May, month of Mary: meditation on day twenty one

The ADDOLORATA

21 DAY
Holy Mary.

Invocation. - Mary, Mother of mercy, pray for us!

The ADDOLORATA
On Calvary, while Jesus' great sacrifice was being made, two victims could be targeted: the Son, who sacrificed the body with death, and Mother Mary, who sacrificed the soul with compassion. The Heart of the Virgin was the reflection of Jesus' pains.
Ordinarily the mother feels the sufferings of the children more than her own. How much Our Lady had to suffer to see Jesus die on the Cross! San Bonaventura says that all those wounds that were scattered on the body of Jesus were at the same time all united in the Heart of Mary. - The more one loves a person, the more one suffers from seeing them suffer. The love that the Virgin had for Jesus was boundless; he loved him with supernatural love as his God and natural love as his Son; and having a very delicate Heart, she suffered so much as to deserve the title of Addolorata and Queen of Martyrs.
The Prophet Jeremiah, many centuries before, contemplated her in vision at the feet of the dying Christ and said: «To what shall I compare you or to whom will I resemble you, daughter of Jerusalem? … Your bitterness is in fact as big as the sea. Who will console you? »(Jeremiah, Lam. II, 13). And the same Prophet places these words in the mouth of the Virgin of Sorrows: «O all you who pass through the street, stop and see if there is pain similar to mine! »(Jeremiah, I, 12).
Saint Albert the Great says: As we are obliged to Jesus for his Passion suffered for our love, so too are we obliged to Mary for the martyrdom that she had in the death of Jesus for our eternal health. -
Our gratitude to Our Lady is at least this: meditate and pity her pains.
Jesus revealed to Blessed Veronica da Binasco that she is very pleased to see her Mother pitied, because the tears she shed on Calvary are dear to him.
The Virgin herself grieved with Santa Brigida that there are very few who pity her and most forget her pains; hence he urged her to remember her pains.
To honor the Addolorata, the Church has instituted a liturgical feast, which occurs on the fifteenth of September.
Privately it is good to remember the pains of the Madonna every day. How many devotees of Mary recite the crown of Our Lady of Sorrows every day! This crown has seven posts and each of them has seven grains. May the circle of those who honor the Sorrowful Virgin widen!
The daily recitation of the Seven Sorrows prayer, which can be found in many books of devotion, for example, in the "Eternal Maxims" is a good practice.
In the "Glories of Mary" St. Alphonsus writes: It was revealed to St. Elizabeth the Queen that St. John the Evangelist wanted to see the Blessed Virgin after being taken to Heaven. He had grace and Our Lady and Jesus appeared to him; on this occasion he understood that Mary asked the Son for some special grace for the devotees of his pains. Jesus promised four main graces:
1. - Whoever invokes the Divine Mother for her pains, before death will deserve to do true penance of all her sins.
2. - Jesus will keep these devotees in their tribulations, especially at the time of death.
3. - He will give them the memory of his Passion, with a great prize in Heaven.
4. - Jesus will place these devotees in Mary's hand, so that she will dispose of them at her pleasure and they will obtain all the graces that she wants.

EXAMPLE

A wealthy gentleman, abandoned the path of good, gave himself completely to vice. Blinded by passions, he expressly made a pact with the devil, protesting to give him the soul after death. After seventy years of sinful life it reached the point of death.
Jesus, wanting to use him mercy, said to St. Brigida: Go tell your confessor to run to the bed of this dying man; urge him to confess! - The Priest went three times and was unable to convert him. Finally he revealed the secret: I did not come to you spontaneously; Jesus himself sent me for, through a holy Sister and wants to grant you his forgiveness. Stop resisting the grace of God! -
The sick man, feeling this, softened and broke into tears; Then he exclaimed: How can I be forgiven after serving the devil for seventy years? My sins are very serious and innumerable! - The priest reassured him, arranged him for confession, acquitted him and gave him the Viaticum. After six days that wealthy gentleman died.
Jesus, appearing to St. Brigida, thus spoke to her: That sinner is saved; he is currently in Purgatory. She had the grace of conversion through the intercession of my Virgin Mother, because, although she lived in vice, she nevertheless retained devotion to her pains; when she remembered the suffering of Our Lady of Sorrows, she identified herself and pitied her. -

Foil. - Make seven small sacrifices in honor of the Madonna's seven pains.