Praying with Our Sorrowful Mother

By Fr. Jacob Powell

Praying with Our Sorrowful Mother is a unique book that explores the riches of the interior life of Mary. Through her seven sorrows, the Blessed Virgin's soul is opened to humanity. Her inestimable love of God and perfectly virtuous life is on display as she endures some of the most trying and tormentous experiences of life. Praying with Our Sorrowful Mother helps readers connect to Mary through their own tribulations. In turn, Mary helps them to embrace their cross in these reflections.

 

Praying with Our Sorrowful Mother is written to help people discover the profound riches of Mary's Immaculate Heart. It is intended to guide the reader through Mary's
most difficult episodes of her earthly life in order to reveal her remarkable qualities, encourage a stronger Marian devotion and reveal God's majesty. Too often, Mary's
interior beauty is ignored, forgotten, or not considered. This small book of intimate meditations exposes her interior beauty which captivates every person who sees it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Salve Regina Media
• Release date: Feb 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781960410016

Fr. Jacob Powell

Father Powell is a native Texan who grew up in a Roman Catholic family. He is one of four children who attended a non-denominational school with very few Catholics. He began learning and loving his Faith by altar-serving and having faith-based discussions with friends and teachers. Through prayer and study, he discerned a call to the priesthood. After a year of college at Texas Tech University, he joined the Conventual Franciscans in the St. Bonaventure Province. After nearly two years of further discernment, he left the order and returned to Texas Tech University for another year of learning. By the end of this year, he decided to join the Diocese of Lubbock, Texas. He was sent to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary for two years to finish his degree in Philosophy. His bishop sent him to St. Mary's Seminary in Houston, Texas to complete his formation and Theological studies. In 2017 he was ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of Lubbock. He served as a parochial vicar for two years before being made a pastor. He continues to serve as pastor within his diocese.

Book preview

Reflections on the Seven Sorrows of Mary

Praying with

Our Sorrowful Mother

Fr. Jacob Powell

Nihil Obstat:

Rev. William J. Anton

Censor Librorum

Imprimatur:

Rev. Robert M Coerver

Bishop of Lubbock

January 19, 2023

© 2023 Father Jacob Powell

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used in any manner whatsoever, except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews, without written permission from Salve Regina Media.

www.salvereginamedia.com

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-960410-03-0

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-960410-01-6

And when they met her they all blessed her with one accord and said to her, You are the exaltation of Jerusalem, you are the great glory of Israel, you are the great pride of our nation! You have done all this singlehanded; you have done great good to Israel, and God is well pleased with it. May the Almighty Lord bless you for ever! And all the people said, So be it!

—Judith 15:9–10

May this book serve for the greater glory of God, the veneration of my Blessed Mother of Heaven, and the salvation of souls.

INTRODUCTION

Mary once said to Saint Bridget, a well-known mystic of the fourteenth century:

I look around at all who are on earth, to see if by chance there are any who pity Me and meditate on My Sorrows; and I find that there are very few. Therefore, My daughter, though I am forgotten by many, at least do you not forget me. Meditate on My Sorrows and share in My grief as far as you can.

The Blessed Virgin invites us to reflect on her life. In so doing, we reflect on the life of Christ as well. This leads to our fulfillment because in God alone we discover the real joy and unimaginable reward which He desires for each of us. Because the saints pursued God so fervently and relentlessly, they illuminate for us the narrow way to heaven. Their examples and insights reveal His splendor and inspire us to pursue the life of heaven while still here on earth. Their actions and dispositions become road maps to heaven. The more intimately we know their prayers and writings, the more clearly we see their spiritual life open before us. Their love for God becomes visible to us as we develop relationships with them through prayer and reading. The love they have for God is proportionate to the depth of their interior life. Their sorrows, joys, writings, miracles, and service allow us to enter more deeply into their interior life and explore new horizons of the richness of the Catholic Faith.

As remarkable as saints are, the Blessed Virgin far surpasses all of them in her singular love and devotion to the Most Holy Trinity. Her interior life is inexhaustibly rich and surpasses all others. Therefore, she remains the perfect example and the Mother to whom we should entrust ourselves for spiritual enlightenment and growth.

The Seven Dolors (sorrows) of the Blessed Virgin Mary are seven windows into her interior life. Although her pure and immense love extends beyond our comprehension, we are edified by glimpses into her complete surrender to the will of God. She most effectively demonstrates God’s love for humanity and most appropriately responds to His love in humility. Her seven-fold sorrow opens the door to her Immaculate Heart, allowing us to explore the magnificence of God manifested most clearly in her life.

This book intends to help readers discover new frontiers of their devotion to the Blessed Virgin. The reflections presented illuminate the hidden life of Mary, which is found between the lines of Sacred Scripture and amplified in Sacred Tradition. Because Mary is the preeminent disciple of Christ, her sorrows instruct us how to endure suffering and advance spiritually from them. Her life is a masterpiece of love that makes visible the Divine Beauty of God. Through her sorrows, we draw ever closer to that Divine Beauty for which our souls’ thirst.

These reflections are largely based on Father Frederick William Faber’s The Foot of