15/09/2025
TODAY'S LITURGICAL MEMORIAL: OUR LADY OF SORROWS
Monday 15th September 2025
My dear brothers and sisters,
The Church gives us a precious gift in mid-September of two feasts that cannot be separated: yesterday, September 14, we celebrated the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the lifting high the wood of our salvation. And today, September 15, we turn to Our Lady of Sorrows, the Mother who stood beneath that Cross! In fact, where the Son is lifted up, the Mother stands in faith, where the Redeemer suffers, the Mother’s heart is pierced. This is why the two are connected.
But looking keenly into the life of Mary, we find her life animated by occasions of sorrow but she went through them with firm faith and hope. In Luke’s Gospel, Simeon takes the infant Jesus in his arms and in a prophetic way tells Mary: “This child is destined for the fall and rise of many … and a sword will pierce your own soul also” (Luke 2:35).
Three years later, on Calvary, John’s Gospel shows us the fulfillment of Simeon's prophecy: Mary stands beneath the Cross, and Jesus looks down and says, “Woman, behold your son” … “Behold, your mother” (John 19:26–27). The sword has struck, the prophecy is fulfilled, and Mary’s heart is pierced with sorrow as she watches her Son die.
In total there are Seven Sorrows of Mary namely:
✓ Simeon’s prophecy,
✓ The flight into Egypt,
✓ The loss of the boy Jesus in the Temple,
✓ Her meeting Him on the way to Calvary,
✓ Jesus crucifixion and death,
✓ His body laid in her arms,
✓ Jesus burial.
These are not abstract mysteries. They are human moments of pain: fear for a child, exile from home, the anguish of loss, the helplessness of watching a loved one suffer, the silence of death. In each of these, Mary shows us how to bear sorrow with dignity, with faith, and with love.
The Cross shows us what God has done for us. Mary’s sorrow shows us how humanity is called to respond; with love that suffers, with trust that endures, with hope that does not die. She is the mirror of every suffering heart, and she teaches us how to turn our wounds into prayer and our pain into an offering.
Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that Mary’s sorrow is not passive resignation. She is not simply enduring tragedy. Rather, she is actively uniting her pierced heart to the pierced side of Christ. She is participating in the mystery of redemption, showing us that even in suffering, faith can blossom and love can bear fruit. Her tears are not signs of defeat but seeds of hope. At the Cross, she becomes our Mother, receiving each of us as her children.
And so, dear brothers and sisters, when we face our own sorrows like when we are pierced by grief, by fear, by loss and the like, let us turn to Our Lady of Sorrows. She knows what it means to suffer. She knows what it means to weep. But she also knows what it means to stand firm in faith when everything else seems lost. She whispers to us: Do not despair. Trust God. Stand at the Cross. Love even in sorrow!
Let us place our wounds in her hands, our tears in her heart, our pain beneath her mantle. She will teach us to trust. She will teach us to hope. And with her, we too will discover that sorrow, when united with Christ, becomes the path to life, to love, and to resurrection.
Do you feel overburdened by some sorrow and worry in your life? Let us turn to Mary in prayer 🙏
Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us 🙏
