Friday of Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin

On this Friday, a week before Good Friday, the Church has traditionally remembered the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin.

While the commemoration was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1970, it survives in the Extraordinary Form and in many local calendars, including the calendar of that most Catholic country of Malta, as well as in many Hispanic countries.

The commemoration is so widespread that the current (Third) edition of Missale Romanum contains an alternative collect for today:

O God, who in this season
give your Church the grace
to imitate devoutly the Blessed Virgin Mary
in contemplating the Passion of Christ,
grant, we pray, through her intercession,
that we may cling more firmly each day
to your Only Begotten Son
and come at last to the fullness of his grace.

Amen.

What are the Seven Sorrows?

The Seven Sorrows come out of the Prophecy of Simeon in Saint Luke’s Gospel. They are the events in the life of the Blessed Virgin where the sword of sorrow pierced her heart.

Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”

(Luke 2:34-35)

There are numerous web sites that can give you the full picture, but here’s a quick list:

1. The prophecy of Simeon
   (Luke 2:22-35)
2. The flight into Egypt
   (Matthew 2:13-21)
3. Loss of the Child Jesus for three days
   (Luke 2:41-50)
4. Mary meets Jesus on his way to Calvary
   (Luke 23:27-31; John 19:17)
5. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
   (John 19:25-30)
6. Mary receives the dead body of her son
   (John 19:31-34, 38; c.f. Lamentations 1:12)
7. Jesus is laid in the tomb
   (Matthew 27:59; Mark 15:46; Luke 27:55-56; John 19:38-42; c.f. Isaiah 53:8)

There are several devotions that hearken back to these sorrows, in both the Western and Eastern traditions, including especially the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows.

And of course, the traditional imagery of the Seven Sorrows, physically depicting a sword (or seven!) piercing the Blessed Virgin’s heart, can be quite arresting.

I’m struck that Mary’s Seven Sorrows bookend Christ’s life, all occurring when He was a child, or at His passion and death. I like to think that’s because her son – the Son – while He was an adult in the fullness of His teaching ministry upon the earth, was a source of constant joy.