September - The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady: 5/7

Memorare, O piissima Virgo. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

September is a month in which we are invited to remember the Sorrows of Our Blessed Mother. In the seven days leading up to the feast of her nativity, we are reposting her Seven Sorrows, praying that she will help us daily to offer reparation for sins, in the spirit of the prayer given to the three little seers at Fatima:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.

The following post is the fifth in a series presenting the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, based on the meditations of St Alphonsus de Liguori. I have inserted references in the text to numbered footnotes. These references are not hyperlinked but may be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio?    

Is there one who would not weep,
whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ's dear Mother to behold? 

 (From the 13th century Latin hymn, Stabat Mater Dolorosa)

Jesus dies on the Cross

And now we have to admire a new sort of martyrdom, a mother condemned to see an innocent son,whom she loved with all the affection of her heart, put to death before her eyes, by the most barbarous tortures. There stood by the cross of Jesus his mother: “Stabat autem juxta crucem mater ejus.” There is nothing more to be said, says St. John, of the martyrdom of Mary: behold her at the foot of the cross, looking on her dying Son, and then see if there is grief like her grief.

 

Let us stop then also to-day on Calvary, to consider this fifth sword that pierced the heart of Mary, namely, the death of Jesus. 

As soon as our afflicted Redeemer had ascended the hill of Calvary, the executioners stripped him of his garments, and piercing his sacred hands and feet with nails, not sharp, but blunt: “Non acutis, sed obtusis;” as St. Bernard says, and to torture him more, they fastened him to the cross.

Jesus is nailed to the cross. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Calvariae quem vestibus:
loco exuerunt:
et manibus cum pedibus:
cruci affixerunt. Ave Maria.

Him of His garments they denude;
To Calvary they hale Him;
And there, unto the Holy Rood,
By hands and feet they nail him. Hail Mary.

JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

When they had crucified Him, they planted the cross, and thus left Him to die. The executioners abandon Him, but Mary does not abandon him. She then draws nearer to the cross, in order to assist at His death. “I did not leave him,” thus the blessed Virgin revealed to St. Bridget, and stood nearer to His cross.”



Stabat Mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.
   
At the Cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping,
close to Jesus to the last.






But what did it avail, oh Lady, says St. Bonaventure, to go to Calvary to witness there the death of this Son? Shame should have prevented thee, for His disgrace was also thine, because thou wast His mother; or, at least, the horror of such a crime as that of seeing a God crucified by His own creatures, should have prevented thee. But the saint himself answers: Thy heart did not consider the horror, but the suffering: “Non considerabat cor tuum horrorem, sed dolorem.” Ah, thy heart did not then care for its own sorrow, but for the suffering and death of thy dear Son; and therefore thou thyself didst wish to be near Him, at least to compassionate Him.

Ah, true mother! says William the Abbot, loving mother! for not even the terror of death could separate thee from thy beloved Son. But, oh God, what a spectacle of sorrow, to see this Son then in agony upon the cross, and under the cross this mother in agony, who was suffering all the pain that her Son was suffering! Behold the words in which Mary revealed to St. Bridget the pitiable state of her dying Son, as she saw him on the cross: “My dear Jesus was on the cross in grief and in agony; his eyes were sunken, half closed, and lifeless; the lips hanging, and the mouth open; the cheeks hollow, and attached to the teeth; the face lengthened, the nose sharp, the countenance sad; the head had fallen upon his breast, the hair black with blood, the stomach collapsed, the arms and legs stiff, and the whole body covered with wounds and blood.”

Mary also suffered all these pains of Jesus. Every torture inflicted on the body of Jesus, says St. Jerome, was a wound in the heart of the mother. Any one of us who should then have been on Mount Calvary, would have seen two altars, says St. John Chrysostom, on which two great sacrifices were consummating, one in the body of Jesus, the other in the heart of Mary. But rather would I see there, with St. Bonaventure, one altar only, namely, the cross alone of the Son, on which, with the victim, this divine Lamb, the mother also was sacrificed. Therefore the saint interrogates her in these words: Oh Lady, where art thou? Near the cross? Nay, on the cross, thou art crucified with thy Son. St. Augustine also says the same thing: The cross and nails of the Son were also the cross and nails of the mother; Christ being crucified, the mother was also crucified.

Yes, because, as St. Bernard says, love inflicted on the heart of Mary the same suffering that the nails caused in the body of Jesus. Therefore, at the same time that the Son was sacrificing his body, the mother, as St. Bernardine says, was sacrificing her soul. Mothers fly from the presence of their dying children; but if a mother is ever obliged to witness the death of a child, she procures for him all possible relief; she arranges the bed, that his posture may be more easy; she administers refreshments to him; and thus the poor mother relieves her own sorrows. Ah, mother, the most afflicted of all mothers! oh Mary, it was decreed that thou shouldst be present at the death of Jesus, but it was not given to thee to afford him any relief.  

Sitio. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Mary heard her Son say: I thirst: “Sitio;”[1] but it was not permitted her to give Him a little water to quench his great thirst. She could only say to Him, as St. Vincent Ferrer remarks: My Son, I have only the water of my tears: “Fili, non habeo nisi aquam lacrymarum.” She saw that her Son, suspended by three nails to that bed of sorrow, could find no rest. She wished to clasp Him to her heart, that she might give Him relief, or at least that He might expire in her arms, but she could not. She only saw that poor Son in a sea of sorrow, seeking one who could console Him as He had predicted by the mouth of the prophet: “I have trodden the winepress alone; I looked about and there was none to help; I sought and there was none to give aid.”[2] But who was there among men to console him, if all were his enemies?






Even on the cross they cursed and mocked him on every side: “And they that passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads.”[3] Some said to him: “If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”[4] Some exclaimed: “He saved others, himself he cannot save.” 18784 Others said: “If he be the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross.”[5] The blessed Virgin herself said to St. Bridget: “I heard some call my Son a thief; I heard others call him an impostor; others said that no one deserved death more than he; and every word was to me a new sword of sorrow.” But what increased most the sorrows which Mary suffered through compassion for her Son, was to hear Him complain on the cross that even the eternal Father had abandoned Him: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”[6] Words which, as the divine mother herself said to St. Bridget, could never depart from her mind during her whole life.

Mater dolorosa. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Thus the afflicted mother saw her Jesus suffering on every side; she desired to comfort him, but could not. And what caused her the greatest sorrow was to see that, by her presence and her grief, she increased the sufferings of her Son. The sorrow itself, says St. Bernard, that filled the heart of Mary, increased the bitterness of sorrow in the heart of Jesus.


Cuius animam gementem,
contristatam et dolentem
pertransivit gladius.    

Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,
all His bitter anguish bearing,
now at length the sword has passed.





St. Bernard also says, that Jesus on the cross suffered more from compassion for His mother than from His own pains: he thus speaks in the name of the Virgin: I stood and looked upon him, and he looked upon me; and he suffered more for me than for himself. The same saint also, speaking of Mary beside her dying Son, says, that she lived dying without being able to die: Near the cross stood His mother, speechless; living she died, dying she lived; neither could she die, because she was dead, being yet alive.

Passino writes that Jesus Christ himself, speaking one day to the blessed Baptista Varana [7], of Camerino, said to her, that He was so afflicted on the cross at the sight of his mother in such anguish at his feet, that compassion for His mother caused him to die without consolation. So that the blessed Baptista, being enlightened to know this suffering of Jesus, exclaimed: Oh my Lord, tell me no more of this thy sorrow, for I cannot bear it.

Mater dolorosa. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Men were astonished, says Simon of Cassia[8], when they saw this mother then keep silence, without uttering a complaint in this great suffering. But if the lips of Mary were silent, her heart was not so; for she did not cease offering to divine justice the life of her Son for our salvation. Therefore we know that by the merits of her dolours she co-operated with Christ in bringing us forth to the life of grace, and therefore we are children of her sorrows: Christ, says Lanspergius, wished her whom He had appointed for our mother to co-operate with Him in our redemption; for she herself at the foot of the cross was to bring us forth as her children.






And if ever any consolation entered into that sea of bitterness, namely, the heart of Mary, it was this only one; namely, the knowledge that by means of her sorrows, she was bringing us to eternal salvation; as Jesus himself revealed to St. Bridget: “My mother Mary, on account of her compassion and charity, was made mother of all in heaven and on earth.” And, indeed, these were the last words with which Jesus took leave of her before his death; this was His last remembrance, leaving us to her for her children in the person of John, when He said to her: Woman, behold thy Son: “Mulier ecce filius tuus.”[9]

The penitent thief. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Qui latroni omnia
crimina dimisit:
ac paradisi gaudia
ilico promisit. Ave Maria.

Who put all his offence away
From that good thief believing,
Him unto Paradise that day
To promised rest receiving. Hail Mary.










And from that time Mary began to perform for us this office of a good mother; for, as St. Peter Damian [9] declares, the penitent thief, through the prayers of Mary, was then converted and saved: Therefore the good thief repented, because the blessed Virgin, standing between the cross of her Son and that of the thief, prayed her Son for him; thus rewarding, by this favor, his former service. For as other authors also relate, this thief, in the journey to Egypt with the infant Jesus, showed them kindness; and this same office the blessed Virgin has ever continued, and still continues to perform.

Example

A young man in Perugia once promised the devil that if he would help him to commit a sinful act which he desired to do, he would give him his soul; and he gave him a writing to that effect, signed with his blood. The evil deed was committed, and the devil demanded the performance of the promise.

He led the young man to a well, and threatened to take him body and soul to hell if he would not cast himself into it. The wretched youth, thinking that it would be impossible for him to escape from his enemy, climbed the well-side in order to cast himself into it, but terrified at the thought of death, he said to the devil that he had not the courage to throw himself in, and that, if he wished to see him dead, he himself should thrust him in.

The young man wore about his neck the scapular of the sorrowing Mary; and the devil said to him: “Take off that scapular, and I will thrust you in.” But the youth, seeing the protection which the divine mother still gave him through that scapular, refused to take it off, and after a great deal of altercation, the devil departed in confusion. The sinner repented, and grateful to his sorrowful mother, went to thank her, and presented a picture of this case, as an offering, at her altar in the new church of Santa Maria, in Perugia.

Prayer

Ah, mother, the most afflicted of all mothers, thy Son, then, is dead; thy Son so amiable, and who loved thee so much! Weep, for thou hast reason to weep. Who can ever console thee? Nothing can console thee but the thought that Jesus, by His death, hath conquered hell, hath opened paradise which was closed to men, and hath gained so many souls. From that throne of the cross He was to reign over so many hearts, which, conquered by His love, would serve Him with love. Do not disdain, oh my mother, to keep me near to weep with thee, for I have more reason than thou to weep for the offences that I have committed against thy Son. Ah, mother of mercy, I hope for pardon and my eternal salvation, first through the death of my Redeemer, and then through the merits of thy doloUrs. Amen.

Notes

[1] [28] Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst.
Postea sciens Jesus quia omnia consummata sunt, ut consummaretur Scriptura, dixit : Sitio.
[29] Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they, putting a sponge full of vinegar and hyssop, put it to his mouth.
Vas ergo erat positum aceto plenum. Illi autem spongiam plenam aceto, hyssopo circumponentes, obtulerunt ori ejus. [John 19]

[2] [3] I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the Gentiles there is not a man with me: I have trampled on them in my indignation, and have trodden them down in my wrath, and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my apparel.
Torcular calcavi solus, et de gentibus non est vir mecum; calcavi eos in furore meo, et conculcavi eos in ira mea; et aspersus est sanguis eorum super vestimenta mea, et omnia indumenta mea inquinavi.
(...)
[5] I looked about, and there was none to help: I sought, and there was none to give aid: and my own arm hath saved for me, and my indignation itself hath helped me.
Circumspexi, et non erat auxiliator; quaesivi, et non fuit qui adjuvaret; et salvavit mihi brachium meum, et indignatio mea ipsa auxiliata est mihi [Isa 63]

[3] [39] And they that passed by, blasphemed him, wagging their heads,
Praetereuntes autem blasphemabant eum moventes capita sua [Matt 27]

[4] [40] And saying: Vah, thou that destroyest the temple of God, and in three days dost rebuild it: save thy own self: if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
et dicentes : Vah qui destruis templum Dei, et in triduo illud reaedificas : salva temetipsum : si Filius Dei es, descende de cruce. [Matt 27]

[5] [42] He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.
Alios salvos fecit, seipsum non potest salvum facere : si rex Israel est, descendat nunc de cruce, et credimus ei : [Matt 27]

[6] [46] And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying: Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Et circa horam nonam clamavit Jesus voce magna, dicens : Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani? hoc est : Deus meus, Deus meus, ut quid dereliquisti me? [Matt 27]

[7] Camilla Battista da Varano, O.S.C.: 1458 – 1524, from Camerino, Italy, was an Italian princess and a Poor Clare nun and abbess. She wrote fluently in Latin and Italian and was accounted one of the most accomplished scholars of her day. Her work includes Pregheria a Dio (1488–1490), Remembrances of Jesus (Ricordi di Gesu) (1483–1491), Praise of the Vision of Christ (1479–1481), and The Spiritual Life (Vita Spirituale) (1491), an autobiography from 1466-1491.

[8] Blessed Simon of Cascia: c. 1295–1348; an ascetic and preacher from Cascia, Italy.

[9] [26] When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son.
Cum vidisset ergo Jesus matrem, et discipulum stantem, quem diligebat, dicit matri suae : Mulier, ecce filius tuus. [John 19]

[10] Peter Damian: 1007 – 1072 or 1073). Benedictine monk and cardinal. Declared a Doctor of the Church in 1828. His Liber Gomorrhianus (Book of Gomorrah) is a powerful treatise regarding the evil of sodomy.

Totus tuus ego sum 
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum tutus semper sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam

September - The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady: 4/7

Memorare, O piissima Virgo. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

September is a month in which we are invited to remember the Sorrows of Our Blessed Mother. In the seven days leading up to the feast of her nativity, we are reposting her Seven Sorrows, praying that she will help us daily to offer reparation for sins, in the spirit of the prayer given to the three little seers at Fatima:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.

The following post is the fourth in a series presenting the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, based on the meditations of St Alphonsus de Liguori. I have inserted references in the text to numbered footnotes. These references are not hyperlinked but may be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio?    

Is there one who would not weep,
whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ's dear Mother to behold? 

 (From the 13th century Latin hymn, Stabat Mater Dolorosa)

Of the Meeting of Mary with Jesus, when  He went to Death

St. Bernardine says, that to form an idea of the grief of Mary in losing her Jesus by death, it is necessary to consider the love that this mother bore to this her Son. All mothers feel the sufferings of their children as their own. Hence the woman of Chanaan, when she prayed the Saviour to deliver her daughter from the devil that tormented her, said to Him, that he should have pity on the mother rather than on the daughter: “Have mercy on me, oh Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously troubled by a devil.”[1] But what mother ever loved a child so much as Mary loved Jesus? He was her only child, reared amidst so many troubles and pains; a most amiable child, and most loving to his mother; a Son, who was at the same time her Son and her God; who came on earth to kindle in the hearts of all the holy fire of divine love, as he himself declared: “I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?”[2]

Let us consider how He must have inflamed that pure heart of His holy mother, so free from every earthly affection. In a word, the blessed Virgin herself said to St. Bridget, that through love her heart and the heart of her Son was one: “Unum erat cor meum, et cor filii mei.” That blending of handmaid and mother, of Son and God, kindled in the heart of Mary a fire composed of a thousand flames. But afterwards, at the time of the passion, this flame of love was changed into a sea of sorrow. Hence St. Bernardine says: All the sorrows of the world united would not be equal to the sorrow of the glorious Mary. Yes, because this mother, as St. Lawrence Justinian[3] writes: The more tenderly she loved, was the more deeply wounded. The greater the tenderness with which she loved Him, the greater was her grief at the sight of his sufferings, especially when she met her Son, after He had already been condemned, going to death at the place of punishment, bearing the cross. And this is the fourth sword of sorrow which to-day we have to consider. The blessed Virgin revealed to St. Bridget that at the time when the passion of our Lord was drawing nigh, her eyes were always filled with tears, as she thought of her beloved Son whom she was about to lose on this earth. Therefore, as she also said, a cold sweat covered her body from the fear that seized her at that prospect of approaching suffering.

Behold, the appointed day at length arrived, and Jesus came in tears to take leave of his mother before he went to death. St. Bonaventure, contemplating Mary on that night, says: Thou didst spend it without sleep, and while others slept, thou didst remain watching. Morning having arrived, the disciples of Jesus Christ came to this afflicted mother, one, to bring her this tidings, another, that; but all tidings of sorrow, for in her were then verified the words of Jeremias: “Weeping, she hath wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; there is none to comfort her of all them that were dear to her.”[4] One came to relate to her the cruel treatment of her Son in the house of Caiphas; another, the insults received by him from Herod.

Finally, for I omit the rest to come to my point, St. John came and announced to Mary that the most unjust Pilate had already condemned Him to death upon the cross. I say the most unjust, for, as St. Leo[5] remarks, this unjust judge condemned Him to death with the same lips with which he had pronounced Him innocent. Ah, sorrowful mother; said St. John to her, thy Son has already been condemned to death, he is already on his way, bearing himself his cross on his way to Calvary, as he afterwards related in his Gospel: “And bearing his own cross he went forth to that place which is called Calvary.”[6] Come, if thou dost desire to see Him, and bid him a last farewell in some of the streets through which He is to pass. Mary goes with St. John, and she perceives by the blood with which the way was sprinkled, that her Son had already passed there. This she revealed to St. Bridget: “By the footsteps of my Son I traced his course, for along the way by which he had passed, the ground was the ground was sprinkled with blood.” St. Bonaventure imagines the afflicted mother taking a shorter way, and placing herself at the corner of the street to meet her afflicted Son as he passed by.

Jesus meets His Blessed Mother. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

O quam tristis et afflicta
fuit illa benedicta,
mater Unigeniti!   

O how sad and sore distressed
was that Mother, highly blest,
of the sole-begotten One.

From the 13th century Latin hymn, Stabat Mater dolorosa









This most afflicted mother met her most afflicted Son: Mœstissima mater mœstissimo filio occurrit, said St. Bernard. While Mary stopped in that place how much she must have heard said against her Son by the Jews who knew her, and perhaps also words in mockery of herself! Alas! what a commencement of sorrows was then before her eyes, when she saw the nails, the hammers, the cords, the fatal instruments of the death of her Son borne before Him! And what a sword pierced her heart when she heard the trumpet proclaiming along the way the sentence pronounced against her Son!

But behold, now, after the instruments, the trumpet, and the ministers of justice had passed, she raises her eyes and sees; she sees, oh God, a young man covered with blood and wounds from head to foot, with a crown of thorns on His head, and two heavy beams on His shoulders; she looks at Him and hardly knows Him, saying, then, with Isaias: “And we have seen him, and there was no sightliness.”[7] Yes, for the wounds, the bruises, and clotted blood, made Him look like a leper: “We have thought him, as it were, a leper;”[8] so that He could no longer be recognized. “And his look was, as it were, hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.”[9]

But at length love recognizes Him, and as soon as she knows Him, ah, what was then, as St. Peter of Alcantara[10] says in his meditations, the love and fear of the heart of Mary! On the one hand, she desired to see Him; on the other, she could not endure to look upon so pitiable a sight. But at length they look at each other. The Son wipes from His eyes the clotted blood, which prevented Him from seeing (as was revealed to St. Bridget), and looks upon the mother; the mother looks upon the Son. Ah, looks of sorrow, which pierced, as with so many arrows, those two holy and loving souls. When Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas More, met her father on his way to the scaffold, she could utter only two words, oh, father! oh, father! and fell fainting at his feet. At the sight of her Son going to Calvary, Mary fainted not; no, because it was not fitting that his mother should lose the use of her reason, as Father Suarez remarks, neither did she die, for God reserved her for a greater grief; but if she did not die, she suffered sorrow enough to cause her a thousand deaths.

The mother wished to embrace Him, as St. Anselm says, but the officers of justice thrust her aside, loading her with insults, and urge onward our afflicted Lord. Mary follows. Ah, holy Virgin, where art thou going? To Calvary! And canst thou trust thyself to see Him who is thy life hanging from a cross? And thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee: “Et erit vita tua quasi pendens ante te.”[11] Ah! my mother, stop, says St. Lawrence Justinian, as if the Son Himself had then spoken to her; where dost thou hasten? Where art thou going? If thou comest where I go, thou wilt be tortured with my sufferings, and I with thine.

But although the sight of her dying Jesus must cost her such cruel anguish, the loving Mary will not leave him. The Son goes before, and the mother follows, that she may be crucified with her Son, as William the Abbot[12] says: The mother took up her cross, and followed Him, that she might be crucified with Him. We even pity the wild beasts: “Ferarum etiam miseremur;” as St. John Chrysostom has said. If we should see a lioness following her whelp as he was led to death, even this wild beast would call forth our compassion. And shall we not feel compassion to see Mary following her immaculate Lamb, as they are leading him to death? Let us then pity her, and endeavor also ourselves to accompany her Son and herself, bearing with patience the cross which the Lord imposes upon us.

Simon helps bear the Cross. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Why did Jesus Christ, asks St. John Chrysostom, desire to be alone in his other sufferings, but in bearing the cross wished to be helped by the Cyrenean?

And he answers: That thou mayest understand that the cross of Christ is not sufficient without thine. The cross alone of Jesus is not enough to save us, if we do not bear with resignation also our own, even unto death.

Example

The Saviour appeared one day to sister Diomira, a nun, in Florence, and said to her: “Think of me, and love me, and I will think of thee, and love thee:” and at the same time he presented her with a bunch of flowers and a cross, signifying to her by this, that the consolations of the saints on this earth are always to be accompanied by the cross. The cross unites souls to God.

Blessed Jerome Emilian[13], when he was a soldier, and leading a very sinful life, was shut up by his enemies in a tower. There, feeling deeply his misfortune, and enlightened by God to amend his life, he had recourse to the most holy Mary, and then with the help of this divine mother, he began to live the life of a saint. By this he merited to see once in heaven the high place which God had prepared for him. He became founder of the order of Sommaschi, died a saint, and has been lately beatified by the holy Church.

Prayer

My sorrowful mother, by the merit of that grief which thou didst feel at seeing thy beloved Jesus led to death, obtain for me the grace also to bear with patience those crosses which God sends me. Happy me, if I also shall know how to accompany thee with my cross until death. Thou and Jesus, both innocent, have borne a heavy cross; and shall I a sinner, who have merited hell, refuse mine? Ah, immaculate Virgin, I hope that thou wilt help me to bear my crosses with patience. Amen.

Notes

[1] [22] And behold a woman of Canaan who came out of those coasts, crying out, said to him: Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David: my daughter is grieviously troubled by the devil.
Et ecce mulier chananaea a finibus illis egressa clamavit, dicens ei : Miserere mei, Domine fili David : filia mea male a daemonio vexatur. [Matt 15]

[2] [49] I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?
Ignem veni mittere in terram, et quid volo nisi ut accendatur? [Luke 12]

[3] St. Lawrence Justinian: 1381 - 1456. In 1400 he entered the monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine on the Island of Alga near Venice. In spite of his youth he excited admiration by his poverty, mortifications, and fervour in prayer. Bishop and first Patriarch of Venice.

[4] [2] Beth. Weeping she hath wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: there is none to comfort her among all them that were dear to her: all her friends have despised her, and are become her enemies.
BETH. Plorans ploravit in nocte, et lacrimae ejus in maxillis ejus : non est qui consoletur eam, et omnibus caris ejus; omnes amici ejus spreverunt eam, et facti sunt ei inimici. [Lamentations 1]

[5] St. Leo the Great: Place and date of birth unknown; died 10 November, 461. Leo's pontificate, next to that of St. Gregory I, is the most significant and important in Christian antiquity.The first pope to be given the title "the Great."

[6] [17] And bearing his own cross, he went forth to that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew Golgotha.
Et bajulans sibi crucem exivit in eum, qui dicitur Calvariae locum, hebraice autem Golgotha : [John 19]

[7] [2] And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him:
Et ascendet sicut virgultum coram eo; et sicut radix de terra sitienti. Non est species ei, neque decor, et vidimus eum, et non erat aspectus, et desideravimus eum; [Isaias 53]

[8] [4] Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted.
Vere languores nostros ipse tulit, et dolores nostros ipse portavit; et nos putavimus eum quasi leprosum, et percussum a Deo, et humiliatum. [Isaias 53]

[9] [3] Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.
despectum, et novissimum virorum, virum dolorum, et scientem infirmitatem; et quasi absconditus vultus ejus et despectus, unde nec reputavimus eum. [Isaias 53]

[10] Saint Peter of Alcantara, O.F.M. (Spanish: San Pedro de Alcántara) (1499 – 1562); Spanish Franciscan friar canonized in 1669; a man of remarkable austerity and poverty, who travelled throughout Spain preaching the Gospel. He wrote a Treatise on Prayer and Meditation, which was considered a masterpiece by St. Teresa and St. Francis de Sales. On his deathbed, he was offered a glass of water which he refused, saying that "Even my Lord Jesus Christ thirsted on the Cross..."

[11] [66] And thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee. Thou shalt fear night and day, neither shalt thou trust thy life.
et erit vita tua quasi pendens ante te. Timebis nocte et die, et non credes vitae tuae. [Deut 28]

[12] Saint William of Æbelholt:  c. 1125 – 1203) was a French-born churchman of Denmark.

[13] Gerolamo Emiliani:1486 – 1537), founder of the Somaschi Fathers, and saint. He was canonized in 1767 and is the patron saint of orphans.

Totus tuus ego sum 
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum tutus semper sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam

September - The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady: 3/7

Memorare, O piissima Virgo. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

September is a month in which we are invited to remember the Sorrows of Our Blessed Mother. In the days leading up to the feast of her nativity, we are reposting the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady; praying that she will enable us to renew our keen desire to offer reparation for sins, in the spirit of the prayer given to the three little seers at Fatima:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.

The following post is the third in a series presenting the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, based on the meditations of St Alphonsus de Liguori. I have inserted references in the text to numbered footnotes. These references are not hyperlinked but may be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio?    

Is there one who would not weep,
whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ's dear Mother to behold? 

 (From the 13th century Latin hymn, Stabat Mater Dolorosa)

The Loss of Jesus in the Temple

St. James the Apostle has said, that our perfection consists in the virtue of patience. “And patience hath a perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing.”[1] The Lord having then given us the Virgin Mary as an example of perfection, it was necessary that she should be laden with sorrows, that in her we might admire and imitate her heroic patience. The dolour that we are this day to consider is one of the greatest which our divine mother suffered during her life, namely, the loss of her Son in the temple. He who is born blind is little sensible of the pain of being deprived of the light of day; but to him who has once had sight and enjoyed the light, it is a great sorrow to find himself deprived of it by blindness. And thus it is with those unhappy souls who, being blinded by the mire of this earth, have but little knowledge of God, and therefore scarcely feel pain at not finding him. On the contrary, the man who, illuminated with celestial light, has been made worthy to find by love the sweet presence of the highest good, oh God, how he mourns when he finds himself deprived of it! 

Mary and Joseph seeking Jesus*. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

Quem ad festum transiens:
dolenter perdidisti:
sed mox templum adiens:
gaudenter repperisti. Ave Maria.

Whom once as lost thou didst deplore,
When from the Feast returning;
But in the Temple find once more,
'Midst doctors Him discerning. Hail Mary.





*[44] And thinking that he was in the company, they came a day's journey, and sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance.
Existimantes autem illum esse in comitatu, venerunt iter diei, et requirebant eum inter cognatos et notos. [Luke 2]

From this we can judge how painful must have been to Mary, who was accustomed to enjoy constantly the sweet presence of Jesus, that third sword which wounded her, when she lost him in Jerusalem, and was separated from him for three days. In the second chapter of St. Luke we read that the blessed Virgin, being accustomed to visit the temple every year at the paschal season, with Joseph her spouse and Jesus, once went when he was about twelve years old, and Jesus remained in Jerusalem, though she was not aware of it, for she thought he was in company with others.

When she reached Nazareth she inquired for her Son, and not finding him there, she returned immediately to Jerusalem to seek him, but did not succeed until after three days. Now let us imagine what distress that afflicted mother must have experienced in those three days in which she was searching everywhere for her Son, with the spouse in the Canticles: “Have you seen him whom my soul loveth?”[2]

But she could hear no tidings of him. Oh, with how much greater tenderness must Mary, overcome with fatigue, and yet not having found her beloved Son, have repeated those words of Ruben, concerning his brother Joseph: The boy doth not appear, and whither shall I go? “Puer non comparet, et ego quo ibo?”[3] My Jesus doth not appear, and I know not what to do that I may find him; but where shall I go without my treasure?

Weeping continually, she repeated during these three days with David: “My tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it is said to me daily,Where is thy God?”[4] Wherefore Pelbart with reason says, that during those nights the afflicted mother had no rest, but wept and prayed without ceasing to God, that he would enable her to find her Son. And, according to St. Bernard, often during that time did she repeat to her Son himself the words of the spouse: “Show me where thou feedest, where thou liest in the mid-day, lest I begin to wander.”[5] My Son, tell me where thou art, that I may no longer wander, seeking thee in vain.

Some writers assert, and not without reason, that this dolour was not only one of the greatest, but that it was the greatest and most painful of all.

(1) For in the first place, Mary in her other dolours had Jesus with her; she suffered when St. Simeon uttered the prophecy in the temple; she suffered in the flight to Egypt, but always with Jesus; but in this dolor she suffered at a distance from Jesus, without knowing where he was: “And the light of my eyes itself is not with me.”[6]  Thus, with tears, she then exclaimed: Ah, the light of my eyes, my dear Jesus, is no more with me; he is far from me, I know not where he is! Origen[7] says, that though the love which this holy mother bore her Son, she suffered more at this loss of Jesus than any martyr ever suffered at death.

Ah, how long were these three days for Mary! they appeared three ages. Very bitter days, for there was none to comfort her. And who, she exclaimed with Jeremias, who can console me if he who could console me is far from me? and therefore my eyes are not satisfied with weeping: “Therefore do I weep, and my eyes run down with water, because the comforter is far from me.” [8] And with Tobias she repeated: “What manner of joy shall be to me who sit in darkness, and see not the light of heaven?”[9].

(2) Secondly.—Mary well understood the cause and end of the other dolours, namely, the redemption of the world, the divine will; but in this she did not know the cause of the absence of her Son. The sorrowful mother was grieved to find Jesus withdrawn from her, for her humility, says Lanspergius[10], made her consider herself unworthy to remain with him any longer, and attend upon him on earth, and have the care of such a treasure. And perhaps, she may have thought within herself, I have not served him as I ought. Perhaps I have been guilty of some neglect, and therefore he has left me. They sought him, lest he perchance had left them, as Origen has said.  Certainly there is no greater grief for a soul that loves God than the fear of having displeased him. And therefore Mary never complained in any other sorrow but this, lovingly expostulating with Jesus after she found him: “Son, why hast thou done so to us? Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.”[11] By these words she did not wish to reprove Jesus, as the heretics blasphemously assert, but only to make known to him the grief she had experienced during his absence from her, on account of the love she bore him. It was not a rebuke, says blessed Denis the Carthusian[12], but a loving complaint: “Non erat increpatio, sed amorosa conquestio.”

(3) Finally, this sword so cruelly pierced the heart of the Virgin, that the blessed Benvenuta[13], desiring one day to share the pain of the holy mother in this dolour, and praying her to obtain for her this grace, Mary appeared to her with the infant Jesus in her arms; but while Benvenuta was enjoying the sight of that most beautiful child, in one moment she was deprived of it. So great was her sorrow that she had recourse to Mary, to implore her pity that it should not make her die of grief. The holy Virgin appeared to her again three days after, and said to her: “Now learn, oh my daughter, that thy sorrow is but a small part of that which I suffered when I lost my Son.”

Jesus among the Doctors. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

This sorrow of Mary ought, in the first place, to serve as a comfort to those souls who are desolate and do not enjoy the sweet presence they once enjoyed of their Lord. They may weep, but let them weep in peace, as Mary wept in the absence of her Son. Let them take courage, and not fear that on this account they have lost the divine favor, for God himself said to St. Theresa[14]: “No one is lost without knowing it; and no one is deceived without wishing to be deceived.” If the Lord departs from the sight of that soul who loves him, he does not therefore depart from the heart. He often hides Himself that she may seek him with greater desire and love. But those who would find Jesus must seek him, not amid the delights and pleasures of the world, but amid crosses and mortifications, as Mary sought him: We sought thee sorrowing, as she said to her Son: “Dolentes quærebamus te.”[11]




Learn from Mary to seek Jesus, says Origen “Disce a Maria quærere Jesum.” Moreover, in this world we should seek no other good than Jesus. Job was not unhappy when he lost all that he possessed on earth; riches, children, health, and honors, and even descended from a throne to a dunghill; but because he had God with him, even then he was happy. St. Augustine[15, speaking of him, says: He had lost all that God had given him, but he had God himself: “Perdiderat illa quæ dederat Deus, sed habebat ipsum Deum.”

Unhappy and truly wretched are those souls who have lost God. If Mary wept for the absence of her Son for three days, how ought sinners to weep who have lost divine grace, to whom God says; “You are not my people, and I will not be yours.”[16]  For sin does this, namely, it separates the soul from God: “Your iniquities have divided between you and your God.”[17] Hence, if even sinners possess all the goods of earth and have lost God, every thing on earth becomes vanity and affliction to them, as Solomon confessed: “Behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.”[17] But as St. Augustine says: The greatest misfortune of these poor blind souls is, that if they lose an ox, they do not fail to go in search of it; if they lose a sheep, they use all diligence to find it; if they lose a beast of burden, they cannot rest; but they lose the highest good, which is God, and yet they eat and drink, and take their rest.

Example

We read in the Annual Letters of the Society of Jesus, that in India, a young man who was just leaving his apartment in order to commit sin, heard a voice saying: “Stop, where are you going?” He turned round and saw an image, in relief, of the sorrowful Mary, who drew out the sword which was in her breast, and said to him: “Take this dagger and pierce my heart rather than wound my Son with this sin.” At the sound of these words the youth prostrated himself on the ground, and with deep contrition, bursting into tears, he asked and obtained from God and the Virgin pardon of his sin.

Prayer

Oh blessed Virgin, why art thou afflicted, seeking thy lost Son? Is it because thou dost not know where he is? But dost thou not know that he is in thy heart? Dost thou not see that he is feeding among the lilies? Thou thyself hast said it: “My beloved to me and I to him who feedeth among the lilies.”[18] These, thy humble, pure, and holy thoughts and affections, are all lilies, that invite the divine spouse to dwell with thee. Ah, Mary, dost thou sigh after Jesus, thou who lovest none but Jesus? Leave sighing to me and so many other sinners who do not love him, and who have lost him by offending him. My most amiable mother, if through my fault thy Son hast not yet returned to my soul, wilt thou obtain for me that I may find him. I know well that he allows himself to be found by all who seek him: The Lord is good to the soul that seeketh him: “Bonus est Dominus . . . animæ quærenti illum.”[19]   Make me to seek him as I ought to seek him. Thou art the gate through which all find Jesus; through thee I too hope to find him

Notes

[1] [4] And patience hath a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing.
Patientia autem opus perfectum habet : ut sitis perfecti et integri in nullo deficientes. [James 1]

[2] [3] The watchmen who keep the city, found me: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth?
Invenerunt me vigiles qui custodiunt civitatem : Num quem diligit anima mea vidistis? [Cant 3]

[3] [29] And Ruben, returning to the pit, found not the boy:
Reversusque Ruben ad cisternam, non invenit puerum :
[30] And rending his garments he went to his brethren, and said: The boy doth not appear and whither shall I go?
et scissis vestibus pergens ad fratres suos, ait : Puer non comparet, et ego quo ibo? [Genesis 37]

[4] [4] My tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it is said to me daily: Where is thy God?
Fuerunt mihi lacrimae meae panes die ac nocte, dum dicitur mihi quotidie : Ubi est Deus tuus? [Ps 41]

[5] [6] shew me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of thy companions.
Indica mihi, quem diligit anima mea, ubi pascas, ubi cubes in meridie, ne vagari incipiam post greges sodalium tuorum. [Cant of Cant 1]

[6] [11] My heart is troubled, my strength hath left me, and the light of my eyes itself is not with me.
Cor meum conturbatum est, dereliquit me virtus mea, et lumen oculorum meorum, et ipsum non est mecum. [Ps 37]

[7] Origen of Alexandria:c. 184 – c. 253),an early Christian scholar, ascetic,and theologian; prolific writer who wrote roughly 2,000 treatises

[8] [16] Ain. Therefore do I weep, and my eyes run down with water: because the comforter, the relief of my soul, is far from me: my children are desolate because the enemy hath prevailed.
AIN. Idcirco ego plorans, et oculus meus deducens aquas, quia longe factus est a me consolator, convertens animam meam. Facti sunt filii mei perditi, quoniam invaluit inimicus. [Lamentations 1]

[9] [12] And Tobias said: What manner of joy shall be to me, who sit in darkness, and see not the light of heaven?
Et ait Tobias : Quale gaudium mihi erit, qui in tenebris sedeo, et lumen caeli non video? [Tobias 5]

[10] Lanspergius:1489 – 1539. John Justus of Landsberg,  was a German Carthusian monk and ascetical writer. His works comprise paraphrases and homilies on the Epistles and Gospels of the liturgical year, sermons for Sundays and festivals, meditations and discourses on the Life and Passion of Christ, and a variety of treatises, sermons, letters, meditations etc.

[11] [48] And seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
Et videntes admirati sunt. Et dixit mater ejus ad illum : Fili, quid fecisti nobis sic? ecce pater tuus et ego dolentes quaerebamus te. [Luke 2]

[12] Denis the Carthusian: 1402–1471. Theologian and mystic. A prolific student, he read all the principal ecclesiastical writers down to his time, every summa and every chronicle, many commentaries on the Bible, and the works of a great number of Greek, and especially Arab, philosophers, plus the whole of canon as well as civil law

[13] Blessed Benvenuta Bojani:1254 - 1292: Italian professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic.Bojani dedicated her life to strict austerities as an act of repentance and devotion to God and was known to have visions of angels and demons.

[14] Saint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus (1515 – 1582), was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, author, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer.

[15] Saint Augustine of Hippo 354 – 430 AD:  was a Roman African, early Christian theologian and philosopher. Among his most important works are The City of God, De doctrina Christiana and Confessions.

[16] [9] And he said: Call his name, Not my people: for you are not my people, and I will not be yours.
Et dixit : Voca nomen ejus, Non populus meus, quia vos non populus meus, et ego non ero vester. [Osee 1] Osee prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II in Israel, and in the time of Ozias, Joatham, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda, hence from about 750 to 725 B.C.

[17] [2] But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he should not hear.
Sed iniquitates vestrae diviserunt inter vos et Deum vestrum; et peccata vestra absconderunt faciem ejus a vobis, ne exaudiret. [Isaias 59]

[17] [14] I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold all is vanity, and vexation of spirit.
Vidi cuncta quae fiunt sub sole, et ecce universa vanitas et afflictio spiritus. [Ecclesiastes 1]

[18] [16] My beloved to me, and I to him who feedeth among the lilies,
Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi, qui pascitur inter lilia. [Cant of Cant 2]

[19] [25] Teth. The Lord is good to them that hope in him, to the soul that seeketh him.
TETH. Bonus est Dominus sperantibus in eum, animae quaerenti illum. [Lamentations 3]

Totus tuus ego sum 
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum tutus semper sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam