A Motherhood of Sorrow

 Rejoice, O sorrowful Mother; after your great sufferings,
you shine forth as Queen, enthroned beside your Son.
- Benedictus Antiphon

"What words can ever describe the indescrible anguish that rent the sacred heart of Mary as she looked upon her Divine Son hanging on the cross! Every wound in Jesus' body was also a wound in the heart of Mary: every fibre, every nerve throbbing in agony. Every pang He suffereed re-echoed in her heart. She endured by her compassion a share in all the anguish of His Passion. Why did Mary suffer all this? That she might be our Mother, the Mother of mankind. She who brought forth her Divine Son without a pang suffered many a piercing pang when from the cross her dying Son commended to her the sinful sons of men. That was indeed a motherhood of sorrow she suffered for our sins: for mine."
- 1962 Roman Missal  

"O God, at Whose Passion, according to the prophecy of Simeon, a sword of sorrow pierced the most sweet soul of the glorious Virgin and Mother Mary: mercifully grant, that we who with devotion honor her Sorrows, may obtain the happy fruit of Thy Passon."
- Collect for the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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