• Home
  • Diocese
  • Bishop Burns
  • Synod
  • Columnists
  • Revista Catolica
  • Vatican
  • Subscribe
The Texas Catholic
The Texas Catholic

Dallas, Texas

Today is Tuesday, May 30, 2023
  • Home
  • Diocese
  • Bishop Burns
  • Synod
  • Columnists
  • Revista Catolica
  • Vatican
  • Subscribe
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
    • Instagram
Home
Pope Francis

Pope encourages Catholics to contemplate ‘seven sorrows’ of Mary

Friday, April 3, 2020

Pope Francis preaches about the motherhood and sorrows of Mary during his morning Mass April 3, 2020, in the chapel of his Vatican residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — On the Friday before Holy Week, Pope Francis asked people to keep a long tradition of Catholic piety by focusing on “the suffering and sorrows of Our Lady.”

“Honor Our Lady and say, ‘This is my mother,’ because she is mother. This is the title that she received from Jesus precisely there, at the cross,” the pope said at Mass April 3. Jesus “did not make her prime minister or give her ‘functional’ titles. Only ‘mother.'”

Mary did not ask for any honor or special titles, the pope said. “She didn’t ask to be a quasi-redemptrix or a co-redemptrix, no. There is only one redeemer and this title cannot be duplicated.”

For decades, some Catholics have been petitioning the popes to recognize Mary as “co-redemptrix” to highlight the essential role she played in redemption.

“Just disciple and mother — and in that way, as mother, we must think about her, seek her out, pray to her,” Pope Francis said. “She is the mother in the church that is mother. In the maternity of Our Lady, we see the maternity of the church, which receives everyone, good and bad, everyone.”

The Friday before Palm Sunday is observed in many places as the “Friday of Sorrows,” a special day of Marian devotion.

Pope Francis asked Catholics to spend time considering the “seven sorrows” of Mary: Simeon’s prophecy that a sword would pierce her heart; the flight into Egypt; the worry when the child Jesus could not be found because he was in the temple; meeting Jesus on the way to Calvary; seeing Jesus on the cross; witnessing Jesus, lifeless, being taken down from the cross; and seeing Jesus being buried in the tomb.

Mary bore those sufferings “with strength, with tears — it wasn’t a fake cry, hers was truly a heart destroyed by pain,” the pope said.

Pope Francis said that late in the evening, when he prays the Angelus prayer, he contemplates the seven sorrows and recalls “how the mother of the church, with so much pain, gave birth to all of us.”

With the morning Masses from the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae livestreamed during the coronavirus crisis, Pope Francis begins the liturgy with a special thought and prayer intention each day.

“There are people who already are thinking about the ‘after,’ what happens after the pandemic,” the pope said April 3. They already are strategizing ways to alleviate “all the problems that will come — problems of poverty, jobs, hunger. Let us pray for all the people who are helping today, but also thinking of tomorrow to help all of us.”
 
 

  • Tags
  • Coronavirus
  • Faith
  • Holy Week
  • Lent
  • Mary
  • Pope Francis
Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest
Next article USCCB president calls for national moment of prayer on Good Friday
Previous article Pope moves Good Friday collection for Holy Land to September

Related Posts

Promote Christian values, not divisions, on social media, Vatican says Pope Francis
Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Promote Christian values, not divisions, on social media, Vatican says

Pope on Pentecost: Synod is journey in the Spirit, not 'a parliament' Pope Francis
Sunday, May 28, 2023

Pope on Pentecost: Synod is journey in the Spirit, not 'a parliament'

Pope prays Chinese Catholics can practice faith fully, freely Pope Francis
Thursday, May 25, 2023

Pope prays Chinese Catholics can practice faith fully, freely

Texas Catholic Classics

A look at the five Dallas law enforcement officers who gave their lives while protecting citizens during a mass shooting in downtown Dallas in July 2016.

 

How a child with special needs inspired a high school volleyball team, community and a family who heeded God’s call to protect life.

 

After a young runner collapsed at a Dallas marathon, grace and providence unfolded for those involved in the valiant effort to help her.

   

In the summer of 2016, 50 students and 25 chaperones from Dallas Catholic high schools traveled to Nicaragua for a 10-day mission trip.

 

Early on a November morning, Kenndrick Mendieta bounded from the gym at Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep toward the campus’ athletic fields as clouds lifted on a fresh new day.

 

Subscribe

Get the award-winning Texas Catholic delivered to your door. Use the menu below to subscribe now.


Subscription length




 

Photo Gallery

Click here to find your favorite Texas Catholic photographs.

The Texas Catholic Newspaper

Catholic Diocese of Dallas
Michael Gresham, Editor

3725 Blackburn Street
Dallas, Texas 75219
(214) 379-2800

Our Affiliated Sites

Texas Catholic Youth

Revista Católica

Legal and Other

Contact us

Terms of service

Privacy policy

Site map

Site powered by TexasCatholicMedia

© 2013-2019 The Texas Catholic Publishing Company. All rights reserved.