Feast of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary

O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow!¹ Is this, then, the first cry of that sweet babe, whose coming brought such pure joy to our earth? Is the standard of suffering to be so soon unfurled over the cradle of such lovely innocence? Yet the heart of mother Church has not deceived her; this feast, coming at such a time, is ever the answer to that question of the expectant human race: What shall this child be?

The Saviour to come is not only the reason of Mary's existence, He is also her exemplar in all things. It is as His Mother that the Blessed Virgin came, and therefore as the Mother of sorrows; for the God, whose future birth was the very cause of her own birth, is to be in this world a Man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity?² To whom shall compare thee? Sings the prophet of lamentations: 0 Virgin .... great as the sea is thy destruction.³ On the mountain of the Sacrifice, as mother she gave her Son, as Bride she offered herself together with Him; by her sufferings both as Bride and as Mother, she was the co-redemptress of the human race. This teaching and these recollections were deeply engraved on our hearts on that other feast of our Lady's dolours which immediately preceded Holy Week.

Christ dieth now no more: and Our Lady's sufferings are over. Nevertheless the Passion of Christ is continued in his elect, in his Church, against which hell vents the rage it cannot exercise against himself. To this Passion of Christ's mystical Body of which she is also Mother, Mary still contributes her compassion; how often have her venerated images attested the fact, by miraculously shedding tears! This explains the Church's departure from liturgical custom, by celebrating two feasts, in different seasons, under one same title.

On perusing the register of the apostolic decrees concerning sacred rites, the reader is astonished to find a long and unusual interruption lasting from March 20th 1809 to September 18th 1814, at which latter date is entered the decree instituting on this present Sunday a second Commemoration of Our Lady's Dolours.⁴ 1809-1814, five sorrowful years, during which the government of Christendom was suspended; years of blood which beheld the Man-God agonizing once more in the person of His captive Vicar. But the Mother of Sorrows was still standing beneath the Cross, offering to God the Church's sufferings; and when the trial was over, Pius VII., knowing well whence the mercy had come, dedicated this day to Mary as a fresh memorial of the day of Calvary.

Even in the seventeenth century, the Servites had the privilege of possessing this second feast, which they celebrated as a double of the 2nd Class, with a Vigil and an Octave. It is from them that the Church has borrowed the Office and Mass. This honour and privilege was due to the Order established by Our Lady to honour her sufferings and to spread devotion to them. Philip Benizi, heir to the seven holy Founders, propagated the flame kindled by them on the heights of Monte Senario; thanks to the zeal of his sons and successors, the devotion to the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, once their family property, is now the treasure of the whole world.

The prophecy of the aged Simeon, the flight into Egypt, the loss of the divine Child in Jerusalem, the carrying of the Cross, the Crucifixion, the taking down from the Cross, and the burial of Jesus: these are the seven mysteries into which are grouped the well-nigh infinite sufferings which made Our Lady the Queen of martyrs, the first and loveliest rose in the garden of the Spouse. Let us take to heart the recommendation from the Book of Tobias, which the Church reads during this week in the Office of the Time : Thou shalt honour thy mother: for thou must be mindful what and how great perils she suffered in giving thee birth.⁵

¹ Thren. i. 12. ² Isaiae, liii. 3. ³ Thren. ii. 13. ⁴ Gardellini, Decreta authentica Congr. Sacr, Kit. ⁵ Tobias, iv. 8-4.