In Jerusalem, Holy Week has a prelude in the celebration of the solemnity of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the Friday in the fifth week of Lent.

On the morning of Friday 11 April, the Vicar of the Custody, Fra Ibrahim Faltas, presided over the Solemn Mass on Mount Calvary, in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, on the altar of Our Lady of Sorrows, which separates the Latin chapel, where the moment when Jesus was nailed to the cross is remembered, from the Greek Orthodox chapel, where the cross was raised.

Here, in a small niche, there is a wooden half-bust sculpture of Mary, a gift to the Holy Sepulchre from Mary the Pious, Queen of Portugal. The statue shows the Virgin Mary with her breast pierced by a sword, according to the prophecy of the old Simeon (Luke 2, 34-35).

Pierced humanity

In his homily, Fra Ibrahim spoke of today’s “pierced humanity”: “Today the whole world is a Calvary full of crosses (…): Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, Ukraine and all the places marked by war, including in our midst.”

“At exactly the time when everything seems to die,” he stressed, “when on Golgotha everything becomes dark, Jesus speaks of life. He says ‘mother,’ he says ‘son’: he invites a man and a woman to make the thread of life whole again. God clasps to what is good and strong in us:  the love of a mother for her son, to rebuild a path beyond the many crosses.”

The Mass on Mount Calvary

At the start of the celebration, the song of Stabat Mater introduced those present to the  sorrow of Mary at the foot of the cross. The lauds of the solemnity and the singing of Missa IX “Cum Iubilo” gave the celebration a “touch of joy,” inserting the mystery of sorrow into the Easter perspective.

“Today, from this place, we are invited to look at Mount Calvary, the symbol of the Redemption,” Fra Ibrahim began. “We are called to be instruments of salvation, responding to God’s eternal love.”

Worshipping Our Lady of the Sorrows

Worshipping Our Lady of the Sorrows is a very old devotion, dating back to the 11th century. Once, there were two liturgical dates that were linked to Our Lady of the Sorrows: one on the Friday before Palm Sunday and one on the third Sunday in September.

In Jerusalem, both these days are still celebrated in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, and the one during Lent keeps the title of solemnity.

It is something unique, as the Conciliar Liturgy has kept only the optional memory of the “Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrows” on 15 September, the day after the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

Fra Ibrahim concluded his homily inviting us to look at Mary: “When Jesus addresses the disciple, he says, ‘Look: it is your mother!.’ This imperative is also a message for each one of us: ‘Look at Mary.’ It is the last command that Jesus leaves for us: ‘If you want to be my disciple, learn from Mary,  watch how she behaves, what she says and what she does not say; let her be your guide.’”