Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows
What is the meaning of the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows? The first and essential step towards devotion to someone takes place in our thoughts. Devotion requires a good deal of thought about the object of our devotion; it implies that we should know all there is to know about it. Thus some people are devoted to themselves, some to mathematics, others to fishing; they endeavor to know all about the object of their pursuits; it occupies their minds in an absorbing way.
The same applies to devotion towards people. A devoted servant, friend or admirer, is constantly thinking of the person to whom he is devoted.
Let us now consider devotion as a form of Religion. Real devotion to God or to the Saints does not merely consist in reciting as many prayers as we possibly can in their honor, praiseworthy though this may be. It must have deeper roots; it must spring from our inner powers of mind and will. Its ultimate end is to please God, and to do this, we must concentrate our thoughts upon Him.
Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows consists first of all in thinking about her. From this constant thought will naturally and spontaneously spring a whole series of acts that will please her.
It can therefore be said that the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows consists in the meditation of her Sorrows. Not that it must end there; but of this there will be no danger, since such a meditation will necessarily produce its own good fruits, which are the object of the devotion, such as patience and purity of life, and in one word the imitation of her virtues.
To meditate on her Sorrows does not necessarily mean to spend a half or a quarter of an hour every day in mental prayer on that subject. It means to think of her Sorrows frequently.
There are certain moments of the day and certain times of our life in which such thoughts would naturally come to our minds; these are the moments and the times of affliction. There is hardly a day in anyone's life free from some kind of worry or suffering. Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows would make us think in those moments of her Sorrows.
This thought would comfort us, encourage us to imitate Mary's patience, and thus enable us to bear our cross with more courage.
