Our Lady of Sorrows: The Richest of All Presents
The 15th of September is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. The claim at the centre of it is one most of us would refuse if it were put to us directly: that God gave His Mother suffering, deliberately, and gave it to her because He loved her more than any other creature He ever made.
What Guéranger says about the feast
Dom Prosper Guéranger comments that Our Lady, whom God predestined to be the Mother of His Son, was united in her person to the life, mysteries and suffering of Jesus, so that she might be a faithful cooperator in the work of Redemption.
He then makes the argument that gives this feast its edge.
God must consider suffering to be a great good, since He gave so much of it to His Son, whom He loved so much. And since, after His Son, God loved the Holy Virgin more than any other creature, He also wanted to give her suffering as the richest of all presents.
Read that again slowly, because it inverts everything we ordinarily assume. Suffering is not what happens when God's attention is elsewhere. On this account it is a gift, and the people who receive most of it are the people He loves most.
Calvary
In the solemnity of this feast we principally remember Mary on Calvary, where she suffered the supreme sorrow of all the sorrows that filled her life.
So great was her grief there that, had it been divided among all creatures capable of suffering, it would have caused them all to die instantly.
That is not a figure of speech about a mother's sadness. It is a claim about magnitude, and it is worth holding next to the image most of us carry of her at the foot of the Cross, composed and upright and silent.
Why seven
If the Church limits the number of sorrows to seven, it is because that number has always symbolised the idea of totality and universality.
To understand the extent of Our Lady's suffering, one must first understand the extent of her love for Jesus. Her love as Mother of God only increased what she could suffer. Nature and grace came together in her to produce impressions deeper than either could produce alone, and nothing is stronger or more pressing than the love nature gives a mother for her son, or the love grace gives for God.
Which means the seven are not a complete list. The immensity of the crosses she carried was so great that we might say she suffered not seven sorrows but all sorrows. She is Our Lady of All Sorrows, because nobody has ever suffered more.
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What this means for the rest of us
These considerations help us understand the role of suffering in our own lives, and the first thing they establish is that we are not alone in it.
All generations will call her blessed. To a lesser but immensely real degree, all generations may also call her sorrowful.
So, when sorrow enters our lives, it is a proof of God's love. And when we are not visited with sorrow, we do not have all the proofs of God's love for us.
It is in sorrow that our mettle is tested. There is a note of maturity, stability and rationality in those who suffer, and who suffer much, that is difficult to acquire any other way.
Suffering is normal
From which follows the plainest practical conclusion in the piece.
When adversity, difficulties, misunderstandings, bad health and conflicts visit us, we should not treat them as things that were never supposed to happen. To suffer is normal in this vale of tears.
If she, whom God loves so much, suffered, how much more should we expect to. The one whom God and Our Lady love suffers, because God will not refuse to give him what He gave abundantly to the two He loved most: Our Lord Jesus Christ and Our Lady.
So, temptations, trials, stress and the rest of it are ordinary features of a life, not evidence that something has gone wrong with ours. We should ask that our sufferings pass. And when they do not pass, we should bless God and Our Lady.
The Seven Sorrows of Mary
The prophecy of Simeon.
The flight into Egypt.
The loss of the Child Jesus in the temple.
The meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross.
The Crucifixion.
The taking down of the Body of Jesus from the Cross.
The burial of Jesus.
The seven graces
The devotion has handed down seven graces which Our Lady is said to grant to those who honour her daily by praying seven Hail Marys while meditating on her tears and sorrows. They come to us through Saint Bridget of Sweden, and the Church proposes such private revelations for our devotion rather than imposing them as articles of faith.
I will grant peace to their families.
They will be enlightened about the divine mysteries.
I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.
I will give them as much as they ask for, as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my Divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.
I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.
I will visibly help them at the moment of their death, and they will see the face of their mother.
I have obtained this grace from my Divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and sorrows will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness, since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son will be their eternal consolation and joy.
Notice the fourth one, which is the only one with a condition attached, and the sixth, which is about a face.
What you can do today
Pray seven Hail Marys, one for each sorrow, meditating on them in order. It takes a few minutes and it is the whole devotion.
Pray the Seven Dolors, printed in full in the source article linked below, which asks a particular virtue and a particular Gift of the Holy Ghost at each sorrow.
If you are in the middle of something painful, stop asking why it is happening to you and start asking what it is for. That is the shift this feast is built on.
If somebody you know is suffering, do not try to explain it to them. Send them this instead.
A prayer for the feast
The prayer that closes the devotion of the Seven Dolors:
O Lord Jesus Christ, we beseech Thee that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, whose soul was pierced by the Sword of Sorrow in the hour of Thy Passion, may be our advocate at the throne of Thy Mercy, now, and at the hour of our death. Through Thee, Jesus Christ, Redeemer of the World, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
Pray for us, O Virgin Most Sorrowful, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.
References
Remembering Our Lady of Sorrows, The American TFP.
Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year.
The seven graces of the Seven Sorrows, as handed down through Saint Bridget of Sweden.
Image: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617 to 1682), studio of, Mater dolorosa. National Trust, inventory 2900002. Detail. Public domain.
Last updated: 14 September 2026 16:01