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The Easter Cycle
shall be martyrs; we shall suffer and die. In our own name and in that of the whole Church we
pray: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am afflicted. Deliver me and save me out of the hands
of my enemies and from them that persecute me. Let me not be confounded, O Lord, for I have
called upon Thee. In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped” (Introit).
The more violent the persecution of Christ and His Church, the more faithful must be His
friends. With the Epistle we say, “O Lord, all that forsake Thee shall be confounded; they that
depart from Thee, shall be written in the earth; because they have forsaken the Lord, the vein
of living waters. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved. Behold,
they say to me [in scorn]: Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come. And I am not troubled,
following Thee for my pastor; and I have not desired the day of man, Thou knowest. . . . Let them
be confounded that persecute me; and let me not be confounded. Let them be afraid, and let not
me be afraid; bring upon them the day of affliction, and with a double destruction destroy them,
O Lord our God.” A ray from the sun of Easter already breaks through the night of Good Friday.
Prayer
Mercifully pour Thy grace into our hearts, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that curbing our sinful
propensities with voluntary chastisement, we may suffer in this life and not be condemned to
eternal punishments.
Grant, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, that we who seek the favor of Thy protection, being
delivered from all evils, may serve Thee with a quiet mind. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Feast of the Seven Sorrows
On the Friday before Good Friday our Holy Mother the Church sympathetically directs our
attention to the Sorrowful Mother. What Simeon predicted of her in the temple really came to
pass: “And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed”
(Lk 2:35). Through her participation in the sufferings of her Son, Mary is the representative of
the Church and of every Christian soul.
“At that time, there stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary of
Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen” (Gospel). Mary could not be separated from her Son in His
hour of suffering. From the moment she offered Him in the temple she knew that He was to
be sacrificed as a victim for the sins of the world, and that she as His mother must share in
that sacrifice. From that day onward she kept ever before her eyes the picture that Simeon had
painted for her. Hers was a long-enduring martyrdom. Each day she knew that the moment
was approaching nearer when He must begin His passion. Each day brought new sufferings,
until now she stands beneath the cross. She is near at hand when the cruel soldiers tear His
clothing from His bleeding body and stretch Him on the cross and fasten Him with nails driven
through His hands and feet. She presses close to the cross upon which her Son is dying. She
stands there in the deepest sorrow, yet resigned and courageous. She unites her sufferings to
those of her Son, who is offering His suffering to the Father. She joins herself to the sacrifice of
her Son, and offers all this to the heavenly Father for the salvation of the world — for each of
us. The offering which the Son makes to the Father is likewise the offering of the mother. They
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