{"id":32649,"date":"2015-09-15T06:31:27","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T10:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/?p=32649"},"modified":"2015-09-15T15:33:05","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T19:33:05","slug":"our-lady-of-sorrows-the-mother-of-god-with-a-pierced-your-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2015\/09\/our-lady-of-sorrows-the-mother-of-god-with-a-pierced-your-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Lady of Sorrows… the Mother of God with a pierced your heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mary<\/a>From a sermon by Saint Bernard, abbot:<\/p>\n

The martyrdom of the Virgin is set forth both in the prophecy of Simeon and in the actual story of our Lord\u2019s passion. The holy old man said of the infant Jesus: He has been established as a sign which will be contradicted. He went on to say to Mary: And your own heart will be pierced by a sword.<\/p>\n

\n

Truly, O blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart. For only by passing through your heart could the sword enter the flesh of your Son. Indeed, after your Jesus\u2014who belongs to everyone, but is especially yours\u2014gave up his life, the cruel spear, which was not withheld from his lifeless body, tore open his side. Clearly it did not touch his soul and could not harm him, but it did pierce your heart. For surely his soul was no longer there, but yours could not be torn away. Thus the violence of sorrow has cut through your heart, and we rightly call you more than martyr, since the effect of compassion in you has gone beyond the endurance of physical suffering.<\/p>\n

Or were those words, Woman, behold your Son, not more than a word to you, truly piercing your heart, cutting through to the division between soul and spirit? What an exchange! John is given to you in place of Jesus, the servant in place of the Lord, the disciple in place of the master; the son of Zebedee replaces the Son of God, a mere man replaces God himself. How could these words not pierce your most loving heart, when the mere remembrance of them breaks ours, hearts of iron and stone though they are!<\/p>\n

Do not be surprised, brothers, that Mary is said to be a martyr in spirit. Let him be surprised who does not remember the words of Paul, that one of the greatest crimes of the Gentiles was that they were without love. That was far from the heart of Mary; let it be far from her servants.<\/p>\n

Perhaps someone will say: \u201cHad she not known before that he would not die?\u201d Undoubtedly. \u201cDid she not expect him to rise again at once?\u201d Surely. \u201cAnd still she grieved over her crucified Son?\u201d Intensely. Who are you and what is the source of your wisdom that you are more surprised at the compassion of Mary than at the passion of Mary\u2019s Son? For if he could die in body, could she not die with him in spirit? He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since his.<\/p>\n

RESPONSORY<\/p>\n

When they came to a place called Calvary,\u00a0they crucified Jesus there.
\n\u2013 His mother stood beside the cross.<\/p>\n

A sword of sorrows pierced her blameless heart.
\n\u2013 His mother stood beside the cross.<\/p>\n

O God, who willed
\nthat, when your Son was lifted high on the Cross,
\nhis Mother should stand close by and share his suffering,
\ngrant that your Church,
\nparticipating with the Virgin Mary in the Passion of Christ,
\nmay merit a share in his Resurrection.
\nWho lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
\none God, for ever and ever.
\n\u2013 Amen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From a sermon by Saint Bernard, abbot: The martyrdom of the Virgin is set forth both in the prophecy of Simeon and in the actual story of our Lord\u2019s passion. The holy old man said of the infant Jesus: He has been established as a sign which will be contradicted. He went on to say … Continue reading Our Lady of Sorrows… the Mother of God with a pierced your heart<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[32088,1761,2270],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32651,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32649\/revisions\/32651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}