Suffering With Joy

Fourth Station: Jesus Meets His Mother

March 13, 2010

Jesus Meets His Afflicted Mother

V.  We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee.

R.  Because by Thy holy cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

To what shall I compare thee; or to what shall I liken thee, O virgin daughter of Jerusalem?  For great as the sea is thy distress.  O Mother of mercy, grant that we may ever realize in ourselves the death of Jesus and may share with Him in His saving passion.¹

V.  A sword of sorrow hath pierced thy soul.

R.  And hath filled thy heart with bitter pain.²

Let Us Pray

O Lord Jesus Christ, / grant that now and in the hour of our death / we may obtain the favor of Thy mercy / through the pleading of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Thy Mother, / whose soul was pierced with a sword of sorrow in the hour of Thy passion. / Who livest and reignest forever and ever.  Amen.³

Hymn: O thou Mother, font of love, touch my spirit from above, make my heart with thine accord.

¹ Lam. of Jer. 2:13 and Stabat Mater. ² Lk. 2: 35 and Job 9: 18. ³ Collect, Votive Mass of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

*****

The Collect: In its original meaning in early Rome (after the first persecutions and when churches began to be built) the term was used for the service held at a certain church on the days when there was a station (church where Mass was to be said that day) somewhere else. The people gathered together and became a “collection” at this first church. After certain prayers had been said they went in procession to the station church for Mass. Just before they started the celebrant said a prayer, the oratio ad collectam.

The collect is the prayer said before the Epistle (or the first reading in the Novus Ordo).  Every collect has three parts: first, the invocation; second, the subject or matter which we desire by the prayer; and third, the pleading through the merits of our Lord and Savior that we may obtain what we ask.  You can see the three parts in the above prayer, though the pleading is implied by “in the hour of Thy passion.”  Here is another example from the fourth Sunday of Lent:

Invocation: Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God,

Subject: that we who are justly afflicted for our deeds, may be relieved by the consolation of Thy grace.

Pleading: Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end.  Amen.

Tags: Catholic Church, Stations of the Cross

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Message

CAPTCHA Code