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MASS
(Today, the Gospel of the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows is
obligatory. However, for the first reading and the psalm, one can
choose between the texts of the Wednesday of the Twenty-Fourth
Week in Ordinary Time, pages 75-77, or those of the memorial,
pages 74-75.)
Our Lady of Sorrows
Memorial
● The Blessed Virgin was born to be the Mother of
God. From the first moment of Mary’s immaculate
presence in her mother’s womb, Our Lady has led us to
her Son. From the cross, Christ commands, “Behold,
your mother.” As the Saviour’s dying gift to us, Jesus
leads us back to Mary. For we need the maternal close-
ness of the Sorrowful Mother to sustain us when over-
come by the terrifying trials of life. Through Mary’s
compassionate presence at the cross, that event – as it
recurs in our life – becomes more deeply human, filling
us with the courage to face life’s sufferings, certain in
the secure embrace of divine providence. Whenever
Mary loves us, she gives us Jesus. By obeying the Lord
in our devout beholding of the Mother of God, we give
Mary the chance to speak her Yes to the “annuncia-
tion” uttered from the cross: “Behold, your son.” ●
ENTRANCE ANTIPHON
Simeon said to Mary: This child is destined to be a sign which
men will reject; he is set for the fall and the rising of many in
Israel; and your own soul a sword shall pierce. (Lk 2: 34-35)
OPENING PRAYER
Father,
as your Son was raised on the cross,
his mother Mary stood by him, sharing his sufferings.
May your Church be united with Christ
in his suffering and death
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and so come to share in his rising to new life,

where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
● He learnt to obey and he became the source of
eternal salvation. ●
A reading from
the Letter to the Hebrews 5: 7-9
on earth,
D URING HIS LIFE
Christ offered up prayer
and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who
had the power to save him out of death, and he submit-
ted so humbly that his prayer was heard. Although he
was Son, he learnt to obey through suffering; but having
been made perfect, he became for all who obey him the
source of eternal salvation.
This is the word of the Lord.
————————● PSALM 30 ●————————

R/ (17) Save me, O Lord, in your love.

In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice, set me free,
hear me and speedily rescue me. R/
Be a rock of refuge for me,
a mighty stronghold to save me,
for you are my rock, my stronghold.
For your name’s sake, lead me and guide me. R/
Release me from the snares they have hidden
for you are my refuge, Lord.
Into your hands I commend my spirit.
It is you who will redeem me, Lord. R/
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But as for me, I trust in you, Lord,

I say, “You are my God.”
My life is in your hands, deliver me
from the hands of those who hate me. R/
How great is the goodness, LORD,
that you keep for those who fear you,
that you show to those who trust you
in the sight of men. R/
Or:

Wednesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

● There are three things that last: faith, hope and
love, and the greatest of these is love. ●
A reading from the first
Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 12: 31-13: 13
for the higher
B E AMBITIOUS
gifts. And I am going to
show you a way that is better than any of them.
If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but
speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a
cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, under-
standing all the mysteries there are, and knowing every-
thing, and if I have faith in all its fulness, to move
mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If
I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even
let them take my body to burn it, but am without love,
it will do me no good whatever.
Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous;
love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or
selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful.
Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but
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delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to

trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.
Love does not come to an end. But if there are gifts of
prophecy, the time will come when they must fail; or the
gift of languages, it will not continue for ever; and
knowledge – for this, too, the time will come when it
must fail. For our knowledge is imperfect and our
prophesying is imperfect; but once perfection comes, all
imperfect things will disappear. When I was a child, I
used to talk like a child, and think like a child, and argue
like a child, but now I am a man, all childish ways are
put behind me. Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a
mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face. The
knowledge that I have now is imperfect; but then I shall
know as fully as I am known.
In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope
and love; and the greatest of these is love.
This is the word of the Lord.
———————— ● PSALM 32 ● ————————

R/ (12) Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his

own.
Give thanks to the LORD upon the harp;
with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs.
O sing him a song that is new,
play loudly, with all your skill. R/
For the word of the LORD is faithful,
and all his works are to be trusted.
The LORD loves justice and right
and fills the earth with his love. R/
They are happy, whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen as his own.
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May your love be upon us, O LORD,

as we place all our hope in you. R/

[Our Lady of Sorrows]

————————● STABAT MATER ●————————

(Sequence)
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 sole-begotten One.
Christ above in torment hangs;
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying glorious Son.
Is there one who would not weep,
’Whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ’s dear Mother to behold?
Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain,
In that Mother’s pain untold?
Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
She beheld her tender child,
All with bloody scourges rent.
For the sins of his own nation
Saw him hang in desolation,
Till his spirit forth he sent.
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O you Mother, font of love!

Touch my spirit from above,
Make my heart with yours accord.
Make me feel as you have felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ ourLord.
Holy Mother, pierce me through;
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
Let me share with you his pain,
Who for all my sins was slain,
Who for me in torments died.
Let me mingle tears with you,
Mourning him who mourned for me,
All the days that I may live:
By the cross with you to stay,
There with you to weep and pray,
Is all I ask of you to give.
Virgin of all virgins best,
Listen to my fond request:
Let me share your grief divine.
Let me, to my latest breath,
In my body bear the death
Of that dying Son of yours.
Wounded with his every wound,
Steep my soul till it has swooned
In his very Blood away.
Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,
Lest in flames I burn and die,
In his awful judgement day.
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Christ, when you shall call me hence,

Be your Mother my defence,
Be your cross my victory.
While my body here decays,
May my soul your goodness praise,
Safe in paradise with you.
Amen. (Alleluia.)
Alleluia, alleluia! Happy is the blessed Virgin Mary;/
who, without dying, won the palm of martyrdom/
beneath the Cross of the Lord. Alleluia!
● Christ above in torment hangs; she beneath beholds
the pangs of her dying glorious Son. (Stabat Mater). ●
A reading from
the holy Gospel according to John 19: 25-27
EAR THE CROSS of Jesus
N
stood his mother and his
mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of
Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved
standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, “Woman,
this is your son.” Then to the disciple he said, “This is
your mother.” And from that moment the disciple made
a place for her in his home.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Or:
● A sword will pierce your own soul. ●
A reading from
the holy Gospel according to Luke 2: 33-35
of
A S THE FATHER AND MOTHER
Jesus stood wondering at
the things that were being said about him, Simeon
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blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “You see this
child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of
many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected –
and a sword will pierce your own soul too – so that the
secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.”
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS
God of mercy,
receive the prayers and gifts we offer
in praise of your name
on this feast of the Virgin Mary.
While she stood beside the cross of Jesus
you gave her to us as our loving mother.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.
PREFACE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY I OR II
COMMUNION ANTIPHON
Be glad to share in the sufferings of Christ! When he comes in
glory, you will be filled with joy. (1 P 4: 13)
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
Lord,
hear the prayers
of those who receive the sacraments of eternal salvation.
As we honour the compassionate love of the Virgin
Mary, may we make up in our own lives
whatever is lacking in the sufferings of Christ
for the good of the Church.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
● ●

M E D I T A T I O N O F T H E D A Y
● ●

The Sorrowful Mother

In the Crucified One the soul that dies is divided
from the spirit of mission which is breathed out with
bowed head and given up to the Father and to the
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Church: in the Mother who shares his suffering,

whose “soul magnifies the Lord” and whose “spirit
rejoices in God my Saviour” (Lk 1: 46-47), the sword
pierces between praise and rejoicing: the rejoicing is
borne away with the spirit to God, while the soul
remains behind and, when the body is taken down
from the cross, can only utter the assent of praise
with a sigh in the most profound darkness, in the
utmost weakness.
It is here and nowhere else that sinners – whether
oppressors or the weeping oppressed – can find
refuge. As Claudel has written:
“For the poor man there is no firm friend unless
he finds someone poorer than himself. So come,
my oppressed sister, and behold Mary… Behold
her who is there, without complaint as without
hope, like a poor man who has found someone
poorer, and both contemplate each other in
silence.”
It is the greater suffering that hides and thereby
consoles: not with soothing words, not with promises
that things will get better, but simply because the
more profound pain as such goes on giving praise
and only now does so adequately, just as from a
broken jar of ointment comes a stronger aroma.
It remains an impenetrable mystery how this tem-
poral precipitous distress of a Mother shares in and is
involved in the eternal praise of her transfiguration.
Her heart remains as open as that of her Son, who is
continually offering his heart’s blood in the
Eucharistic meal: “My blood is drink indeed, and he
who does not drink it has no life in him.” One should
not place far from that of her Son the Mother’s heart
pierced by the sword, the heart that offers itself to all
the poor as one yet poorer, even if its openness is
only to be understood as pointing to the eternal
openness of his heart to the Father. “I am the door,”
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he says; she only says: “I am the handmaid, do what-

ever he tells you.”
FATHER HANS U RS VON BALTHASAR
Father von Balthasar († 1988) was an eminent Swiss Catholic
theologian who wrote prodigiously.

Prayer for the Evening

Through the Blessed Virgin Mary,
let us give thanks and praise to God our Saviour!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and
ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Alleluia!

H YMN Metre: 88 7
At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful mother weeping,
Where he hung, the dying Lord:
Bowed with anguish, deeply grieved,
For her soul, of joy bereaved,
Felt the sharp and piercing sword.
Deep the woe of her affliction,
When she saw the crucifixion
Of her ever-glorious Son.

P SALM 56 2-6
All you who pass by the way,/ look and see:/ is any sorrow like the
sorrow that afflicts me? (Lm 1: 12)
Saint Augustine called this psalm a description of Christ’s passion.
Mary suffered with her Son’s suffering, was pierced with his piercing,
and was taken up into his glory. As the image of her Son, she is the
image of redeemed humanity, the image of God restored and made
perfect through Christ.