2021

Sorrowful Heart of Mary

On January 28, 2021 by

As of late, I have been experiencing an overwhelming sense of sorrow that is not my own. There is nothing specific in my life that I am sorrowful about, but this sorrow seems to come in waves and can sometimes overwhelm me. In asking the Lord to help me understand this sorrow, I have realized that what I am experiencing is the sorrow of Mary. Our Lady of Sorrows is a devotion that reflects on the seven swords, or sorrows, that pierced Mary’s heart. I have begun praying this devotion daily so that I may dive deeper into Mary’s Sorrowful Heart.

As I have reflected more on Mary’s sorrows, it is clear that her sorrows were that of her Son. Mary’s heart longed for all souls to know her Son, to love her Son and to serve her Son. She desired more than any other human being that Jesus be accepted and loved because she knew the redemption that was at hand for anyone who gave up their own life to follow Christ. So when Mary sees a soul that doesn’t know how much her Son loves them, when she sees a soul that has turned away from her Son, when she sees a soul that is suffering and cannot trust her Son, she sorrows for that soul. The soul that is separated from God is a tremendous sorrow in all of Heaven.

Mary’s entire life was lived for the Lord. She is the Immaculate Conception. In Mary being “full of grace”, St Maximillian Kolbe explains that she is full of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing in Mary, no sin, that blocks the full gift of the Holy Spirit that God perpetually offers to her. Mary receives in fullness, this same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead.

“In the union of the Holy Spirit with her, not only does love bind these two beings, but the first of them [the Holy Spirit] is all the love of the Most Holy Trinity, while the second [the Blessed Virgin Mary] is all the love of creation, and thus in that union heaven is joined to earth, the whole heaven with the whole earth, the whole of Uncreated Love with the whole of created love: this is the vertex of love”

St Maximilian Kolbe

Heaven and earth unite in and through the Blessed Virgin Mary. Where Eve was given fully of the perfection of humanity, yet chose to deny that gift through sin, Mary remained sinless and thus reveals the fullness of our humanity through what Maximilian calls the “vertex of love”.

A life lived in full union with the Holy Spirit is the call of all of humanity. We are able to know what this fullness of life looks like by looking to our Blessed Mother, who leads us into the very Heart of Jesus. Mary is perfectly united to the Heart of Jesus, thus her sorrows are His sorrows. When Mary’s heart burns with charity, it is Christ’s love within her. When Mary’s heart is pierced over unrepentant sinners, it is Christ’s sorrow within her. To contemplate the Immaculate Heart of Mary is to enter into the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which calls us to see the world as God sees the world.

I recently had an experience where I was overwhelmed with sorrow while meditating upon the second sorrow of Mary, which is the Flight into Egypt. The Lord took me deeper into that mystery by showing me how sorrowful Mary was to know that although her Son was to be saved from death, there were a multitude of babies that would perish in Bethlehem. I imagined that as she left in the night toward the safety of a foreign land, she no doubt struggled with this sword of sorrow and all the innocent souls that were to be murdered. Although this was not an easy thing to accept on a human level, Mary was living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and so she trusted fully in God’s promise of redemption. She lived only for the Will of God. Over and over again, it was Mary’s faith that, even in the midst of tremendous sorrow and lack of understanding, was the thing that guided her. 

“What kind of union is this? It is above all interior; it is the union of her very being with the being of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in her, lives in her, from the first instant of her existence, and he will do so always, throughout eternity…”

St Maximilian Kolbe

There is an ordering in our relation to God and that is God the Father, by way of the Holy Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit has reached down from Heaven to pick up humanity, whereby He gives us His grace through the power of the Holy Spirit, which lifts us up through the Cross of Jesus Christ, into the lap of our Heavenly Father. At this time, as our world seems to be crumbling around us, I believe we are all being called to take refuge in the Heart of Jesus. There is no better way to His Heart than by way of our Blessed Mother. Mary reveals to us the fullness of the Holy Spirit lived out by humanity in this world. As our Heavenly Father is reaching out to us through the Holy Spirit, Mary shows us how to receive that Spirit, and how to allow it to lead us. 

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Hail HOly queen (salve regina)

2 comments

  • Sally

    Thank you for a beautiful meditation. My daughter also will suffer waves of tremendous sorrow when we pray the rosary sometimes. We’ve learned to simply let the tears flow while the rest of us continue with the rosary. Very often, after one of these episodes a truth is revealed. Sometimes it has to do with the Church, other times it appeared to coincide with worldly truths coming out.