Our Lady of Sorrows
Psalter: Week IV
White
The Seven Sorrows (or Dolors) are events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary which are a popular devotion .The Mass today focuses on Mary’s compassion and what she suffered during the first Passiontide.
Entrance Antiphon : Lk 2: 34-35
Simeon said to Mary: Behold, this child is destined for the ruin and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign of contradiction; and your own soul a sword will pierce.
Collect
O God, who willed that, when your Son was lifted high on the Ccoss, his Mother should stand close by and share his suffering, grant that your Church, participating with the Virgin Mary in the Passion of Christ, may merit a share in his resurrection. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading : 1 Timothy 2:1-8
My advice is that, first of all, there should be prayers offered for everyone – petitions, intercessions and thanksgiving – and especially for kings and others in authority, so that we may be able to live religious and reverent lives in peace and quiet. To do this is right, and will please God our saviour: he wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth. For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus, who sacrificed himself as a ransom for them all. He is the evidence of this, sent at the appointed time, and I have been named a herald and apostle of it and – I am telling the truth and no lie – a teacher of the faith and the truth to the pagans. In every place, then, I want the men to lift their hands up reverently in prayer, with no anger or argument.
Responsorial Psalm : Psalm 27(28):2,7-9
R/ Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard my cry.
Hear the voice of my pleading as I call for help, as I lift up my hands in prayer to your holy place.
The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts. I was helped, my heart rejoices and I praise him with my song.
The Lord is the strength of his people, a fortress where his anointed find salvation. Save your people; bless Israel your heritage. Be their shepherd and carry them for ever.
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia! Happy is the Virgin Mary, who, without dying, won the palm of martyrdom beneath the cross of the Lord. Alleluia!
Gospel : John 19:25-27
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.
Prayer over the Offerings
Receive, O merciful God, to the praise of your name the prayers and sacrificial offerings which we bring to you as we venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom you graciously gave to us as a most devoted Mother when she stood by the Cross of Jesus. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Communion Antiphon : 1 Pet 4: 13
Rejoice when you share in the sufferings of Christ, that you may also rejoice exultantly when his glory is revealed.
Prayer after Communion
Having received the Sacrament of eternal redemption, we humbly ask, O Lord, that, honouring how the Blessed Virgin Mary suffered with her Son, we may complete in ourselves for the Church’s sake what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Meditation
When Jesus tells John, “This is your mother,” I recognise the need to reassess my relationship with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as well as with my own Mother, as Jesus has also entrusted Her to me. Specifically, I contemplate making my recitation of the Rosary more meaningful by delving deeper into meditation of its mysteries. I am reminded of a reading where Our Lady, in one of her apparitions, told Saint Dominic de Guzman: “I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the Advocates of the Rosary shall have for Intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death.”