Last week, this Lent series opened with my post on the Devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Mary and its Promises. I begin the next part with a Reflection on each of the Seven Sorrows, starting with the first one.
I have received a special grace through the intercession of Our Lady of Sorrows. By sharing this, may you be encouraged to have a devotion to her Seven Sorrows. It took a year to get a clearer answer. The blessing was given to me last week.
Read Our Lent 2018 Series
Introduction – The Promises of the Devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Blessed Virgin Mary
The First Sorrow of Mary is the Prophecy of Simeon, which happened during the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.
34 And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted;
35 And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.
– Luke 2:34-35
My Analysis on the First Sorrow of Mary:
Every February 2, forty days after Christmas, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Aside from the main focus of most Catholic discussions on the Prophecy of Saint Simeon, which is the foretelling of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Child Jesus, another central topic is about Saint Simeon himself.
But in this Lenten series, we desire to encounter Jesus more deeply and meaningfully by paying closer attention to the other half of the prophecy – the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was stated that the suffering of Our Lord and the cruelty of men would pierce the very soul of Mary, like a sword, and would reveal the thoughts of many hearts. The said prophecy exactly defines the importance of the Sorrows of Mary in the sacrifice of life of Jesus Christ for mankind.
1. We should take note that Holy Simeon spoke of the Prophecy on Jesus only to His Mother, to Mary alone, and did not include His foster-father, Saint Joseph.
2. It must be for an important reason that Saint Simeon specifically included Mary in the Prophecy for the Child Jesus, as narrated in the Gospel of Luke from the Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA), a version of the Bible more closely related to the Greek original. Such emphasis tells us that the Blessed Virgin Mary herself has an essential role in the destiny of the Child.
3. Non-Catholic denominations and other “Christian” sects have a particular hatred for the Blessed Mother. Not only do they completely disregard all of her sufferings and sorrows for our sake. They resist venerating, honoring and praying to the Virgin as the Queen of Heaven and Earth. What they do is a contradiction to the fullness of the Faith because the Sacred Scripture itself highlights that Mary is an integral part of man’s salvation history, as affirmed in the Prophecy of Simeon.
This Prophecy is actually a fulfillment of another prophecy spoken by Malachi in the Old Testament that says, “The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” (Malachi 3:1) Such foretold day had finally arrived when the Child Jesus was presented at the Temple. In that moment, the Holy Spirit Himself inspired Simeon not only to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. The Holy Spirit likewise revealed to us that Mary would bear a unique role in God’s plan of salvation. What reason then do those sects have to leave out the Mother of Our Lord and even blaspheme against her? It’s undoubtedly the work of the devil behind them.
4. Mary as Co-Redemptrix
a. What the Co-Redemptrix title of Mary proclaims to the world is that “suffering is redemptive when united to the sufferings of Christ.” That’s precisely what Mary did in participation to the redemptive work of Jesus for us. She united herself so perfectly with Her Son by suffering the Seven Sorrows and enduring everything for us to be saved.
b. The informal Marian title of “Co-Redemptrix” is yet to be officially declared as a dogma, or a truth that is divinely revealed and infallibly taught by the Church. Although the title is not yet a Marian dogma, it has been used by Saints and Catholics as early as the 10th century. In the 15th century, the prefix “Co-“ was added for clarification that Mary is not the Redeemer, but the Mother of God who cooperated rather uniquely with Her Son Jesus Christ in the work of Redemption.
c. Last year, in commemoration of the 100th year of the Apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, the Theological Commission of International Marian Association, composed of more than 100 theologians, bishops, priests, religious, and lay leaders from over 20 countries, submitted a 10-page document to Pope Francis. It was a petition for the Holy Pontiff to finally recognize “Mary as Co-Redemptrix with Jesus the Redeemer” as a public title of the Blessed Mother. If given a formal papal recognition, it could also lead to its recognition as a new Marian Dogma. We are still awaiting the result of this petition.
News credit: CatholicNewsAgency.com
d. One probable reason why it has taken this long to seek a formal recognition of Mary as Co-Redemptrix is that it may cause confusion among Catholics that the Blessed Mother is equal to Jesus as the Redeemer. But as the Association that submitted the request carefully clarified, “The Co-Redemptrix title never places Mary on a level of equality with Jesus Christ, the only divine Redeemer, as to do so would constitute both heresy and blasphemy.”
5. Mary herself requests to be called as “Co-Redemptrix”
a. I have this Marian book about the Apparitions of Mary as “Our Lady of All Nations” that my parents bought for me when I was a child. The narration mostly consisted of “Eucharistic Experiences,” which are revelations given to the visionary during her reception of Holy Communion. I remember myself often reading about it, hoping it would be acknowledged as true. God already knew back then that one day I was going to write about it, which is this day.
b. The seer, Ida Peerdeman, claimed to have 207 visions, which included the Virgin Mary in the first 56, beginning on March 25, 1945. It was said that her Eucharistic Experiences went on for 26 years until the visions ceased on May 21, 1959.
c. Back then, the Church still had no position whether her visions were real. Then much later, a Church Decree was released stating, “On 31 May 2002 Bishop Jozef Marianus Punt of Haarlem, having concluded a period of investigation, declared the apparitions accorded Ida Peerdeman of Amsterdam, Holland, in which the Blessed Virgin Mary asked to be known as Our Lady of All Nations, to be “of a supernatural origin.” This means that these Apparitions are approved and worthy of belief.
d. These Apparitions contain important messages from Our Lady, including her request for the official recognition of her vocation as “Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate,” with a promise that the Lady of All Nations will then give peace, true peace, to the world. She said that this would be the Fifth and Final Marian Dogma of the Catholic Church.
“The Lady of All Nations is here, standing before the Cross of Her Son; her feet are placed in the very mist of the world, and the flock of Jesus Christ surrounds her. It is as Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix that I come at these times. I was Co-Redemptrix from the moment of the Annunciation. This is the meaning: the mother has been constituted Co-Redemptrix by the will of the Father. Tell this to your theologians. Tell them likewise that this dogma will be the last in Marian history.”
– Our Lady of All Nations
6. Pope John Paul the Great in his Mariological encyclical “Redemptoris Mater”
a. Redemptoris Mater, or Mother of the Redeemer, is the title of the encyclical delivered by Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City on March 25, 1087. I realize just now that it was spoken exactly 42 years after the visions regarding Our Lady of All Nations began.
b. The encyclical discusses the special place of the Blessed Virgin Mary in God’s plan of salvation. It says,
“Thus there is a mediation: Mary places herself between Her Son and mankind in the reality of their wants, needs and sufferings. She puts herself “in the middle,” that is to say she acts as a mediatrix not as an outsider, but in her position as mother. She knows that as such she can point out to Her Son the needs of mankind, and in fact, she “has the right” to do so. Her mediation is thus in the nature of intercession: Mary “intercedes” for mankind.
c. I think these words of Pope John Paul II echo what St. Simeon prophesized that the sword of sorrow predicted for Mary heralded the ultimate sacrifice of life of Jesus by death on the Cross, ultimately showing that she is especially chosen as part of the plan of redemption for mankind. Our Blessed Mother is always in the middle. We cannot speak of the Cross without speaking about her as well. How then can Non-Catholics who reject the Mother of God talk about being ‘saved,’ when they do not ever acknowledge Mary’s role between all of us and the Cross; when they do not ever show even the smallest gratefulness and devotion to Her Sorrowful Heart?
7. Mary’s own words: sorrow, pain, grief, after hearing the Prophecy of Simeon
Our Lady said to Saint Matilda that “all her joy turned into sorrow” when she heard the Prophecy of Saint Simeon.
“On that day [of the Presentation] my pain was increased. For though, by divine inspiration, I knew that my Son was to suffer, yet this grief pierced my heart more keenly at Simeon’s words when he said that a sword would pierce my soul, and that my Son should be set for a sign to be contradicted.”
“As often as I looked at my Son, as often as I wrapped Him in His swaddling-clothes, as often as I saw His hands and feet, so often was my soul absorbed, so to say, in fresh grief; for I thought how He would be crucified.”
– Our Lady to Saint Bridget of Sweden
(From the book “The Glories of Mary” by Saint Alphonsus di Liguori)
My Reflection:
1. No one can fathom the depth of sorrow that pierced the Blessed Mother’s heart when she heard about the sufferings and death that Jesus would go through. Remember that she learned of this Prophecy right when Jesus was just a baby. Think of the Blessed Virgin and how she knew all along, every day, for the next 33 years in their lives what was going to happen to Her most precious Son. Only Mary and Her Immaculate Heart could bear such sorrow, all for the sake of our redemption.
2. Very rarely, in our lives, if at all, do we learn of what is going to happen by means of a prophecy of a holy man like Simeon. God’s will for us is mostly revealed through natural means, knowledge or occurrence. One example for some of you probably is being diagnosed of a chronic or a life-long disease. Wasn’t it too painful when you first learned of it from the doctor? The sorrow kicks in more as one bears the illness and struggles to live through each day. It can be real tough for some of us to accept the will of God, especially the painful life matters that are “prophesized” for us as they naturally unfold in everyday life.
3. In our miseries, we have to look up to our Blessed Mother and rely on her guidance and consolation. Mary understood right from the beginning that the Prophecy was the will of God. And so, she had the strength to go on with their lives with complete trust in God, and to live in total abandonment to His plan until it happened. She accepted the will of God because she trusted His wisdom in all these; the prophecy would seem “horrific” and “undoable” for any other person. But the Blessed Virgin endured her sorrows- with faith that it was for our eternal good and for the glory of God.
4. Similarly, we must try to accept our sufferings, and those things beyond our control, as the will of God for us. We need to pray to Him for the grace of strength, and call upon our Blessed Mother who completely understands our own sorrows. She, together with Saint Joseph, her loving spouse, will console and help us, as the Saints also intercede for us. The Lord has promised us, as Saint Paul the Apostle said, that our sufferings that give us sorrows would bring forth glory with Him in Heaven:
“and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.”
– Romans 8:17-18
Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us!
Saint Joseph, pray for us!
Mama Mary, pray for us!
Amen.
She graduated cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas, the country's Pontifical and Catholic university, with an AB in Legal Management and minor units in Theology.
As an unmarried woman, prayer holds a central place in her daily life, with a focus on the Rosary and the Divine Office. Embodying her faith, she emphasizes the growth of her inner spiritual life, guided by the wisdom of Carmelite spirituality.
God manifested to her in a unique and radical manner, which made her know Who He truly is and led her to total surrender of her life to Him.
She has studied the Bible with her family, developing a particular fondness for the Old Testament.
Her adorable and intelligent toy poodle is a delightful companion in her daily life, bringing warmth and joy to her home.
Her hobbies include reading about everything, learning Japanese and German, listening to music and playing the flute.
In her leisure time, she enjoys gaming on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo 3DS, iOS and OS, and collecting things related to PlayStation and Nintendo.
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As Catholic christian, we should be aware that the heart and blood of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, biologically and mystically came from our mama Mary. His heart were pierced and the blood and water which flowed out to redeem mankind were also the same blood as that of our mother Mary. Take note also that when our Lord Jesus died on the cross, He endorsed mankind represented by his disciple to HIS Mother and in the same token HIS mum to HIS Disciple.If Lord Jesus promised to the good thief to bring him to paradise more so His Mum, who fully dedicated Her life and soul to the Will of GOD will be with Him in Paradise, I believed that Jesus himself already revealed to us beforehand that mama Mary accepted the suffering ? and sorrows entrusted to her by the FATHER, therefore She is a co-redeemer as she trusted fully the WISDOM of the FATHER in Heaven all throughout HER life. From the beginning She is part of the GOD’S ❤️? PLAN.