15 September and Our Lady of Sorrows

Evidence of the Madonna Dolorossa in modern times.

Today the feast of Our Lady is not observed liturgically because of Sunday, nevertheless, private devotion inclines many to seek to console the Sorrowful Mother through prayers of reparation.

Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows never went away, it used to be very much part of the devotional life of many Catholics.  During the 1930's in the United States, the Servites initiated a perpetual novena to Our Lady of Sorrows which was immensely popular.  

Over the centuries many pious customs have been developed to enter more deeply into the sorrowful heart of Mary. One such custom was instituted by the Servite Order, a group founded by the “Seven Holy Founders” in 1233. From the very beginning they were devoted to Our Lady of Sorrows and passed on that tradition to subsequent generations of priests and religious.

The Servites eventually made their way to the United States and founded a parish in Chicago in 1874. Several decades later in 1937 Archbishop Mundelein approved a “Perpetual Novena in honor of Our Sorrowful Mother.” According to a pamphlet describing its history, “The first Novena services were held on Friday, January 8, 1937. They consisted of the Via Matris (stations of the Seven Sorrows of Mary), six prayers culled from the ancient Servite Manual, two hymns to Our Blessed Mother, the Memorare, and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament.”

Furthermore, “One year after His Eminence granted the Imprimatur, 73,000 people were making the Novena at 38 services each Friday in Our Lady of Sorrows Church. - Aleteia

Unfortunately, the devotion more or less fell by the wayside after Vatican II.  The Passionists also promoted devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows, exemplified by St. Gabriel of OL of Sorrows.  Of course the devotion lives on, yet there were times when it was far more popular and widespread.  In a sense, Catholics renewed the devotion as a result of Fatima, and the call to make reparation for offenses committed against the sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Our Lady revealed her heart, aflame, encircled by a crown of thorns, pierced by the sins of men and blasphemy.

I think of this frequently, remembering Our Lady's request for prayer and penance, as well as the Five First Saturday devotion of reparation, and the daily Rosary.  In the final apparition at Fatima, during the miracle, Our Lady showed herself as Our Lady of Sorrows - silently and without commentary.  Recently, I wondered about the prophetic character of that aspect of the apparition. 

Could it have been a sort of 'preview' of the Kibeho apparitions?

Seriously, I don't know, but since Kibeho has been approved, and apparently verified by the Rwandan* genocide, and so on, I'm inclined to believe so.  The apparitions and messages, as well as the call to renew devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows, and the resulting genocide, places Kibeho among the most important revelations in the 20th century.  Our Lady called for repentance and conversion, just as at Fatima and Lourdes. 

On July 2, 2001, the Holy See released the declaration of Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro, on the Apparitions that took place in 1982-83 in Kibeho. Here are some excerpts:

“Two study commissions, one of doctors and one of theologians, were immediately set up by the local Bishop; they have been at work since April 1982... The advanced state of the study commissions' work now offers sufficient elements to allow competent ecclesiastical authorities to pronounce definitively on this question.

“As a result, Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro, who represents this authority, has published his declaration concerning the definitive judgement on the Apparitions of Kibeho, Rwanda. This important event in the history of the Diocese of Gikongoro, as in the life of the Church in Rwanda, took place on 29 June 2001, on the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, during a solemn Mass concelebrated in the cathedral of Gikongoro. All the Catholic bishops of Rwanda, with the Apostolic Nuncio of Kigali, were present...

“The Bishop declared: Yes, the Virgin Mary appeared at Kibeho on November 28, 1981, and in the months that followed. There are more reasons to believe in the Apparitions than to deny them... The Apparitions of Kibeho are now officially recognized... The name given to the Marian sanctuary at Kibeho is "Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows".

“That Kibeho become a place of pilgrimage and of encounter for all who seek Christ and who come there to pray, a fundamental centre of conversion, of reparation for the sins of the world and of reconciliation, a point of meeting for all who were dispersed, as for those who aspire to the values of compassion and fraternity without borders, a fundamental centre that recalls the Gospel of the Cross.

“This Declaration makes it possible to respond to the expectations of the People of God and to bring new enthusiasm to the public devotion recognized already for 13 years”. (Taken from “L'Osservatore Romano”, weekly edition in English, July 11, 2001, page 8.)

"A brother asked a hermit, 'Is it good to be always repenting?' The hermit answered, 'We have seen Joshua the son of Nun; it was when he was lying prostrate on his face that God appeared to him.'"

I don't pretend to an authority, I'm just speculating on the connection to devotion to the Sorrowful Mother in modern times, and the appeals made by Our Lady.  Always calling for conversion, so often we fall back, fall into sin, and feel discouraged.  yet Our Lady never gives up, and supplies us with the means necessary to stay on the narrow way, despite how constricted the road.  

One of the three approved visionaries, Marie-Claire, who also died in the genocide, was told by the Blessed Virgin that people should pray the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows to obtain the favor of repentance:

“What I ask of you is repentance. If you recite this chaplet, while meditating on it, you will then have the strength to repent. Today, many people do not know any more how to ask forgiveness. They nail again the Son of God on the Cross. So I wanted to come and recall it to you, especially here in Rwanda, for here I have still found humble people, who are not attached to wealth nor money”. - OL of Sorrows

These requests are not unlike what Our Lady requested at Fatima, in the messages made public since 1917.  So many devotees, perhaps believing repentance and conversion is a one time event, directed their attention to the secrets, and the mysteries surrounding the Third Secret - which maybe even included a scenario not unlike Rwanda?  Interpreters of Fatima have distorted the message and muffled the actual call of Our Lady.  They've ignored the magisterium and accuse the popes of infidelity and ignoring Our Lady's requests.  They have even rejected the official interpretation of the Message of Fatima made by Cardinal Ratzinger while head of the CDF.

No wonder we go from bad to worse, no longer able to see our individual need to repent, do penance, and make reparation.  I hope to turn and beg the grace of repentance from Our Lady of Sorrows, the grace contrition, compunction, to repent every day.

*In the 100 days that followed the April 6, 1994 assassination of dictator and President of Rwanda Juvénal Habyarimana, 800,000 to over a million Rwandans were slaughtered by their countrymen and, in some cases, their next-door-neighbors. The Genocide was the culmination of intensifying animosity between the two ethnic groups – the Hutus and Tutsis – and the civil war that had preceded it.^[7] Kibeho itself was the site of two huge massacres: the first at the parish church in April 1994, and the second a year later where more than 5,000 refugees who had taken shelter there were shot by soldiers.^[8] Marie Claire Mukangango and her husband were among those killed in the April 1995 massacre. - Wki