Mother of Sorrows

As the world is besieged by violence, storms, drought, disease and other chaos, the temptation is to think we are “on our own.” 

The tears of the Blessed Mother, whose feast day we celebrate under the title of Our Mother of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa) on Sept. 15 remind us that God sees and is with us as we journey through these sufferings.

No stranger to suffering, shortly after Mary had the joy of giving birth to Jesus she and St. Joseph took him to be presented in the temple. After the prophet Simeon blessed them and he proclaimed to Mary the words that would chill any mother’s heart:

“Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be contradicted and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2:35 USCCB). 

There is a connection between the feasts of the Mother of Sorrows and the Exultation of the Holy Cross on Sept. 14.  The church has celebrated the Exaltation of the Holy Cross since 326, when tradition says St. Helena discovered Christ’s true cross on Calvary on Sept. 14.

In the 4th century St. Ephrem the Syrian and St. Ambrose celebrated and venerated Mary’s sorrows and compassion. The sorrows of Mary standing under the cross became the main devotion of the new order, the Servants of Mary or Servites, in 1239. St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote in his book, “The Glories of Mary,” that year Our Lady appeared to seven of her servants “with a black garment in her hand and told them that if they wished to please her, they should often meditate upon her dolors (sorrows).”  

The Holy See granted them a feast of the Seven Dolors. Centuries later, in 1814, the Holy See placed the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on the Roman calendar.

Apparitions of Mary in more recent times have shown she still extends compassion, yet calls for conversion.

During Mary’s last apparition on Oct. 13, 1917, during the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, the Blessed Mother appeared not only as Our Lady of the Rosary and Our Lady of Mount Carmel but also as Our Lady of Sorrows. The Blessed Mother had told three Portuguese shepherd children, Lúcia dos Santos, Francisco and Jacinta Marto to urge the people to pray the rosary daily for the conversion of the world, specifically Russia. The Blessed Mother reportedly foretold to the shepherd children the apocalyptic visions of hell, war, communism and the death of a pope.

In 2017 Pope Francis canonized Jacinta Marto and Francisco at a Mass in Fatima Portugal.

In 1981, Mary appeared again as Our Mother of Sorrows in Kibeho, Rawanda to a 16-year-old schoolgirl, Alphonsine Mumureke.

Similar apparitions were recorded by two other schoolgirls, Nathalie Mukamazimpaka and Marie Claire Mukangango.

The primary message of Our Lady was that of mercy and repentance, revealing herself as “Our Lady of Sorrows.” She especially exhorted the visionaries to pray the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows.

One of the most notable visions to the girls was a prophetic message that would later prove true. On Aug. 19, 1982, the visionaries witnessed “a river of blood, people who were killing each other, abandoned corpses with no one to bury them, a tree all in flames, bodies without their heads.”

The Blessed Mother warned the visionaries that if the people did not repent of their sins, that what they saw would take place. In 1994, between 500,000 and one million people were slaughtered and the river soon became a “river of blood” as the bodies of the dead were thrown into it during the Rawanda genocide.

In 2001 the Vatican released the bishops report of the visions and declared the Kibeho apparition “worthy of belief.” 

As with all apparitions of Our Lady, these apparitions are known as “private revelations” and do not require the belief of the faithful.

As we look out on our current global horizon, we may certainly see Mary shedding tears now. As this feast day approaches we can honor her by heeding her urgings to follow her son’s teachings that is the same no matter what is going on in the world: Repent and believe in the Gospel.