her body and even after birth that childs cells remain for ever in her. So, Jesus who was in the womb of His mom , His cells were also in her body. God created a Perfect and Pure human being to be the chalice of His son’s body. She as a human could NEVER have original sin because She nor Jesus would EVER be subject to satan. This is why Mary referred to Jesus as her savior and that is why Mary having the divine cells are United with her son. We ONLY worship God. We revere and love God’s mother for He loved her more than anyone. We disrespect our God and Savior by not respecting and honoring His mother.