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The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary | pre-1955 Missal | Traditional Latin Mass Readings | 9/15/2026 · Vox Liturgica

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  Vox Liturgica: The propers of the day according to the Roman Missal before 1955. The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 15 in the year year of our Lord, 2026. Of today's feast, Dom Prosper Geringer writes the following, O all ye that pass by the way, attend and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow. Lamentations chapter one verse 12. Is this then the first cry of that sweet babe whose coming brought such pure joy to our earth?
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  Is the standard of suffering to be so soon unfurled over the cradle of such lovely innocence? Yet the heart of mother church has not deceived her. This feast coming at such a time is ever the answer to that question of the expectant human race. What shall this child be? The Savior to come is not only the reason of Mary's existence, He is also her exemplar in all things.
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  It is as His mother that the Blessed Virgin came and therefore as the mother of sorrows. For the God whose future birth was the very cause of her own birth is to be in this world a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity as Isaiah says, oh, whom shall I compare to thee? Sings the prophet of Lamentations. Oh, Virgin, great as the sea is thy destruction. On the mountain of the sacrifice as mother she gave her son.
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  As bride she offered herself together with him By her sufferings both as bride and as mother she was the coredemptress of the human race. This teaching and these recollections were deeply engraved on our hearts on that other feast of Our Lady's dollars which immediately preceded Holy Week. Christ dieth now no more and Our Lady's sufferings are over. Nevertheless, the passion of Christ is continued in his elect, in his church, against which hell vents the rage it cannot exercise against himself. To this passion of Christ's mystical body of which she is also a mother, Mary still contributes her compassion.
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  How often have her venerated images attested the fact by miraculously shedding tears? This explains the church's departure from liturgical custom by celebrating two feasts in different seasons under one title. On perusing the register of the apostolic decrees concerning sacred rites, the reader is astonished to find a long and unusual interruption lasting from March twentieth eighteen o nine to 09/17/1814 at which latter date is entered the decree instituting on this present Sunday a second commemoration of Our Lady's Dollers. Eighteen o nine to eighteen fourteen, five sorrowful years during which the government of Christendom was suspended. Years of blood which beheld the man god agonizing once more in the person of his captive vicar.
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  But the mother of sorrows was still standing beneath the cross offering to God the church's sufferings. And when the trial was over, Pius the seventh, knowing well whence the mercy had come, dedicated this day to Mary as a fresh memorial of the day of Calvary. Even in the seventeenth century, the Servites had the privilege of possessing this second feast which they celebrated as a double of the second class with a vigil and an octave. It is from them that the church has borrowed the office and mass. This honor and privilege was due to the order established by Our Lady to honor her sufferings and to spread devotion to them.
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  Philip Benizzi, heir to the seven holy founders, propagated the flame kindled by them on the heights of Montesenario. Thanks to the zeal of his sons and successors, the devotion to the $7 of the Blessed Virgin Mary, once their family property, now the treasure of the whole world. The prophecy of aged Simeon, the flight into Egypt, the loss of the divine child in Jerusalem, the carrying of the cross, the crucifixion, the taking down from the cross, and the burial of Jesus. These are the seven mysteries into which are grouped the well nigh infinite sufferings which made Our Lady the queen of martyrs, the first and loveliest rose in the garden of the spouse. Let us take to heart the recommendation of the book of Tobias, which the church reads during this week in the office of the time.
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  Thou shalt honor thy mother for thou must be mindful what and how great perils she suffered in giving thee birth. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost. Amen. The introit. There were standing by the cross of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister, Mary of Clopus and Salome and Mary Magdalene.
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  Woman, behold your son, said Jesus, and to the disciple, behold your mother. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning is now and will be through all ages of ages. Amen. There were standing by the cross of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister, Mary wife of Clopis, and Salome, and Mary Magdalene. The Collect, let us pray.
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  O God, in whose passion the sword, as Blessed Simeon foretold, pierced through the soul of Mary, the glorious Virgin and Mother, mercifully grant that we, who with devotion honor her sorrows may obtain the happy fruit of thy passion who live and reignest with God the father in the unity of the Holy Ghost God through all ages of ages. Amen. A lesson from the book of Judith. What blessing the power of the Lord has granted thee, making use of thee to bring our enemies to nothing. The Lord God most high has blessed thee, my daughter, above all women on earth.
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  Praised be the Lord that made heaven and earth for so ennobling thy name this day that thy renown shall never perish on men's lips. Still shall they be mindful of the Lord's power, the men for whose sake thou didst put thy own life in hazard when our race was in grievous distress and didst go out under the watchful eye of the Lord our God to save us from destruction. The gradual. Thou art all tears, all sorrow, o virgin Mary, standing by the cross of thy son Jesus, our Lord and our redeemer. Virgin mother of God, thy son endures this torment of the cross.
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  He whom the world cannot hold, the incarnate author of life. Alleluia. Alleluia. Holy Mary, the queen of heaven and mistress of the world stood by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ full of grief. By the cross her vigil keeping stands the queen of sorrows weeping while her son in torment hangs.
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  Now she feels, oh, heart afflicted, by the sword of old predicted, more than all a mother's pangs. Sad and heavy stands beside him. She who once had magnified him, one begotten, only born. While she sees that rich atoning, long the moaning, deep the groaning, of her mother heart forlorn. Who Christ's mother contemplating in such bitter anguish waiting has no human tears to shed.
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  Who would leave Christ's mother sharing all the pain her son is bearing by those tears uncomforted? Victim priest of jury's nation, there he hangs in expiation. Scourge and nail have had their will. Earth and heaven his cause forsaking. Now his noble heart is breaking.
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  Now the laboring breath is still. Mother, found whence love flows truest. Let me know the pain thou newest. Let me weep as thou hast wept. Love divine within me burning, that diviner love returning.
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  May thy son this heart accept. Mother, if my prayer be granted, those five wounds of his implanted in my breast I fain would see. Love exceeding hangs there bleeding. My cause pleading. My love needing.
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  Bid him share his cross with me. Till life fails, I would not fail him. Still remember, still bewail him, born thy son and crucified. By the cross, my vigil keeping, I would spend those hours weeping, queen of sorrows at thy side. Virgin, boast of all creation, heed my tears nor consolation in thy bitterness repel.
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  At thy side his livery wearing, his cross bearing, his death sharing, of these wounds the beads I tell. Wounds of Christ in spirit bruise me. Chalice of his blood bemuse me. Cross of Christ be thou my stay. Lest I burn in fires unending, sinless maid my cause befriending, shield me at the judgment day.
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  Jesus, when earth's shadows leave me, through thy mother's prayers receive me with the palm of victory. When my body lies forsaken, let my ransomed soul awaken safe in paradise with thee. Amen. Alleluia. A continuation of the holy gospel according to John.
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  At that time beside the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene had taken their stand. And Jesus seeing his mother there and the disciple too whom he loved standing by said to his mother, Woman, this is thy son. Then he said to the disciple, This is thy mother. And from that hour the disciple took her into his own keeping. The Offeratory.
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  O maiden mother of God, do not forget us. Plead for us. There were thou standest in the presence of God to avert his anger from us. The secret. O Lord Jesus Christ, we offer you prayers and sacrificial gifts, humbly beseeching you that as we prayerfully recall the piercing of the most sweet soul of your blessed mother Mary, so through the merits of your death and the manifold intercession of her and her holy friends at the foot of the cross, we may have our reward with the blessed who live in reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God through all ages of ages.
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  Amen. The Preface of Our Sorrowful Mother It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto Thee, O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, everlasting God, and that we should praise and bless and proclaim thee in the transfixion of Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, who also conceived thine only begotten Son by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost and the glory of her virginity still abiding, gave forth to the world the everlasting light, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Through whom the angels praise thy majesty, the dominions worship it, the power stand in awe. The heavens and the heavenly hosts together with the Blessed Seraphim in triumphant chorus unite to celebrate it. Together with them we entreat thee that thou mayest bid our voices also to be admitted while we say with humble praise.
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  Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, the heavens and the earth are full of thy glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. The communion.
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  Happy the loving heart of that blessed Virgin Mary who without dying earned the palm of martyrdom beneath the cross of our Lord. The post communion. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, may the sacrifices of which we have partaken while devoutly celebrating the piercing of your Virgin Mother's soul obtain for us through your kindness the good effect of salvation who liveth and reignest with God the father in the unity of the Holy Ghost. God through all ages of ages.
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  Amen. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost. Amen.
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  Anthony Smitha: At the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last. Through her heart, his sorrow sharing, all his bitter anguish bearing. Now at length, the sword had passed. Oh, how sad and sore distressed was that mother highly blessed of the so begotten one. Christ above in torment hands, she beneath beholds the pangs of her dying glorious son.
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  Is there one who would not weep, whelmed in misery so deep? Christ, dear mother to behold. Can the human heart refrain from partaking in her pain? In that mother's pain untold. Bruised, dear eyed, cursed, defiled.
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  She beheld her tender child, all with bloody scourges rant. For the sins of his own nation saw him hang in desolation till his spirit forth he sent. O sweet mother, fount of love, touch my spirit from above, make my heart with thine accord. Make me feel as thou hast felt. Make my soul to glow and melt with the love of Christ my Lord.
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  Holy mother, pierce me through. In my heart each wound renew of my savior crucified. Let me share with thee his pain. Who for all our sins was slain. Who for me in torments died.
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  Let me mingle tears with thee, mourning him who mourned for me all the days that I may live. By the cross with thee to stay, there with thee to weep and pray is all I ask of thee to give. Virgin of all virgins blessed, listen to my fond request. Let me share thy grief divine. Let me to my latest breath In my body bear the death of that dying son of Wounded with his ever very wound, steep my soul till it has wound in his very blood away.
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  Be to me, all virgin eye. Blessed in flames I burn and die in his awful judgment day. Christ, when thou shalt call me hands, be thy mother my defense, be thy cross my victory. While my body here decares, may my soul thy goodness praise, safe in paradise with thee. Amen.
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  Alleluia.