Toward Easter - Daily Readings & Meditations for Lent 2025 - Day 38

The sorrowful mother stood weeping. As Good Friday approaches, we pause to contemplate a profound yet often overlooked dimension of Christ's Passion—the compassion of His mother, Mary, who didn't merely witness the Crucifixion but actively participated in the redemptive sacrifice.

Mary's journey of suffering began when Simeon prophesied that a sword would pierce her soul, but reached its crescendo at Calvary. There, as St. Ambrose beautifully notes, when she gazed upon her Son's wounds, "what filled her mind was not the death of this beloved son but the salvation of the world." This remarkable insight reveals how Mary transcended personal grief to embrace a mother's ultimate sacrifice—willingly offering her Son for mankind's redemption. Her tears mingled with Christ's blood in a mystical cooperation that extends salvation to all generations.

The spiritual practices suggested during this meditation provide practical ways to honor Our Lady of Compassion: praying the Stabat Mater, attending Stations of the Cross, contemplating Mary's sorrows, and returning to the daily rosary if we've abandoned it. As we enter this final week of Lent, Mary's example calls us to deepen our commitment to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Her sorrowful yet immaculate heart offers refuge to sinners and a model of perfect conformity to God's will even in the face of unimaginable suffering.

Join us in this meditation on Mary's compassion, and let her tears of love wash over your soul as we prepare for the sacred mysteries of Holy Week. Has your devotion to Our Lady grown cold? This Passion Week offers the perfect opportunity to stand with her at the foot of the Cross and rediscover the transformative power of a mother's love.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Our Lady of Compassion
• 2:52 Mary's Sorrows and Calvary Sacrifice
• 6:31 Prayers and Spiritual Thoughts
• 8:21 Four Resolutions for Devotion
• 10:05 Practical Applications for Today
• 13:02 Final Week of Lent Preparation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:23

Choir singing In teisper avert. It is Friday in Passion Week and today we will be talking about Our Lady of Compassion. The link to the book, if you haven't already purchased it, is in the description below. And I will do what I've done in the past put up an image on screen so there's nothing to watch. Done in the past. Put up an image on screen so there's nothing to watch. You just listen to me read and, without further ado, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to put up an image on screen and we'll get going.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Friday in Passion Week. Our Lady of Compassion, sorrowing mother, stood and wept. In exactly one week it will be Good Friday. The sacrifice of Christ, accomplished once and for all 2,000 years ago, will be mystically made present for our souls. Our thoughts and our hearts will be all taken up with contemplating this profound mystery of the justice and the mercy of God. Holy Church willed to consecrate already a special day for honoring the sorrows of Jesus' Holy Mother. A special day for honoring the sorrows of Jesus' Holy Mother.

Speaker 1: 3:18

The sufferings of the Blessed Virgin begin when the old man Simeon predicts that a sword of sorrow will pierce through her soul, but they reach their paroxysm at the foot of the cross. On that day, not only does she accept the martyrdom of her son, but she offers him to the Heavenly Father. Our Lord goes spontaneously toward his passion and Mary offers willingly her beloved son for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and for the salvation of mankind. Mankind. Mary mixes her tears as a mother, the most holy and the most loving of mothers, with the divine blood of her son for the redemption of the men of all time. God, who had given her this divine son, asks her for him back on Calvary, and Mary offers him with all the love of her heart, in the greatest adhesion to the divine will. O Mary, o Mother most loving, it is your heart also which is pierced mystically by the iron point of the spear. It opens for me an entry into your sorrowful and immaculate heart, and I wish today to meditate on your sufferings. Your sorrowful and immaculate heart, and I wish today to meditate on your sufferings. O Queen of Mercy, refuge of Sinners, untiring Advocate of all our miseries, deign to watch over me during these days. The passion of your Son took place beneath your gaze. Help me to draw near to its mystery, so that my soul, redeemed by the blood of your Son and watered with your tears, may convert resolutely to God and always persevere in His service. And now a prayer taken from the Stabat Mater in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen. Ah, mother, fount of love, make me feel the force of sorrow, make me weep with Thee. Make this heart of mine burn with love of Christ, my God, that so I may content his heart. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, amen.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Our first thought today is taken from St Ambrose. When, with a maternal gaze, she looked upon the wounds of her son, what filled her mind was not the death of this beloved son but the salvation of the world. And the second thought today is taken from Monsignor Louis Soubigu. Mary wept over us, she who wept over Jesus, but to call forth, by her compassion, our own resurrection of soul. We have four resolutions today. The first, to read slowly the Staba Mater and praying for the conversion of sinners. The second, to meditate often on the sufferings which Mary, our good mother, endured at the foot of the cross, where her dear son was nailed. The third, to pray for the religious men and women who stand at the foot of the cross, as did the Blessed Virgin in St John. And four, to take up again the practice of saying the rosary, if we have fallen away from it. And that's the reading for today. Um, just, real, quickly, for the resolutions, if you, if you can't read the Staba Mater, you know, and praying for the conversion of sinners, today would be a good day to to like, instead of listening to either secular music or instead of listening to a podcast, besides avoiding Babylon, of course, um, then listen to, to, you know, a rendition, a rendition of the Stabat Mater, um, the most well-known one, probably being Pergolesi's. Um, just just, you know, search Pergolesi Stab, stabat mater, and, and there'll be numerous versions by different um you know orchestral groups and stuff, but, uh, at the very least, listen to the stabat mater if you can't read through and pray it. Um, or another option would be go to Stations of the Cross, no-transcript. So that would be another good suggestion for today. And, of course, most parishes will have stations on Fridays throughout Lent.

Speaker 1: 9:13

Obviously, it's just to take up again the practice of saying the rosary. Rosary, if we have fallen away from it. If you do pray the rosary daily, then today would also be a good day to pray the chaplet of Our Lady of Sorrows. You know the chaplet of the seven sorrows as well, so that can also be that practice. That practice praying that chaplet, uh, is what father Ripperger suggest, um, as a way of finding or predominant fault, which I believe we've talked about in these meditations already. But but, yeah, uh, so if, if you do not pray the rosary daily, or gotten out of that practice, which happens right, I know when we were, when we were sick as a family, we daily or gotten out of that practice, which happens right, I know when we were, when we were sick as a family, we kind of got out of that practice just because, uh, at least saying it together out loud as a family, because none of us could speak out loud for that long without coughing fits. Um, now that we're pretty much all better, it's time to get back into the practice of saying it as a family, together aloud. But, but, yeah, get back into the practice of saying the rosary daily.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Go to stations today If you can. The passion is one week from today. It's amazing, you know the these 46 days total on Ash Wednesday. You know, if, if you've picked out a good penance or set of penances. It seems like a long time, right. I mean, um, starting these, these morning readings, uh, you know, because this is the third year in a row, I've done it. Just, you know, looking at it on the day before Ash Wednesday, it's like, oh man, that's a lot of work, it's a lot of getting up early, it's just a lot of work. And now here we are. We have one week until Good Friday and it seems like it flew by.

Speaker 1: 11:34

So make this last week of Lent here, which really starts tomorrow, but make this last week of Lent a good week. Make it a fruitful week with penance and prayer and almsgiving. You know those, those three P's. I forget what P we invented to stand in place of almsgiving, but you know what I mean the three practices you're supposed to increase throughout Lent. Make sure you do that this last week.

Speaker 1: 12:16

As for the continued readings, like I said, we will be doing them throughout Easter week. I do not believe I will do them daily after that. Um, that's just a lot of work and it's asking a lot of the the family at at times. But, uh, I do plan on any. Of course, I'll do it for Advent again, um, but maybe we'll do. We'll do some throughout then for any important feast or anything, um, anything that pops up. Uh, I don't know exactly what that would be like, but just just a forewarning. We probably we won't be doing these daily after the Easter octave, but I will be doing that more often than we have in the past, so we'll see what that looks like.

Speaker 1: 13:11

But make this a good Friday here in Lent Fast Abstain from meat, obviously. Go to stations. If you can Say the rosary, sorry about that. If you already say the rosary daily, say the chaplet of seven sorrows. And I'll see you again tomorrow for saturday, throughout passion week, where we will talk about judgment day. So I hope you'll have a great day today and, um, so I hope you all have a great day today. And so, oh yeah, this weekend I am going out of town. Tomorrow will be normal. Tomorrow will be normal because we're not leaving until later. I'll probably record Sundays tomorrow as well, um, so if it looks like I'm wearing the exact same shirt for both of them, cause they were recorded on the same day, but anyways, no-transcript.