Devotion to Mary of Sorrows: asked by Jesus to obtain many graces

INVITATION OF JESUS ​​TO LOVE THE PAINFUL MOTHER

Jesus wants it: «My Mother's Heart has the right to the title of Sorrowful and I want it placed before that of the Immaculate, because the first bought it herself.

The Church has recognized in my Mother what I have worked on her: her Immaculate Conception. It is time, now, and I want it, that my Mother's right to a title of justice is understood and recognized, a title she deserved with her identification with all my pains, with her sufferings, her sacrifices and with his immolation on Calvary, accepted with full correspondence to my Grace, and endured for the salvation of humanity.

it is in this co-redemption that my Mother was above all great; and this is why I ask that the ejaculatory, as I have dictated it (Our Lady of Sorrows and Immaculate Heart pray for us) be approved and propagated throughout the Church, in the same way as that of my Heart, and that it be recited by all my priests after the sacrifice of the Mass.

It has already obtained many graces; and he will obtain even more, pending that, with the Consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of my Mother, the Church is lifted up and the world renewed.

This devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary will revive faith and trust in broken hearts and destroyed families; it will help repair the ruins and ease many pains. It will be a new source of strength for my Church, bringing souls, not only to trust in my Heart, but also to abandonment in my Mother's Sorrowful Heart ».

MARIA'S PAIN
MARY WAS THE QUEEN OF THE MARTYRS, BECAUSE HER MARTYRS WAS THE LONGEST AND MOST TERRIBLE THAN THAT OF ALL THE MARTYRS.

Who will have such a hard heart that he will not be moved by hearing the cruel event that once happened on earth? He lived a noble and holy mother who had only one son and he was the most lovable one can imagine, he was an innocent virtuous handsome and he loved his mother tenderly to the point that he had never given her the least displeasure; he had always been respectful, obedient and loving, so the mother in her earthly life had placed all her love in this son. When the boy grew up and became a man, out of envy he was falsely accused by his enemies and the judge, although he had recognized and declared his innocence, however, in order not to antagonize his enemies, condemned him to a horrible and defamatory death, precisely that which the envious had requested. The poor mother had to suffer the pain of seeing that adorable and beloved son unjustly condemned in the flower of youth and seeing him subjected to a cruel death, since they made him bleed to death by torture, in public, on an infamous gallows.

What do you say devoted souls? Isn't this a case worthy of compassion? And this poor mother? You have already understood who I am talking about. The son so cruelly executed is our loving Redeemer Jesus, and the mother is the Blessed Virgin Mary, who for our love accepted to see him sacrificed to divine justice by the cruelty of men. Mary, therefore, endured for us this great pain which cost her more than a thousand deaths, and which deserves all our compassion and gratitude. If we cannot reciprocate so much love in any other way, at least let's stop a little to consider the cruelty of this suffering for which Mary became Queen of martyrs, since her martyrdom exceeded that of all martyrs, since it was: the longest martyrdom and the most cruel martyrdom.

POINT I
As Jesus is called King of sorrows and King of martyrs, because in his life he suffered more than all the other martyrs, so too Mary is rightly called Queen of martyrs, as she deserved this title for having suffered an atrocious martyrdom, the greatest that can to be lived after that of the Son. Riccardo di San Lorenzo rightly calls her: "Martyr of the Martyrs". The words of Isaiah can be considered addressed to her: "YOU WILL CROWN WITH A CROWN OF TRIBULATIONS", (Is 22,18:XNUMX) that is, the crown with which she was declared Queen of the martyrs was Her own suffering that made Her desolate, and this exceeded the punishment of all the other martyrs together. That Mary had been a true martyr is beyond doubt, and it is an undisputed opinion that to be a "martyrdom" a pain that can give death is sufficient, even if this does not happen. St. John the Evangelist is honored among the martyrs, although he did not die in the boiling oil boiler, but "he came out more well than when he entered": Brev.Rom. "TO HAVE THE GLORY OF MARTYRDOM IS SUFFICIENT says St. Thomas THAT THE PERSON COMES TO OFFER HIMSELF UNTIL DEATH". Saint Bernard says that Mary was a martyr "NOT FOR THE SWORD OF THE CARNIVES, BUT FOR THE CRUELOUS PAIN OF THE HEART". If her body was not wounded by the hand of the executioner, however, her blessed Heart was pierced by the pain of the Passion of the Son, pain that was enough to give her not one, but a thousand deaths. We will see that Mary was not only a true martyr, but her martyrdom surpassed all others because it was a longer martyrdom, and so to speak, her whole life was a long death. Saint Bernard says that the Passion of Jesus began from His birth, so also Mary, in all similar to the Son, suffered martyrdom throughout her life. Blessed Albert the Great emphasizes that the name of Mary also means "bitter sea". In fact, the passage of Jeremiah applies to her “YOUR PAIN IS LARGE AS THE SEA” Lam 2,13:XNUMX. As the sea is salty and bitter to taste, so Mary's life was always full of bitterness in view of the Passion of the Redeemer, which was always present to her. We cannot doubt that she, enlightened by the Holy Spirit more than all the prophets, understood better than they the prophecies concerning the Messiah contained in the Holy Scriptures. So the Angel revealed to St Brigid he went on to say that the Virgin had understood how much the Incarnate Word should have suffered for the salvation of men, and since before becoming His mother she was taken with great compassion for the innocent Savior who was to be executed with a death atrocious for crimes not His, and from that moment began to suffer His great martyrdom. This pain increased immeasurably when she became the Savior's Mother. So grieved by all the sufferings that her beloved Son should have suffered, she suffered a long and continuous martyrdom throughout her life. Abbot Roberto says to her: "YOU, ALREADY KNOWING THE SON'S FUTURE PASSION, YOU HAVE BEEN LONGING A MARTYRDOM". This was precisely the meaning of the vision that Santa Brigida had in Rome in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where the Blessed Virgin appeared to her together with San Simeone and an Angel who carried a very long sword and dripping blood, that sword meant the harsh and long sorrow from which Mary was pierced for all her life: The aforementioned Roberto attributes to Maria these words: “REDEEMED SOULS AND MY DAUGHTERED DAUGHTERS, DO NOT COMPATITATE ME ONLY FOR THAT HOUR IN WHICH I SAW MY DEAR JESUS ​​DIE , SINCE THE SWORD OF PAIN PREDECTED TO ME BY SIMEONE WAS PUNCHING MY SOUL FOR ALL MY LIFE: WHILE GIVING MILK TO MY CHILD, WHILE HE WARMED IT BETWEEN MY ARMS, I ALREADY SEEN THE BITTER DEATH THAT WAS WAITING FOR IT; CONSIDER WHAT LONG AND SUGGESTED. PAIN I HAD TO SUFFER ". So Mary could really say the verse of David: "MY LIFE PASSED ALL IN PAIN AND Tears", (Ps 30,11) "WHILE MY PAIN, WHICH WAS THE PAYMENT FOR THE CRUDE DEATH OF MY BELOVED SON, I DON'T LEAVED AN INSTANT "(Ps 38,16). "I ALWAYS SEEN ALL THE SUFFERINGS AND DEATH OF JESUS ​​THAT WOULD HAVE A SUFFERED DAY". The same divine Mother revealed to Saint Brigida that even after the death and Ascension of her Son to Heaven, the memory of the Passion was always constant in her tender heart as it just happened, no matter what she did. Taulero wrote that Mary spent her whole life in perpetual pain, since in her heart there was only sadness and suffering. So not even the time that usually mitigates the pain to the suffering benefited Mary, indeed the time increased her sadness, because Jesus grew and more and more revealed to her beautiful and loving on one side, while on the other the moment of his death approaching , the pain of having to lose Him on this earth widened more and more in the Heart of Mary.

POINT II
Mary was Queen of martyrs not only because her martyrdom was longest of all, but also because she was greater. Who can ever measure its size? It seems that Jeremiah does not find whom to compare this grieving Mother with, considering her great suffering for the death of her Son: “WHAT WILL I COMPARE YOU WITH? WHAT WILL I COMPARE YOU TO? DAUGHTER OF JERUSALEM? BECAUSE YOUR RUIN IS LARGE AS THE SEA; WHO CAN YOU HEAL? " (Lam 2,13) ​​Commenting on these words Cardinal Ugon said "0 BLESSED VIRGIN, AS THE SEA EXCEEDS ALL THE OTHER WATERS IN QUANTITY AND BITTERITY, SO YOUR PAIN EXCEEDS ALL OTHER PAINS"

St. Anselm declared that if God with an extraordinary miracle had not kept his life in Mary, his pain would have been enough to give her death at all times that she had lived. Saint Bernardino of Siena came to say that Mary's pain was so great that if it had been divided among all men, it would have been enough to make them all die suddenly. Let us now consider the reasons why the martyrdom of Mary was greater than that of all the martyrs. Let's start by reflecting that the martyrs suffered martyrdom in the bodies by means of fire and iron, instead Mary suffers in the soul, as San Simeone had predicted to her :: "AND EVEN TO YOU A SWORD WILL STRAW THE SOUL". (Lk 2,35) It is as if the old saint had said to her: "O Holy Virgin, the other martyrs will suffer physical lacerations with their weapons but You will be pierced and martyred in the soul with the Passion of your beloved Son". As much as the soul is more noble than the body, so much the pain felt by Mary was greater than that of all the martyrs, as Jesus Christ said to Saint Catherine of Siena: “THERE IS NO COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PAIN OF THE SOUL AND THAT OF THE BODY ". Saint Abbot Arnoldo Carnotense believes that whoever found himself on Calvary present at the great sacrifice of the Immaculate Lamb when he died on the cross, would have seen two large altars: one in the body of Jesus, the other in the Heart of Mary. At the same time when the Son sacrificed her body with death, Mary sacrificed her soul with pain: Saint Anthony adds that the other martyrs suffered by sacrificing their own lives, but the Blessed Virgin suffered by sacrificing the life of the Son whom she he loved so much more than his own. Thus she not only suffered in spirit all that the Son endured in the body, but the sight of the sufferings of Jesus certainly caused her heart to suffer even more pain than it would have caused her if she herself had suffered them physically. It cannot be doubted that Mary suffered in her heart all the atrocities from which she saw her beloved Jesus tormented. Everyone knows that the sufferings of the children are such also for the mothers, particularly if they are present and see them suffer. St. Augustine, considering the torment that the Maccabees mother suffered in the tortures in which she saw her children die says: “Looking at them, she suffered in each of them; because she loved them all, she was tormented at the sight of what they suffered in the body. " So it happened to Mary: all those torments, the scourges, the thorns, the nails, the cross, which afflicted the innocent body of Jesus, entered at the same time into the heart of Mary to carry out her martyrdom. "He suffered in the body, Mary in the heart," wrote St. Amedeo. In the way that San Lorenzo Giustiniani says, the Heart of Mary became like a mirror of the pains of the Son, in which spits, beatings, sores and all that Jesus suffered were seen. San Bonaventura reflects that the wounds from which the whole body of Jesus was torn, were then concentrated in the Heart of Mary. Thus the Virgin, through the compassion she felt for the Son, was in her Heart in love scourged, crowned with thorns, despised, nailed to the cross. The same Saint, contemplating Mary on Mount Calvary while assisting the dying Son, asks her: “Madam, tell me, where were you in those moments? Maybe only near the cross? No, I will say better; You are there on the cross itself, crucified together with Your son ”. And Richard, commenting on the words of the Redeemer, reported through Isaiah: "IN THE TIN I PIGIATED ALONE AND MY PEOPLE NO ONE WAS WITH ME", (Is 63,3) adds: "Lord, you are right to say that in the work of the Redemption you are alone in suffering and you have no man who pities you enough, but you have a woman who is Your Mother, She suffers in the heart what You suffer in the body ". But all this is too little to speak of Mary's suffering because, as I said, she suffered more from seeing her beloved Jesus suffer rather than she had suffered all the cruelties and death suffered by the Son. Speaking in general of the parents, Sant'Erasmo said that they suffer more from the pains of their children than from any pain of their own. But this will not always be true. It certainly came true in Mary, as it is certain that she loved the Son and His life immensely more than herself and a thousand lives of her own. Saint Amedeo declares that the Mother of Sorrows at the painful sight of the sufferings of her beloved Jesus, suffered even more than she would have suffered if she had suffered all her passion: “Mary was tormented much more than if she herself had been tormented because she loved immeasurably beyond herself the one for whom she suffered. " The reason is clear, because, as San says. Bonaventura: "The soul is more where it loves than where it lives". Even before Jesus himself had said it: "WHERE IS YOUR TREASURE, YOUR HEART WILL BE ALSO". (Le 12,34) If Mary out of love lived in the Son more than in Herself, she certainly suffered a greater pain at the death of Jesus than that she had suffered the cruelest death in the world. Now we can deal with the other aspect that made Mary's martyrdom immensely greater than the torture of all the martyrs, because in the Passion of Jesus she suffered greatly and without relief. The martyrs suffered in the torments that the tyrants inflicted on them, but love for Jesus made their pains sweet and lovable. San Vincenzo certainly suffered during his martyrdom: he was tormented on the eculeo (the eculeo is a torture instrument on which the condemned man was stretched out and tortured Easel), stripped of hooks, burnt by burning sheets; yet we read the story made by St. Augustine: “He spoke with such strength to the tyrant and with so much contempt of torments, that it seemed that a Vincent suffered and another Vincent spoke, so much his God with the sweetness of his love comforted him in those "suffering. Saint Boniface certainly suffered while his body was torn with irons, sharp straws were placed between his nails and flesh, liquefied lead in his mouth, and he did not satiate himself at the same time to say: "I give you thanks, Lord Jesus Christ ". San Marco and San Marcellino certainly suffered, when, tied to a pole, their feet were pierced with nails. The torturers said to them: "Unfortunately, repent and you will be freed from these torments". But they replied: “What pains are you talking about? What torments? We have never feasted more cheerfully than these moments in which we suffer with joy for the love of Jesus Christ ”. San Lorenzo suffered while he was burning on the grill, but it was, says San Leone, more powerful than the internal flame of love that consoled him in the soul, rather than the fire that tormented him in the body. Indeed love made him so strong that he came to say insults to the executioner: "Tyrant, if you want to feed on my flesh, a part is already cooked, now turn the bow and eat it." But how was it possible, how could the Saint be so serene during those tortures and such prolonged death? St. Augustine replies that he, intoxicated with the wine of divine love, felt neither torment nor death. Therefore the holy martyrs the more they loved Jesus, the less they felt the torments and the death, and the mere sight of the pains of the crucified God was enough to console them. But was our grieving Mother also consoled in the same way by the love she felt for Her Son and by the sight of His sufferings? No, indeed the same Son who was suffering was all the reason for His pain, and the love he felt for Him was his only and excruciating executioner, since Mary's martyrdom consisted precisely in seeing and feeling compassion for the innocent and loved Son. His pain was therefore immature and without relief. "LARGE AS THE SEA IS YOUR PAIN: WHO CAN CONSOLATE YOU?". (Lam 2,13:XNUMX) Oh, Queen of Heaven, love has. mitigated the punishment of the other martyrs, healed their wounds; but to you, who has alleviated the great pain? Who healed the painful wounds of Your Heart? Who will be able to console You if that same Son, the only one who could give him relief, was with His pain the only reason for Your sufferings, and the love you felt for Him was the cause of all your martyrdom? Filippo Diez observes that where the other martyrs are represented with the instrument of their own passion (Saint Paul with the sword, Saint Andrew with the cross, Saint Lawrence with the grate) Mary is depicted with the dead Son in her arms, because precisely the Jesus himself was the instrument of His martyrdom, because of the love she felt for him. In a few words Saint Bernard confirms all that I have said: “In other martyrs the power of love soothes the harshness of pain; but the Blessed Virgin the more she loved, the more you suffer, the more cruel was her martyrdom. " It is certain that the more one loves a thing, the more one suffers when one gets lost there.

Cornelius tells Lapide that to understand how great Mary's pain was at the death of her Son, one should understand how great was the love she felt for Jesus. But who can ever measure this love? Blessed Amedeo says that both the love for His Jesus were united in the Heart of Mary: the supernatural love with which he loved Him as His God and the natural love with which he loved Him as Son. So these two, loves became one, but it was so great that William of Paris came to say that the Blessed Virgin loved Jesus "as far as the capacity of a pure creature was", that is to the maximum of the capacity of love of a pure creature. "Therefore Riccardo di San Lorenzo says as there was no love similar to His, so there was no pain equal to His pain". And if Mary's love for the Son was immense, His pain was also immense when he lost it with death: "Where there is great love says Blessed Albert the Great there is great pain". Now imagine that the Divine Mother under the cross where the Son hangs dying, rightly applying the words of Jeremiah to Herself, says to us: ACHE". (Lam 1,12:XNUMX) It is as if he said: “O you who spend your life on earth and do not notice my suffering, stop a little to look at me as I see this beloved Son die before my eyes, and then see if between let all the afflicted and tormented find pain similar to mine ”. "We cannot find a more bitter pain than Yours or a grieving Mother. St. Bonaventure replies to her as we cannot find a dearer Son than Yours". “There has not existed on earth a Son dearer than Yours, nor more lovable than Yours, nor a mother who loves her son more than Mary. If there was no love on earth similar to that of Mary, how. can pain like yours exist? ". Sant'Ildelfonso, in fact; he had no doubts in asserting that it is little to say that the Virgin's pains overcame all the torments of the Martyrs even united together. Sant'Anselmo adds that the most cruel tortures used with the Holy Martyrs were light, indeed nothing compared to the martyrdom of Mary. St. Basil wrote that just as the sun outweighs all the other planets, so Mary with Her suffering overcame the pains of all the other martyrs. A wise author concludes with a nice consideration. He says that the pain endured by this tender Mother in the Passion of Jesus was so great that she alone was able to pity the death of the God made man.

St. Bonaventure, addressing the Blessed Virgin, says to her: “Madam, why did you also want to go and sacrifice yourself on Calvary? Was it not enough to redeem us a crucified God, who you also wanted to be crucified, His Mother? ”. Oh, certainly. Jesus' death was enough to save the world, and also infinite worlds, but this good Mother who loved us so much wanted to contribute to our salvation with the merits of Her sufferings which She offered for us on Calvary. For this reason, St. Albert the Great claims that just as we must be grateful to Jesus for His Passion offered for our love, so we must also be grateful to Mary for the martyrdom that she spontaneously wanted to suffer for our salvation at the death of her son. I added SPONTANEOUSLY, because as the Angel revealed to Saint Brigida, this so compassionate and benevolent Mother of ours preferred to suffer any pain rather than know the souls not redeemed and left in their ancient sin.

It can be said that the only relief of Mary in the great pain of the Passion of the Son was the certainty that the death of Jesus would redeem the lost world, and would reconcile with God the men who had rebelled against him with the sin of Adam. Such a great love of Mary deserves gratitude from us, and gratitude manifests itself at least in meditating and sympathizing with His pains. But she complained about this to Saint Brigida saying that few were close to her in her suffering, most lived without even remembering her. For this reason, I recommend to the Saint to remember her pains: “I LOOK AMONG THOSE WHO LIVE ON EARTH BUT I FIND VERY FEW WHO HAVE COMPASSION OF ME AND MEDITINE ON MY PAIN SO, MY DAUGHTER, EVEN IF MANY FORGET; YOU DON'T FORGET ME; CONTEMPLATE MY PAIN AND IMITATE ME AS MUCH AS YOU CAN AND SUFFER WITH ME ”. To understand how much the Virgin likes that we remember her sufferings, it is enough to know that in 1239 she appeared to seven of her devotees, who then were the founders of the Servants of Mary with a black dress in her hand, and confided to them that if they wanted to do her what she liked, they often meditated on Her pains. Therefore, just in memory of his sufferings, he exhorted them, from that moment on, to wear that lugubrious robe.

Jesus Christ himself revealed to Blessed Veronica da Binasco that He is almost happier when he sees that creatures console the Mother rather than Himself. In fact, he said to her: “DAUGHTER Tears are poured out for me for my passion; BUT BECAUSE I LOVE MY MOTHER WITH IMMENSE LOVE, I PREFER THAT THE SUFFERINGS THAT YOU PATH TO MY DEATH ARE MEDITATED ". Therefore the graces promised by Jesus to the devotees of Mary's pains are very great. Pelbarto reports the content of a revelation had by St. Elizabeth. She saw that John the Evangelist, after the Assumption to Heaven of the Blessed Virgin, wished to see her again. He obtained grace and his dear Mother appeared to him, and together with her also Jesus Christ. Then she heard that Mary asked the Son for some special grace for the devotees of His sorrows, and that Jesus promised her four main graces for this devotion:

L. THOSE WHO CALL THE DIVINE MOTHER IN HIS SUFFERINGS WILL HAVE THE GIFT OF PENITING ALL HIS SINS BEFORE DIING.

2. HE WILL CONSOLATE THESE DEVOTEES IN THEIR SUFFERINGS, ESPECIALLY AT THE TIME OF DEATH.

3. YOU WILL IMPRESS THEIR MEMORY OF HIS PASSION, AND IN HEAVEN THEN WILL GIVE THEM THE AWARD.

4. THESE DEVOTED PEOPLE WILL BE ENTRUSTED TO THE PROTECTION OF MARY, SO THAT THEY WILL DISPOSE THEM AT HER PLEASURE AND GET THEM ALL THE THANKS YOU WISH.

This, speech was written by Sant'Alfonso Maria de Liguori lo, can be resumed to meditate, pray and know to develop devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary more and more. The text is called: "THE GLORIES OF. MARIA ”part two

THE DEVOTION TO THE DESOLATE
The most serious and least considered pain of Mary is perhaps the one she felt in separating herself from the sepulcher of the Son and in the time in which she remained without him. During the Passion she certainly suffered excruciatingly, but at least she had the consolation of suffering with Jesus: seeing her increased the pain, but it was also of some relief. But when Calvary descended without his Jesus, how lonely she must have felt, how empty the house must have seemed to her! We console this sorrow so forgotten by Mary, keeping her company in her solitude, sharing her pains and reminding her of the next Resurrection that will repay you for so much anguish!

HOLY HOUR WITH THE DESOLATE
Try to spend all the time in which Jesus remained in the sepulcher in a holy sadness, consecrating as much as you can to keep company with the Desolate Mother. Find at least an hour to dedicate totally to She who is called the Desolate par excellence and who deserves your Lament more than any other.

Better if the time is made in common, or if a shift can be established between various people, which runs from the evening of Friday to the evening of Holy Saturday. Think of being close to Mary, to read in her heart and to hear her complaints.

Consider and console the pain you have experienced:

L. When he saw the sepulcher closed.

2. When it had to be torn almost by force.

3. When returning, he passed near the ordeal where the Cross still stood

4. When going down the path of Calvary he saw the indifference and contempt of the people.

5. When he returned to the empty house and falling into the arms of San Giovanni, he felt the loss more.

6. During the long hours that passed from Friday evening to Sunday, always with the horrible scenes of which she had been a spectator in front of her eyes

7. When he thought that many of his pains and of his Divine Son would be useless for so many millions not only of pagans, but of Christians.