The extraordinary form of the mass, the calendar that belongs to the 1962 Missal, there is
not only the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15th, which corresponds to the
triumph of the cross, but there is also the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady on
the Friday before Holy Week, one week before Good Friday.
In the old calendar, it's directed to be a memorial.
It's associated with the ferial day of the Friday and Passion Tide, but in special circumstances
where there's great devotion to the Blessed Mother, it can be celebrated also as a feast.
In the new rite, in our own community, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, we have
been permitted to institute in the Novus Ordo also the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of Our
Lady, Korah Dumtrix, on this Friday.
And so it isn't the same feast as September 15th.
It's similar, but different.
Just as, for example, you have two feasts of the Eucharist.
You have one during the Easter Triduum on Holy Thursday, which emphasizes the institution
of the priesthood.
And then you have the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, Korah Dumtrix, on this Friday.
And the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Then you have Corpus Christi, which emphasizes, really, the real presence.
And so we have this feast.
And then you have the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, for example, which is associated
with the finding of the cross by St. Helena.
And then you have Good Friday.
And then we have these two Marian feasts associated with both of them.
Our Lady of Sorrows associated with the Triumph, and hence that aspect of Our Lady's sorrow,
which is ultimately triumphant.
And then we have today's feast associated with Good Friday, which is an opportunity
for us to remember the sorrows of Our Lady and to have compassion on her sorrows and
to begin our celebration of Holy Week.
May you be a good one.
which begins the day after tomorrow,
in the company of the Blessed Mother,
to walk to Calvary with her.
And so we pray in the Collect from today's Mass.
We beseech thee, O Lord Jesus Christ,
let thy mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary,
whose holy soul was pierced by a sword of sorrow
at the hour of thy passion,
implore thy mercy for us both now
and at the hour of our death,
through Christ our Lord.
So we come before our Holy Mother,
who is pierced with the sword of sorrow,
and we beg her mercy.
We beg God's mercy through her.
And we come before her realizing that
it is by our hand
that the sword of sorrow
has pierced her soul,
that the seven swords have pierced her heart.
And as we come before her
and experience her loving mercy,
the reality of her spiritual maternity,
which she received at the foot of the cross
when our Lord gave St. John to her as her child,
and St. John welcomed her into his home,
as we come before her,
we can remember her,
her gratuitous love for us
and the superabundant love of the Blessed Mother
for each of us who are her wayward children.
We don't really deserve her love,
but nevertheless, she loves each and every one of us
as the best of mothers
because she has,
in this openness to God's will
and to the redemption of mankind,
she has exposed herself
to God's will.
She has exposed herself
to every sorrow that ever existed.
I mean, our Lord is the man of sorrows.
He took upon himself
the sins of each and every one of us,
and Our Lady enters into that sorrow
out of love for mankind.
We look at the crucifix
and we think of divine love.
We think about how much God has loved us.
That's been translated
into the statue of the Sacred Heart
and into the image of the Divine Spirit.
And the divine mercy,
both of which we cannot see at the moment.
But we,
and that is one of the reasons,
by the way, for the veiling,
especially of the crucifix,
is we know the reality
of Christ's love for us
by looking at the crucifix.
And now somehow we have to assimilate that.
We have to go beyond
what is revealed to our eyes
and bring that into our heart.
And,
and,
know the power of God
that exists because
Christ faced death for us.
Because his Blessed Mother
allowed her heart
to be martyred for us.
This is something that
at the beginning of Holy Week,
the end of Lent,
we have to resolve
to assimilate.
We have to beg our Blessed Mother
to allow us to walk with her
and her son to Calvary,
to allow us to take
the place of St. John
and have the courage
to stand.
St. John's,
in St. John's Gospel today,
from the 19th chapter,
we read about
the last will and testament
of our Lord.
And St. John makes a point
of saying twice,
saying twice that Our Lady stood
at the time there stood
by the cross of Jesus,
his mother, etc.
And then,
when Jesus, therefore,
had seen his mother
and the disciples standing
whom he loved.
So he makes a point.
St. John very often
gives us little details
that some might think
are, you know, insignificant.
Like he tells us that the well,
Jacob's well was very deep.
You know, there's little details
that sometimes seem to be incidental.
But in fact,
they're extraordinarily important.
In this case,
it's a fact that Our Lady
and St. John
had been there.
And they had that courage
and resignation.
And they persevered.
And they didn't turn back.
They didn't run away.
They didn't try to escape.
They didn't turn away
from the cross.
All of us need to do that
each and every day of our life.
And this time of grace,
this time as we enter
into Holy Week,
is a moment in which heaven
is opened to give us this grace.
This is what we celebrate liturgically.
It's what we celebrate in the church.
It's what we solemnize.
And therefore,
it is a particular grace
that we can pray for at this moment.
And there is no one else better to turn to
than the Mother of Sorrows,
Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows,
who has opened her heart
to each and every one of us.
One week to Good Friday,
let us spend this week
in the company
of the Mother of Sorrows.
Stay with us.
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