Monday, July 31, 2017

The Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary: Berthe Petit, the Revelations of

MESSAGES OF OUR LORD TO MYSTIC BERTHE PETIT / OUR LADY OF OLLIGNIES [OUR LADY OF THE SORROWFUL AND IMMACULATE HEART]

Our Lord: "Recourse to my Mother under the title I wish for her universally [Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary], is the last help I shall give before the end of time."

Our Lord, September 8, 1911: “The Heart of My Mother has the right to be called Sorrowful and I wish this title placed before that of Immaculate because She has won it Herself. The Church has defined in the case of My Mother what I Myself had ordained – Her Immaculate Conception. This right which My Mother has to a title of justice, is now, according to My express wish, to be known and universally accepted. She has earned it by Her identification with My sorrows, by Her sufferings: by Her sacrifices and Her immolation on Calvary endured in perfect correspondence with My grace for the salvation of mankind.  “In Her co-redemption lies the nobility of My Mother and for this reason I ask that the Invocation which I have demanded be approved and spread through the whole Church. It has already obtained many graces; it will obtain yet more when the Church will be exalted and the world renewed through its Consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother.” 
Then nine days later, on September 17, 1910, the Mother herself appeared to Berthe and revealed in a symbolic way the bodily martyrdom that she suffered at the foot of the Cross. Berthe saw her brow wounded and bleeding and her hands and heart pierced. She then said: “Now you can understand the sorrows which my Heart endured and the sufferings of my whole being for the salvation of the world.”

Our Lord: "The title of Immaculate belongs to the whole being of My Mother and not specially to Her Heart.  The title flows from my gratuitous gift to the Virgin who was to give me birth.  My Mother has acquired from her Heart the title of ‘Sorrowful’ by sharing generously in all the sufferings of My Heart and My Body from the crib to the cross.  There is not one of these Sorrows which did not pierce the Heart of My Mother.  Living image of My crucified Body, her virginal flesh bore the invisible marks of My wounds as her Heart felt the Sorrows of My own.  Nothing could ever tarnish the incorruptibility of her Immaculate Heart.  The title of ‘Sorrowful’ belongs therefore to the Heart of My Mother, and more than any other, this title is dear to Her because it springs from the union of her Heart with Mine in the redemption of humanity.  This title has been acquired by her through her full participation in My Calvary, and it precedes the gratuitous title ‘Immaculate’ which My love bestowed upon her by a singular privilege."


Our Lady and Our Lord, March 24/25, 1911: “I am called The Immaculate Conception. With you, I call myself the Mother of the Sorrowful Heart; this title, that My Son wants is the dearest to Me of all My titles and its through it that shall be granted and spread everywhere graces of mercy of conversion and of salvation” During this vision Our Lady miraculously healed Berthe of a serious condition of an ulcer on her foot accompanied by periostitis. Our Lady told Berthe that a torrent of grace was ready to spring from her wounded heart. Our Lord told Berthe “It is co-redemption that My Mother was above all great; that is why I ask that the invocation as I have inspired it, should be approved and diffused throughout the whole Church… by consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother, the Church shall be uplifted and the world renewed.”

Berthe Petit, Enghien, Belgium, 1938


Status: Cause for Beatification [pre-Vatican II], Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat awarded to messages, Promoted by Cardinals Mercier of Belgium and Bourne of England.


Episcopal Remarks: The former granted an indulgence of 100 days to the invocation, “Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.” Ratified by Pope St Pius X in a hand-written letter to the Cardinal. His pastoral letter to the clergy and faithful read: “Fulfilling therefore, the ardent wish which has been expressed to me, I shall consecrate in the very depths of my soul, during the Office of Good Friday, our Diocese, and in the limits of my power, our dear Country, to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. I exhort the priests to unite their intentions to mine, and the faithful to repeat devoutly the invocation to which I have already granted and indulgence of 100 days; Sorrowful and  Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.”


Cardinal Bourne followed suit and not only granted an indulgence of 100 days for the invocation but also prepared the way for a solemn consecration in accordance with the demand made by Our Lord.  His pastoral letter of September 3, 1916 said: “We should fail to honour duly Her Divine Son, were we to forget and fail to honour, praise and use the power which He has willed to bestow upon Her in return for the Sorrows which united Her Heart so closely and so intimately with His in the supreme sacrifice of His life. Nowhere in Christendom should honour be paid more readily to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary than here in England. Of old, in the days of united Faith, Her purity and Her Sorrows were ever held in loving veneration. In those days, England was in very truth Our Lady’s Dowry. It is therefore, not with the idea of introducing any new devotion, but rather in order to give fresh meaning and greater force to thoughts long cherished by us all, and deep-rooted in the history of our race, that we desire to consecrate this renewed effort of prayer, which the special circumstances of the moment so urgently demand, to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.”


Biographical Information: 


Berthe Petit, was a humble Franciscan Tertiary, a victim soul and apostle of Devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Born January 23, 1870 in Enghien, Belgium and died 1943.  She had been privileged with visions of both Our Lord and The Blessed Virgin Mary since the age of 4.  These are the words that were spoken to her by the Holy Infant Jesus as he traced a cross on her forehead, while she knelt in front of the Tabernacle:  "You will always suffer, but I am with you."


At the age of 10 she received her First Holy Communion.  The effects of which had never left her.  It may be said that her whole life was a preparation for Holy Communion with Jesus and one of perpetual prayer and thanksgiving.  She was known to spend long periods of time lost in prayer, meditation and thanksgiving after receiving Holy Communion, oblivious to those around her.


Her life-long vocation was revealed to her on this the day of her First Holy Communion.  She said to her teacher, a nun, "I must suffer a great deal, I must be like Jesus." "Who told you that?" asked the nun.  "The little Host which is my great Jesus," was the child's immediate reply.  And indeed, suffer she did with a life history of painful illnesses, diseases and broken bones.  Berthe's illnesses brought her to the brink of death on several occasions causing her to receive the last rites seven times.  But by far the worst suffering Berthe endured was the spiritual suffering, as she was continually beset by diabolical persecution.  Her soul was tormented night and day by great fears, doubts and perplexities.  And on one notable occasion she was literally thrown down a flight of eighteen stone stairs by the devil and almost died on the spot had it not been for miraculous intervention of Our Lord.  The devil threatened her - hissing angrily, "I shall fight you till the end, haunting the minds, hardening the hearts and feeding the passions."  But through all her suffering, Berthe Petit maintained a countenance of cheerfulness and sweetness with caring and great sympathy for other's pain.  This humble victim soul shunned any public notoriety in the least.  And few were her acquaintances or friends.  His Eminence Cardinal Mercier, one of the few who knew her personally, had great reverence for her sanctity and knew of her personal holiness and genuineness as reflected in his obedience to the divine warnings and request by Our Lord for him to solemnly consecrate his country to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary and by his writings.


Almost five years after the Germans had left Brussels, Berthe returned to her home only to find it had been completely plundered.  Berthe was obliged to take up residence with the sisters of The Sacred Heart at their convent in Overyssche and lived with them for some time.  One of the nuns assigned to her room was asked by her superiors to see if Berthe took food secretly in her room because they found she ate nothing, save a little coffee in the morning and a small glass of wine in the afternoon, which she promptly rejected.  For one whole year the sceptical nun observed carefully everything Berthe did or said and was left with nothing but admiration for this humble and virtuous soul.  Berthe, it was confirmed, lived on nothing but the Host.  Jesus alone sustained her.  As the sister testified, "The fact that people came to know of her life without food, was a real mortification to her."  (Sr. Valesine, Trinitarian, at Vevey, charged with Berthe at the convent during the Great War.)


Berthe Petit was called to a dual mission.  The first was to offer her life of suffering for a good priest of God's choice since she herself was not to become a sister.  In her younger days, she had desired with all her heart to become a Sister of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, but it was not to be, as her family fell on hard times and she was forced to provide for them with her earnings.  As a young teenager Berthe offered the sacrifice of her dream to God that her sacrifice might be a source of grace for a holy priest - which would one day bring back many souls to God.  God graciously accepted her offering. And it was made known to her that she would one day meet the priest she had sacrificed and suffered for.


The second and most profound mission was revealed to Berthe during a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Anne, in Alsace, that her greatest mission was to obtain:  THE CONSECRATION OF THE WORLD  TO THE SORROWFUL AND IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY. Berthe knew she would not to live to see the day of the fulfillment of this great commission given her by Our Lord.  At the end of her life, in excruciating pain she was heard to say pitifully over and over, "Sitio" - "I thirst".  After having been fortified by the rites of the Holy Catholic Church, Berthe Francoise Marie Magdalene Ghislaine Petit entered peacefully into her eternal rest on Friday March 26th, 1943.


Source: The Seven Dolors of Mary A Brief Biography of Berthe Petit - Apostle of Devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary


The Messages

  
Our Lord, December 25, 1909: "Teach souls to love the Heart of My Mother pierced by the very sorrows which pierced Mine."

February 7, 1910: The Seer saw Two Hearts were seen fused together surmounted by the symbolical dove of the Holy Spirit, and on the following day were seen to be surmounted by luminous rays of light. The picture is a facsimile of the one drawn by Berthe Petit at the express command of Our  Lord." (From the book, "The Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary"). Our Lord said “My desire that this picture, guided by My hand, be spread far and wide, simultaneously with the invocation. Wherever it will be venerated, My Mercy and My Love will be made manifest and the sight of Our Hearts, wounded by the same wound, will encourage tepid and weak souls to come back to their duty."

Our Lord, September 8, 1911: “The Heart of My Mother has the right to be called Sorrowful and I wish this title placed before that of Immaculate because She has won it Herself. The Church has defined in the case of My Mother what I Myself had ordained – Her Immaculate Conception. This right which My Mother has to a title of justice, is now, according to My express wish, to be known and universally accepted. She has earned it by Her identification with My sorrows, by Her sufferings: by Her sacrifices and Her immolation on Calvary endured in perfect correspondence with My grace for the salvation of mankind.  “In Her co-redemption lies the nobility of My Mother and for this reason I ask that the Invocation which I have demanded be approved and spread through the whole Church. It has already obtained many graces; it will obtain yet more when the Church will be exalted and the world renewed through its Consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother.”


Our Lady September 17, 1911: Our Lady appeared to Berthe showing Our Lady’s forehead pierced and bleeding with Her Hands and Heart transfixed. Our Lady said “You have the understanding of the sorrows that My Heart endured of the sufferings of all My being for the salvation of the world.”


Our Lady and Our Lord, March 24/25, 1911: “I am called The Immaculate Conception. With you, I call myself the Mother of the Sorrowful Heart; this title, that My Son wants is the dearest to Me of all My titles and its through it that shall be granted and spread everywhere graces of mercy of conversion and of salvation” During this vision Our Lady miraculously healed Berthe of a serious condition of an ulcer on her foot accompanied by periostitis. Our Lady told Berthe that a torrent of grace was ready to spring from her wounded heart. Our Lord told Berthe “It is co-redemption that My Mother was above all great; that is why I ask that the invocation as I have inspired it, should be approved and diffused throughout the whole Church… by consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother, the Church shall be uplifted and the world renewed.”


Lady, March 25, 1912: "I have called myself the 'Immaculate Conception'. To you I call myself, 'Mother of the Sorrowful Heart'. This title willed by my Son, is dear to me above all others. According as it is spread everywhere, there will be granted graces of mercy, spiritual renewal and salvation."


Our Lord, July 12, 1912: Our Lord told the mystic that the heir to the Catholic empire of Austria/Hungary would be assassinated; a double murder. This came to pass when Archduke Ferdinand was killed, which triggered World War I.  Berthe spent the years of World War I in Switzerland. She constantly predicted various events occurring during the war.


Our Lord, 1914: “It is with an unshakeable resolve that my Son wills souls to have recourse to my Sorrowful Heart. With my heart overflowing with tenderness, I am awaiting this gesture on the part of souls, that I may reiterate to the Heart of my Son whatever will be confided to my own Heart, and thus obtain graces of salvation for all.”


Our Lord, undated, 1918: Our Lord told Berthe that without Our Lord’s intervention obtained by Cardinal Bourne’s consecration of England to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary the victory would have belonged to the other side - “material force would have prevailed over justice.”


Our Lord, January, 1918: “Let My apostle Francis (Cardinal Francis Bourne) know that My favourable gaze rests upon him and his flock. Let him renew with the faithful the solemn consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother – this time in thanksgiving, for gratitude draws down still more favours. Let him confide to Me entirely his country and the Church of which he is the shepherd, in the way I shall inspire to you. Thus will My reign be established firmly in that nation; then more and more souls will open their eyes to truth; peace and prosperity will reign there and My Mother, glorified in a fitting manner, will extend to them Her Maternal protection…. Thus and in this way alone will the internal struggles die down. And I shall scatter blessings upon that nation.”


Our Lord, Undated 1919: “It will soon become apparent how unstable is a peace set up without Me and without the intervention of Him who speaks in My name, the Pope. The nation which is thought to be conquered, but whose strength is only temporarily diminished, remains a threat to your nation and France. Trouble and danger will spread to all countries. It is because this peace is none of Mine that wars will blaze up again everywhere: civil wars, racial wars, what should have been so great, so true, so beautiful, so durable, is delayed… Humanity is rushing toward a dreadful storm, which will divide the nations more and more. All human plans will be annihilated, the pride of the Lords of the moment will be broken. It will be clearly shown that nothing can subsist without Me and that I remain the sole master of the destiny of nations.”


Our Lady, undated, 1922: “Events have taken place, acts have been accomplished which will prove to be the unassailable foundations of work which you serve. It will attain its end with the full amplitude which is God’s will.”


Our Lord, Undated, 1941: “By confident consecration to My Mother, the devotion to  My Heart will be strengthened and, as it were, completed.”


Our Lord, April 25, 1942: “A frightful torment is in preparation. It will be seen that the forces launched in such fury will soon be let loose. It is now or never, the moment for all of you to give yourselves to the Sorrowful Heart of My Mother. By Her acceptance of Calvary, My Mother has participated in all My sufferings. Devotion to Her Heart united to Mine will bring peace, that true peace so often implored and yet so little merited.”


Our Lord, undated: "It is hearts that must be changed. This will be accomplished only by the Devotion proclaimed, explained, preached and recommended everywhere. Recourse to My Mother under the title I wish for her universally, is the last help I shall give before the end of time."


Our Lord, undated: "It is as a Son that I have conceived this devotion for my Mother.  It is as God that I impose it."


Our Lord, undated: "The safety of your country, internal peace and confidence in My Church will revive through the spread of the Devotion and the Consecration which I wish in order that The Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother, united in all to My Heart, may be loved and glorified.  Deliverance will thus be the work of our two Hearts, the triumph of our love for the people upon whom this Consecration will bestow confidence according to My promises."


Our Lord, undated: "By confident consecration to My Mother, the Devotion to My Heart will be strengthened and, as it were, completed.  This Devotion, this Consecration will be, according to My Promise, a renovation for My Church, a renewed strength for Christianity which is too often wavering, a source of single graces for souls, who thereby will be more deeply penetrated with love and confidence."


Our Lord, undated: "The clear light to be granted, through recourse to My Mother, will bring about, above all, the conversion of a multitude of straying and sinful souls:  The pity of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother will implore Mercy for them from My Heart."


Our Lord, undated: "The title of Immaculate belongs to the whole being of My Mother and not specially to Her Heart. The title flows from my gratuitous gift to the Virgin who was to give me birth.  My Mother has acquired from her Heart the title of 'Sorrowful' by sharing generously in all the sufferings of My Heart and My Body from the crib to the cross.  There is not one of these Sorrows which did not pierce the Heart of My Mother.  Living image of My crucified Body, her virginal flesh bore the invisible marks of My wounds as her Heart felt the Sorrows of My own. Nothing could ever tarnish the incorruptibility of her Immaculate Heart. The title of ‘Sorrowful’ belongs therefore to the Heart of My Mother, and more than any other, this title is dear to Her because it springs from the union of her Heart with Mine in the redemption of humanity. This title has been acquired by her through her full participation in My Calvary, and it precedes the gratuitous title ‘Immaculate’ which My love bestowed upon her by a singular privilege."


Our Lord, undated: "The worst calamities which I had predicted are unleashed. The time is now ripe and I wish mankind to turn to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother. Let this prayer be uttered by every soul: ‘Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.’  Let this prayer dictated by My Love as a supreme succor be approved and indulgenced, no longer partially and for a small portion of My flock, but for the whole universe, so that it may spread as a refreshing and purifying balm of reparation that will appease My anger. This Devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother will restore faith and hope to broken hearts and to ruined families: it will help to repair the destruction: it will sweeten sorrow. It will be a new strength for My Church, bringing souls, not only to confidence in My Heart, but also to abandonment to the Sorrowful Heart of My Mother."


Our Lord, undated: "Teach souls to love the Heart of My Mother pierced with sorrow that transfixed My Own Heart."


Our Lord, undated: "My desire flows from My love on Calvary. In giving John to My Mother as a son, I entrusted the whole world to her Sorrowful Motherhood."


Our Lord, undated: "My Mother's Heart has the right to the title of Sorrowful. I desire that it be set before her title of Immaculate because She herself has won it. The Church has recognized what I Myself did for My Mother: her Immaculate Conception. Now it is necessary and it is my wish, that this title, which is by right My Mother's, should be understood and recognized. This title she earned by her identification with all My sufferings, by her sorrow, her sacrifice, her immolation on Calvary, and indeed for the salvation of mankind."


Our Lord, undated: “The hurricane of calamity has not died down and grave dangers from within still threaten all the nations.”


Our Lord, At the beginning of the First World War: “The worst calamities which I have predicted are unleashed. The time is now ripe and I wish mankind to turn to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother. Let this prayer be uttered by every soul: ‘Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.’ Let this prayer dictated by My Love as a supreme succour be approved and indulgenced, no longer partially and for a small portion of My flock, but the whole universe, so that it may spread as a refreshing and purifying balm of reparation that will appease My anger.

“This Devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother will restore faith and hope to the broken hearts and to ruined families: it will help to repair the destruction: it will sweeten sorrow. It will be a new strength for My Church, bringing souls, not only to confidence in My Heart, but also to abandon themselves to the Sorrowful Heart of My Mother.”

Our Lord, Two years into the Great War: “It is through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother that I will triumph, because having cooperated in the redemption of souls, this Heart has the right to share a similar cooperation in the manifestations of My justice and of My love. My Mother is noble in everything, but she is especially so in Her wounded Heart, transfixed by the wound of Mine.

“Desiring for Her Heart a radiant, dazzling, brilliant triumph, I have awaited this time of universal distress which finds an echo in the Sorrowful Heart of My Mother, a Heart universal as My own. To adopt this Devotion and to spread it, is to accomplish My Will and to respond to the wishes of My Heart. Because, by prayer and by the consecration made to this Heart, graces of light will be obtained. They will gradually bring souls to the full knowledge of Our United Hearts, which have been wounded by the same wound, the inexhaustible source of all good for humanity, and the glory of which is now, and ever will be, the happiness of the elect for Eternity.”

Picture of Our Lady of Ollignies


This picture of Our Lady of Ollignies is of a mysterious origin. It was discovered under peculiar circumstances in 1918 -- the year of the Armistice, in the Convent of the Bernardine nuns by whom Berthe Petit had been educated. After the withdrawal of the German troops from Belgium, consequent on the closure of the war, one of the sisters was asked to put up the cellar in order. Among the various papers, she found a piece of cardboard wrapped in an old newspaper, which she immediately tore off as useless, to be burnt along with other rubbish; but to her astonishment she found, underneath the cardboard, a beautiful picture of Our Lady. This was reported to the Mother Superior; the whole Community felt that their safety during the war was due to the special protection of Our Lady manifested by that picture within the precincts of the Convent. But in spite of a thorough investigation, they were never able to trace its origin. When it was shown to Berthe [Petit] in 1919, after her return from Switzerland, she at once recognized it as the picture of the two-fold symbol of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The image in the picture represents the Mother of God, holding in her left hand a lily, symbol of her Immaculate purity -- the gratuitous gift of her Divine Son; the finger of the right hand points out to her Sorrowful Heart surmounted by flames and pierced with a sword. The far-away gaze of the penetrating eyes seems as if the Blessed Virgin is beholding with sorrow the sins of mankind, which have caused the suffering expressed on the gentle countenance of her head, slightly inclined to the right. The gentle expression of the face is not quite unlike that of the "Pieta," so often seen in our Churches. At first, copies of this picture were distributed with discretion; but soon it came to be widely known and eagerly sought after all over Belgium. It bore "au verso," the Act of Consecration dictated by Our Lord Himself to Berthe Petit, and used by His Eminence Francis Cardinal Bourne, Primate of England, during and after the Great War, and the Imprimatur of the Bishop of Tournai.


Prayer of Personal Act of Consecration to the Sorrowful Heart of Mary composed by the seer:


“Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, dwelling pure and holy, cover my soul with your maternal protection so that being ever faithful to the Voice of Jesus, it responds to His love and obeys His Divine Will. I wish, O, my Mother, to keep unceasingly before me your co-redemption in order to live intimately with your Heart that is totally United to the Heart of your Divine Son. Fasten me to this Heart by your own virtues and sorrows. Protect me always. Amen.”


Source: Messages taken from "The Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Message of Berthe Petit, Franciscan Tertiary (1870-1943)" Translated from the French by a nun of Kylemore Abbey, "The Art of Divine Love or Berthe Petit." a biography written by Rev. I. Duffner, M.S.C. adapted from the french by Rev. Louis M. Shouriah in 1955 and Peter Heintz A Guide to Apparitions of Our Blessed Virgin Mary (Gabriel Press, Sacramento, California 1995) p. 14-21)


"Let every soul cry out: Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us."




THE SORROWFUL AND IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY: THE REVELATIONS OF BERTHE PETIT

What are still little known worldwide are the private revelations of Our Lord made public through the famous and very holy Belgian mystic, Berthe Petit, a Franciscan Tertiary (1870-1943), who enjoyed the highest respect of Cardinals, Bishops, theologians and other members of the Church hierarchy at the time. While attending midnight Mass in 1909, she saw the wounded Heart of Jesus and closely adherent to it was the Heart of Mary pierced with a sword. Then she heard these words: “Cause My Mother’s Heart transfixed by the sorrows that rent Mine to be loved.”

Then on February 7, 1910, she saw the Hearts of Jesus and Mary interpenetrating each other and hovering over the Hearts was a Dove. Jesus then spoke: “You must think of My Mother’s Heart as you think of Mine; live in this Heart as you seek to live in Mine; give yourself to this Heart as you give yourself to Mine. You must spread the love of this Heart so wholly united to Mine.” A few days later her mission was revealed to her. It was to obtain the consecration of the whole world to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

For many years this holy Franciscan Tertiary, while leading a life of hidden suffering in the world, a voluntary victim for the expiation of sin, received repeated revelations from Our Lord of His desire that the whole world should be publicly consecrated to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. She once saw the divine face under a crown of thorns in a great glory of light at the moment of the elevation of the Host. Our Lord then said to her once more: “The world must be dedicated to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother as it is dedicated to Mine. Fear nothing, no matter what suffering and obstacles you may meet. Think only of fulfilling My will.”

On Easter Sunday, 1910, while in Rome, Berthe again saw the Hearts of Jesus and Mary fused with one another under the wing of a dove. This time she heard these words: “What I desire derives from what I did on Calvary. In giving John to My Mother for her son, I confided the whole world to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.” Our Lord then bade her to make the drawing of the vision of the two Hearts, adding: “I will guide your hand.” A few months later, she received a further communication from Jesus: “I desire that the picture for which I guided your hand should be widely diffused as well as the invocation ‘Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.’”

On September 8, 1910, after receiving Holy Communion, Our Lord said to Berthe: “The Heart of My Mother has a right to be called Sorrowful and I wish this title to be placed before that of Immaculate because she has won it herself. The Church has defined in the case of My Mother what I Myself had ordained—her Immaculate Conception. This right which My Mother has to a title of justice is now, according to My express wish, to be known and universally accepted. She has earned it by her identification with My sorrows, by her sufferings, by her sacrifices and by her immolation on Calvary, endured in perfect correspondence with My grace for the salvation of mankind. In her co-redemption lies the nobility of My Mother and for this reason I ask for the invocation which I have demanded be approved and spread throughout the whole Church. It has already obtained many graces; it will obtain yet more when the Church will be exalted and the world renewed through its consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother.”

Then nine days later, on September 17, 1910, the Mother herself appeared to Berthe and revealed in a symbolic way the bodily martyrdom that she suffered at the foot of the Cross. Berthe saw her brow wounded and bleeding and her hands and heart pierced. She then said: “Now you can understand the sorrows which my Heart endured and the sufferings of my whole being for the salvation of the world.”

At a Holy Hour devotion during the night of March 24-25, 1912, the eve of the feast of the Annunciation, the Blessed Virgin spoke again to Berthe of her Sorrowful Heart: “I am called the Immaculate Conception. With you, I call myself the Mother of the Sorrowful Heart. This title that my Son wants is the dearest to me of all my titles and it is through it that shall be granted and spread everywhere, graces of mercy, spiritual renewal and salvation.”

July 12, 1912 marked the beginning of a different phase in the mystical experiences of Berthe Petit. Until that time her heavenly communications dealt solely with religious matters but on that day she received the first of several revelations concerning political events. They were similar to some of the messages of a political nature which were given by the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Catherine Labouré in 1830, by the Virgin of La Salette to Melanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud in 1846 when she wept copiously, and… to Ida Peerdeman in Amsterdam in 1945-1984.

On that day, Jesus told Berthe that the heir to the Catholic empire of Austria-Hungary would be assassinated: “A double murder will strike down the successor of the aged sovereign, so loyal to the faith.” He was referring to Archduke Franz Josef I (1830-1916), who was 82 years old at the time. Jesus added: “It will be the first of those events (World Wars) full of sorrows, but from whence I shall still bring forth good and which will precede the chastisement.”

This prophecy was fulfilled a little less than two years later on June 28, 1914 when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia, the Duchess of Hohenburg, were assassinated by 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist. The following day, June 29, Jesus said to Berthe: “Now begins the ascending curve of preliminary events, which will lead to the great manifestation of My justice.” Indeed that “preliminary event” in Sarajevo led to World War I which started about five weeks later on August 4, 1914 when Germany violated Belgium’s neutrality, and by midnight Great Britain and Germany were at war. That war eventually led to World War II, which may well culminate in a World War III in this nuclear age with the possibility of the annihilation of several nations.

According to Berthe Petit, when the Germans entered Brussels and violated Belgium’s neutrality, just as He harshly criticized the Pharisees, as recorded in the Gospels, Jesus had harsh words to say about the German invaders: “The proud race and its ambitious ruler (Kaiser William II) will be chastised on the very soil (Belgium) of their unjust conquest… The worst calamities which I predicted are unleashed. The time has now arrived when I wish mankind to turn to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother. Let this prayer be uttered by every soul: ‘Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us’ so that it may spread as a refreshing and purifying balm of reparation that will appease My anger. This devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother will restore faith and hope to broken hearts and to ruined families. It will help to repair the destruction. It will sweeten sorrow. It will be a new strength for My Church, bringing souls, not only to confidence in My Heart, but also to abandonment to the Sorrowful Heart of My Mother.”

Pope Pius X died on August 10, 1914 soon after World War I began and he was succeeded by Pope Benedict XV. As Sir Nicholas Cheetham commented in his History of the Popes: “How ought the Holy See to react to a murderous conflict in which Catholic Austria-Hungary and partly-Catholic Germany stood initially opposed to an alliance of Catholic, but officially irreligious France, with Orthodox Russia and Protestant Great Britain?”

This indeed was the problem facing the Pope, shortly to be complicated by Italy’s entry into the war. In his first statement on September 8, 1914, the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he mourned the bloodshed and pleaded for a quick end to the war just begun. He also denounced the war as a crime against religion, humanity and civilization, perpetrated as it was by Catholic countries.

In his first encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, issued on November 1, 1914, Pope Benedict criticized the warring Christian peoples: “Who could realize,” he wrote, “that they are the children of the same Father in heaven?” He then closed with a call for a prayer to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, “who bore the Prince of Peace.” Then the following year, on May 3, 1915, he sent a letter to the Dean of the Sacred College, Cardinal Venutelli, which concluded with the following recommendation addressed to all the bishops of the world: “Let us send up our prayers, more than ever ardent and frequent, to Him in whose Hands lie the destinies of all peoples, and let us appeal with confidence to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, the most gentle Mother of Jesus and ours, that by her powerful intercession she will obtain from her divine Son the speedy end of the war and the return of peace and tranquility.”

Berthe Petit spent the years of World War I in Switzerland where she was frequently told in advance of the calamities that would befall the Allies. However, the two Cardinals who cooperated most with her were Cardinal Desiré Mercier, Primate of Belgium, and Cardinal Francis Alphonsus Bourne, the Primate of England and Archbishop of Canterbury. Cardinal Bourne (1861-1935) became acclaimed for his patriotic speeches during the war and Cardinal Mercier (1851-1926) became the spokesman of Belgian opposition to the German occupation for which the Germans placed him under house arrest. He was Berthe’s spiritual director for several years, was deeply impressed by her heavenly communications, and energetically promoted the devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary in Belgium. In fact, he had also approached the predecessor of Pope Benedict XV, Pope Pius X (1903-1914), and attempted to win his approval for the worldwide devotion. Seventeen petitions were made to the Pope, however, sadly to say, the Pope did not find it appropriate to promote a new worldwide devotion at that time, but it was certainly never condemned on doctrinal grounds. However, like Pius X, Pope Benedict XV also did not judge the time opportune for a worldwide devotion.

In February, 1915, Our Lord said to Berthe: “It is through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother that I will triumph, because having cooperated in the redemption of souls, this Heart has the right to share a similar cooperation in the manifestations of My justice and of My love. My Mother is noble in everything but she is especially so in her wounded Heart, transfixed by the wound of Mine.”

Berthe in the interim remained quietly patient in Switzerland awaiting God’s good pleasure and continued to receive heavenly communications. Our Lady later showed her in a vision an untold multitude of every race and color, sick and suffering, all praying with arms raised to heaven. Some were physically healed, others, touched by grace, fell on their knees. “It seemed a regeneration of the whole world,” said Berthe.

Meanwhile, as the war continued, on March 7, 1916 Cardinal Mercier announced that during the Good Friday ceremonies he would dedicate his diocese and his beloved country Belgium to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in England Cardinal Bourne continued to rally the faithful towards this devotion. In a pastoral letter of September 3, 1916, he wrote:

“Nowhere in Christendom should honor be paid more readily to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary than here in England. In the days of united faith (that is, before the Reformation), her purity and her sorrows were ever held in loving veneration. Throughout the realm, Our Blessed Lady, God’s Mother, were terms and titles dear to every English heart. England was, in very truth, Our Lady’s dowry. It is, therefore, not with the idea of introducing any new devotion, but rather in order to give fresh meaning and greater force to thoughts long cherished by us all and deep-rooted in the history of our race that we desire to consecrate with renewed effort the prayer, which the special circumstances of the moment so urgently demand, to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary…

“For these reasons, we desire and enjoin that in all the churches and public chapels of our diocese, Friday, September 15, the feast of the Seven Sorrows of Our Blessed Lady, or on the following Sunday, during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the Stabat Mater be sung, to be followed by the recitation of three Hail Marys and the invocation (repeated after each Hail Mary) “Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us,” in order that, by this public homage, all our dioceses, and, insofar in us lies, our whole country and empire may be solemnly consecrated and dedicated to Our Blessed Lady under this special title.”

That day, September 15, 1916, marked the greatest success of the British. In fact, each time public devotions were performed in England, the British armies swept forward to unexpected victories, so much so that Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the Commander in Chief of the Allied forces in France, observed in his “Memoires” that, strangely enough, the English seemed scarcely aware of how those successes could have come about. “I will never repeat it too often,” he wrote, “that the English fought in a most extraordinary way. They won victory upon victory. At the beginning of October they had broken the formidable Hindenburg line at its strongest point. But still more wonderful, these victories were won almost unknown to themselves.”

Among those notable successes of the war by the Allies was the capture of the village of Passchendaele by the Canadians ending the third battle of Ypres and the enemy then lost all hope of piercing the line to Calais. There was also the success of the Allies in driving back the Germans on the Marne, relieving the threat to Paris.

On August 15, 1917, Cardinal Bourne once more consecrated England to the Sorrowful Heart of Mary (This was repeated solemnly on Christmas day). On August 22, 1917, the feast of the Queenship of Mary, Our Lord sent the following message through Berthe Petit to Cardinal Bourne: “I ask My apostle Francis [Cardinal Francis Alphonsus Bourne] to exert an ever increasing activity in favor of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother… Let him hasten what he calls his ‘first step’ so that a still more solemn consecration may be timed for the feast of the Sorrows of My Mother—that great feast of her Heart as Co-Redemptrix. When the nation (England) of my apostle Francis will be entirely dedicated to this Heart he will see that he has not listened to My word in vain, for my providential intervention is reserved for all the people consecrated to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother. I wish thus to show the power of this Heart which is linked in everything with My own.”

When the tide of battle turned against the Allies in the dreadful spring of 1918, Jesus explained to Berthe: “It is a necessary trial for after My protection had helped them to conquer, they attributed the glory to their own prowess. Reverses are now showing these soldiers how human means alone are powerless to repel the surge of invasion.”

However, by mid-October 1918, the Germans were all but finished and desertions were skyrocketing. People had had enough. Governments fell and chaos prevailed over central Europe. Then on October 17, 1918, Our Lord told Berthe:

“Were it not for my intervention, obtained by My apostle [Cardinal] Francis through recourse to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother, the victory would have belonged to those who strained every nerve during so many years to prepare and organize a great war for the attainment of their own ambitions…. Material force would have overborne justice and right and this more especially so for your own country (Belgium). For why should I come to the help of a people in France intent on persecuting My Church? That is why trials will continue until the day when, humbly acknowledging her errors, this nation will render Me My rights and give full liberty to My Church.”

During that month Our Lord also warned Berthe: “The world is hanging on the edge of utter cataclysm. My justice cannot preside over the machination of those who work in their own interests to forward a peace totally unworthy of the name, and which can never be genuine except through My intervention.”

Three weeks later, after a most bloody conflict among the nations, and after ten million people had died and many more maimed and displaced, the greatest global war in known history at that time ended abruptly and gloriously in favor of the British. It was at eleven a.m. on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 when the Armistice took place. On May 24, 1919, the Archbishop of Westminster again consecrated his country to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary in thanksgiving for the great victory in what was thought to be “the war to end all wars.”

In July, 1919, eight months after the Armistice, Our Lord spoke as follows to Berthe:

“Internal strife is more rampant than ever in your country. It is being fanned by the evil seed sown by the invader. It is fed by egoism, pride and jealousy—malevolent germs which can only generate moral ruin… Time will prove that a peace established without Me and without him who speaks in My name (referring to Pope Benedict XV) has no stability. The nation (Germany), which is considered to be vanquished but whose forces are only momentarily diminished, will remain a menace for your country and likewise for France. Confusion and terror will steadily spread through every nation. Because this peace is not Mine, wars will be rekindled on every side—civil war and racial war. What would have been so noble, so true, so beautiful, so lasting in its fulfillment is consequently delayed. Humanity is advancing towards a frightful scourge which will divide the nations more and more. It will reduce human schemes to nothingness. It will break the pride of the powers that be. It will show that nothing subsists without Me and that I remain the sole Master of the destinies of nations.”

“A peace totally unworthy of the name,” said Our Lord to Berthe. Let us research the history of that rebuke. Now, Pope Benedict XV had adopted a rigidly neutral position between the belligerents, and while denouncing the war as a crime against religion, humanity and civilization, he had blamed both sides equally for allowing it to happen and to continue. However, neither side appreciated his attitude nor responded to his exhortations. In fact, it later transpired that one of Italy’s conditions for entering the war in 1915 with the Allies was the exclusion of the Holy See from any eventual peace conference.

After his suggestion of a general Christmas truce in 1914 was totally ignored by the Allies, on August 1, 1917, he issued a seven-point peace plan to each of the belligerent nations. Ignored by most powers, only Austria-Hungary regarded it with any degree of seriousness. However, the Pope strove continually and imperturbably for a negotiated peace as opposed to a dictated one, and being barred from the Palace Peace Conference, which began in January 1919 in Paris caused him to stigmatize the Treaty of Versailles (not unfairly) as a “consecration of hatred” and a “perpetuation of war.”

Now Germany had refused to acknowledge any sole guilt and responsibility for the war and the German people, having agreed to set about forming a democratic republican government, felt that they were entitled to a just peace. However, when the terms of the Versailles Treaty, laid down by the Allies without negotiation with Germany, were published in Berlin on May 7, 1919, they came as a staggering blow to the German people. Germany was made to pay “reparations” far beyond her power of payment and in contravention of the plain understandings upon which she had surrendered. She was put in a position of economic serfdom.

Angry mass meetings were then organized throughout the country to protest against the treaty and to demand that Germany refuse to sign it. Indeed, the treaty was branded as “unreasonable and unbearable,” and intolerable for any nation, so much so that Phillipp Scheidemann, who had become the first Chancellor of the Weimar Assembly, exclaimed: “May the hand wither that signs this treaty!” In fact, Field Marshall von Hindenburg, President of Germany, came to the conclusion that he could not help feeling that it was better to perish honorably than accept a disgraceful peace.

However, the Treaty of Versailles was eventually signed in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles on June 28, 1919 with objections from the German government, protesting that they did so “under the threat of force.” On that day Germany became a house divided. In fact, when he read the Peace Treaty, Marshall Foch burst out: “This is not peace! This is an armistice for twenty years.” Indeed, twenty years and sixty-seven days later, once more Great Britain and France declared war on a militant Germany! As Our Lord had said to Berthe Petit: “Time will prove that a peace established without Me and without him who speaks in My name has no stability.”

Yet another critic of the Versailles Peace Treaty was Winston Churchill. In his book “The Second World War”, he began his magnum opus with these words:

“The economic clauses of the Treaty were malignant and silly to an extent that made them obviously futile. Germany was condemned to pay reparations on a fabulous scale. The triumphant Allies continued to assert that they would squeeze Germany “till the pips squeaked” and that Germany should be made to pay “to the uttermost farthing.” All this had a potent bearing on the prosperity of the world and the mood of the German race. History will characterize all these transactions as insane. They helped to breed both the martial curse and the economic blizzard. All this was a sad story of complicated idiocy in the making of which much toil and virtue was consumed. Thereafter mighty forces were adrift, the void was open, and into that void after a pause there stood a maniac of ferocious genius, the repository and expression of the most virulent hatreds that have ever corroded the human breast—Corporal Hitler.”

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Prayer Card (Freebie)

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Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, to Thee I consecrate and offer up my person and my life, my actions, trials, and sufferings, that my entire being may henceforth only be employed in loving, honoring and glorifying Thee. This is my irrevocable will, to belong entirely to Thee, and to do all for Thy love, renouncing with my whole heart all that can displease Thee.

I take Thee, O Sacred Heart, for the sole object of my love, the protection of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy of my frailty and inconstancy, the reparation for all the defects of my life, and my secure refuge at the hour of my death. Be Thou, O Most Merciful Heart, my justification before God Thy Father, and screen me from His anger which I have so justly merited. I fear all from my own weakness and malice, but placing my entire confidence in Thee, O Heart of Love, I hope all from Thine infinite Goodness. Annihilate in me all that can displease or resist Thee. Imprint Thy pure love so deeply in my heart that I may never forget Thee or be separated from Thee.

I beseech Thee, through Thine infinite Goodness, grant that my name be engraved upon Thy Heart, for in this I place all my happiness and all my glory, to live and to die as one of Thy devoted servants.

Amen.


St. Louis de Montfort’s Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

I, (name), a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today in thy hands, O Immaculate Mother, the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before.

In the presence of all the heavenly court I choose thee this day, for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God, in time and in eternity. Amen.


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Devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Mary Prayer Card (Freebie)

Devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Mary Prayer Card (Freebie)

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Tuesday, July 18, 2017

The Seven Sorrows of Mary Devotion (Our Lady of Sorrows)

The Seven Sorrows Devotion

The Blessed Virgin Mary grants seven graces to the souls who honor her daily by saying seven Hail Mary's and meditating on her tears and dolors (sorrows).
The devotion was passed on by St. Bridget.


HERE ARE THE SEVEN GRACES:


  1. I will grant peace to their families.
  2. They will be enlightened about the divine mysteries.
  3. I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.
  4. I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.
  5. I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.
  6. I will visibly help them at the moment of their death, they will see the face of their Mother.
  7. I have obtained from my divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors, will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son and I will be their eternal consolation and joy.



SEVEN SORROWS

  1. The prophecy of Simeon. (St. Luke 2:34, 35)
  2. The flight into Egypt. (St. Matthew 2:13, 14)
  3. The loss of the Child Jesus in the temple. (St. Luke 2: 43-45)
  4. The meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross.
  5. The Crucifixion and death of Jesus.
  6. The taking down of the Body of Jesus from the Cross.
  7. The burial of Jesus.
The Angelic Salutation (Hail Mary) 
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Salutatio Angelica (Ave Maria) 
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum; Benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.


1. The prophecy of Simeon: "And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed." – Luke II, 34-35. 
Meditation: How great was the shock to Mary's Heart at hearing the sorrowful words, in which holy Simeon told the bitter Passion and death of her sweet Jesus, since in that same moment she realized in her mind all the insults, blows, and torments which the impious men were to offer to the Redeemer of the world. But a still sharper sword pierced her soul. It was the thought of men's ingratitude to her beloved Son. Now consider that because of your sins you are unhappily among the ungrateful. 
Say one Ave Maria (Hail Mary) 
2. The flight into Egypt: "And after they (the wise men) were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise and take the child and His mother and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy Him. Who arose and took the child and His mother by night, and retired into Egypt: and He was there until the death of Herod." – Matt. II, 13-14. 
Meditation: Consider the sharp sorrow which Mary felt when, St. Joseph being warned by an angel, she had to flee by night in order to preserve her beloved Child from the slaughter decreed by Herod. What anguish was hers, in leaving Judea, lest she should be overtaken by the soldiers of the cruel king! How great her privations in that long journey! What sufferings she bore in that land of exile, what sorrow amid that people given to idolatry! But consider how often you have renewed that bitter grief of Mary, when your sins have caused her Son to flee from your heart. 
Say one Ave Maria (Hail Mary) 
3. The loss of the Child Jesus in the temple: "And having fulfilled the days, when they returned, the Child Jesus remained in Jerusalem; and His parents knew it not. And thinking that he was in the company, they came a day's journey, and sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And not finding Him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking Him." Luke II, 43-45. 
Meditation: How dread was the grief of Mary, when she saw that she had lost her beloved Son! And as if to increase her sorrow, when she sought Him diligently among her kinsfolk and acquaintance, she could hear no tidings of Him. No hindrances stayed her, nor weariness, nor danger; but she forthwith returned to Jerusalem, and for three long days sought Him sorrowing. Great be your confusion, O my soul, who has so often lost your Jesus by your sins, and has given no heed to seek Him at once, a sign that you make very little or no account of the precious treasure of divine love. 
Say one Ave Maria (Hail Mary) 
4. The meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross: "And there followed Him a great multitude of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented Him." – Luke XXIII, 27. 
Meditation: Come, O ye sinners, come and see if ye can endure so sad a sight. This Mother, so tender and loving, meets her beloved Son, meets Him amid an impious rabble, who drag Him to a cruel death, wounded, torn by stripes, crowned with thorns, streaming with blood, bearing His heavy cross. Ah, consider, my soul, the grief of the blessed Virgin thus beholding her Son! Who would not weep at seeing this Mother's grief? But who has been the cause of such woe? I, it is I, who with my sins have so cruelly wounded the heart of my sorrowing Mother! And yet I am not moved; I am as a stone, when my heart should break because of my ingratitude. 
Say one Ave Maria (Hail Mary) 
5. The Crucifixion and death of Jesus: "They crucified Him. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, His Mother. When Jesus therefore had seen His Mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, He saith to His Mother: Woman: behold thy son. After that he saith to the disciple: Behold thy Mother." – John XIX, l8-25-27. 
Meditation: Look, devout soul, look to Calvary, whereon are raised two altars of sacrifice, one on the body of Jesus, the other on the heart of Mary. Sad is the sight of that dear Mother drowned in a sea of woe, seeing her beloved Son, part of her very self, cruelly nailed to the shameful tree of the cross. Ah me! how every blow of the hammer, how every stripe which fell on the Saviour's form, fell also on the disconsolate spirit of the Virgin. As she stood at the foot of the cross, pierced by the sword of sorrow, she turned her eyes on Him, until she knew that He lived no longer and had resigned His spirit to His Eternal Father. Then her own soul was like to have left the body and joined itself to that of Jesus. 
Say one Ave Maria (Hail Mary) 
6. The taking down of the Body of Jesus from the Cross: "Joseph of Arimathea, a noble counselor, came and went in boldly to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And Joseph buying fine linen, and taking Him down, wrapped Him up in the fine linen." – Mark XV, 43-46. 
Meditation: Consider the most bitter sorrow which rent the soul of Mary, when she saw the dead body of her dear Jesus on her knees, covered with blood, all torn with deep wounds. O mournful Mother, a bundle of myrrh, indeed, is thy Beloved to thee. Who would not pity thee? Whose heart would not be softened, seeing affliction which would move a stone? Behold John not to be comforted, Magdalen and the other Mary in deep affliction, and Nicodemus, who can scarcely bear his sorrow. 
Say one Ave Maria (Hail Mary) 
7. The burial of Jesus: "Now there was in the place where He was crucified, a garden; and in the garden a new sepulcher, wherein no man yet had been laid. There, therefore, because of the parasceve of the Jews, they laid Jesus, because the sepulcher was nigh at hand." John XIX, 41-42. 
Meditation: Consider the sighs which burst from Mary's sad heart when she saw her beloved Jesus laid within the tomb. What grief was hers when she saw the stone lifted to cover that sacred tomb! She gazed a last time on the lifeless body of her Son, and could scarce detach her eyes from those gaping wounds. And when the great stone was rolled to the door of the sepulcher, oh, then indeed her heart seemed torn from her body! 
Say one Ave Maria (Hail Mary)



The Seven Sorrows Devotion
 
St. Gabriel of The Sorrowful Mother, said he was never denied any petition that he confided to the Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows)

Mater Dolorosa Ora Pro Nobis!

Also see:

Devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Mary Prayer Card (Freebie)