Saint Josemaria
Quotations from Saint Josemaria

Our Lady´s sorrows

Tags: Suffering, Following Christ, Our Lady
The First Sorrow: Simeon’s Prophecy

And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And inspired by the Spirit he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory for thy people Israel.”
And his father and his mother marvelled at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”
Luke 2:22-35


Our Lady listens attentively to what God wants, ponders what she doesn’t fully understand and asks about what she doesn’t know. Then she gives herself completely to doing the divine will: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word.” Isn’t that marvellous? The blessed Virgin, our teacher in all we do, shows us here that obedience to God is not servile, does not bypass our conscience. We should be inwardly moved to discover the “freedom of the children of God.”
Christ is Passing By, 173

She teaches us to have charity. Remember the scene of the presentation of Jesus in the temple. An old man, Simeon, “said to his mother Mary, Behold, this child is destined to bring about the fall of many and the rise of many in Israel; and to be a sign which men will refuse to acknowledge; and so the thoughts of many hearts shall be made manifest; as for your own soul, it shall have a sword to pierce it.” So great is Mary’s love for all mankind that she, too, fulfilled Christ’s words when he affirmed: “Greater love has no man than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends.”

It is with good reason that the Popes have called Mary Co-Redemptrix. “So fully, in union with her suffering and dying Son, did she suffer and nearly die; so fully, for the sake of the salvation of men, did she abdicate her mother’s rights over her Son, and immolate him, insofar as it was in her power, to satisfy the justice of God, that it can rightly be said that she redeemed mankind together with Christ.” This gives us a deeper understanding of that moment in the Passion of Our Lord, which we shall never tire of meditating: Stabat autem iuxta crucem Iesu mater eius, “there, standing by the cross of Jesus, was his Mother”.
Friends of God, 287

The First Sorrow: Simeon’s Prophecy
The Second Sorrow: the Flight into Egypt
The Third Sorrow: the Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple
The Fourth Sorrow: Mary and Jesus meet on the road to Calvary
The Fifth Sorrow: the Death of Jesus on the Cross
The Sixth Sorrow: Christ’s Body is taken down from the Cross
The Seventh Sorrow: the Burial of Jesus