On September 15th, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is celebrated. In the Church of the Angel, today there will be Holy Mass at 7:00 PM, and tomorrow there will be two Masses: one at 11:00 AM and the other at 7:00 PM. We asked some questions to Father Luca Gallina.
Father Luca, on September 15th the Church celebrates the memory of Our Lady of Sorrows. Devotion to the weeping Mother at the foot of the cross is also deeply rooted in Francofonte.
We prepare to celebrate Our Lady by remembering her in that particular moment beneath the cross, while her Son Jesus gives up his spirit and dies to save all humanity. The Christian people have wanted to emphasize the gift the Mother makes of herself in that moment. She, who had given her life to the Lord by responding "Here I am" to the angel's message, continues to remain faithful to Him, experiencing that pain, which also has a salvific value. The evangelist John tells us that it was precisely beneath the cross, while the Mother is grieving, that she will hear her Son say: "Woman, behold, your son." Mary, in welcoming the disciple John, present with her beneath the cross, was in reality becoming the Mother of the Church.
After having touched on the meaning of memory, let us delve into some aspects that make this memory special.
Sicily is one of the regions where the cult of Our Lady of Sorrows is strongest and most deeply rooted. There are numerous statues of great artistic value depicting her weeping, with a handkerchief in her hands, a dagger thrust into her heart ("and a sword will pierce your soul too," prophesied the elderly Simeon when he met Jesus in the temple with Mary and Joseph) and her eyes turned toward heaven. The most eagerly awaited and heartfelt moment remains Good Friday, when these statues are displayed and generally carried in procession behind the dead Christ (as happens in Francofonte), but there are many places where actual celebrations in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows are held on September 15th, such as in nearby Palazzolo.
In Francofonte, the cult of Our Lady of Sorrows is preserved in the Church of the Angel. How?
Among other devotions, the Church of the Angel preserves the cult of Our Lady of Sorrows. Traditionally, Mass is celebrated in that small church on September 15th, with great participation from many devotees. Furthermore, since last year, we have been able to restore to the veneration of the people of Francofonte an ancient statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, which had been lost for various reasons. It is a powerful and truthful depiction of the Mother suffering at the foot of the cross. We need to see with our own eyes the mysteries we celebrate in the Liturgy, and certainly contemplating the suffering face of the Mother helps us, first of all, to understand the significance of the salvation that Jesus achieved by dying on the cross, and then to truly feel Our Lady's closeness in all our suffering. She weeps with us, and this consoles us and gives us the strength to endure even the most difficult pain.
Father Luca, a message for our readers
Let us approach Our Lady with the serene confidence that we will be welcomed in our pain, consoled in our suffering, and heard in our prayers. Because, as we love to repeat every time we go to Syracuse to venerate Our Lady of Tears: "Jesus refuses nothing to your holy tears."
