“And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” The prophecy of the elderly Simeon, handed down by the Gospel of Luke, announced to the young Mother of God the suffering that she would have had to endure. A sword really pierces the breast of the Mother of Jesus, in the half-length portrait which is midway between the Chapels of Calvary – the property of the Greek Orthodox - and of the Crucifixion, where this morning at 9 o’clock (8 o’clock according to the time of the Holy Sepulchre) the Franciscans celebrated the solemnity of the “Septem dolorum Beatae Mariae Virginis” (the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
The Vicar of the Custody, Father Artemio Vitores, the presider at this Solemn Mass, stopped before the painting of Our Lady of the Sorrows, a gift from Queen Mary of Portugal at the end of the 18th century. Joining the faithful who came to attend the Mass were pilgrims from all over the world on their way to visit and pray at the Calvary.
The words of Father Artemio, in his homily dedicated to the Virgin Mary, revealed to everyone the profile of a woman whose despair over the death of her son was also accompanied by the grief of seeing him insulted and humiliated.
“Stabat mater dolorosa”. The Mother of Christ was standing under the cross: “This is the representation of her faith,” the Vicar recalled, “which sees her in the role of ‘socia passionis’, the companion of her son’s pain, she who was his first disciple and shared his Passion more than anyone else.”
By Serena Picariello
Photos by Marco Gavasso
The Vicar of the Custody, Father Artemio Vitores, the presider at this Solemn Mass, stopped before the painting of Our Lady of the Sorrows, a gift from Queen Mary of Portugal at the end of the 18th century. Joining the faithful who came to attend the Mass were pilgrims from all over the world on their way to visit and pray at the Calvary.
The words of Father Artemio, in his homily dedicated to the Virgin Mary, revealed to everyone the profile of a woman whose despair over the death of her son was also accompanied by the grief of seeing him insulted and humiliated.
“Stabat mater dolorosa”. The Mother of Christ was standing under the cross: “This is the representation of her faith,” the Vicar recalled, “which sees her in the role of ‘socia passionis’, the companion of her son’s pain, she who was his first disciple and shared his Passion more than anyone else.”
By Serena Picariello
Photos by Marco Gavasso