Our Sorrowful Mother, whose most pure heart was transfixed with seven swords of sorrow, you suffered intensely all the pains of your most Beloved Son, throughout His Life, Passion, and Death. The very first sword of sorrow pierced your Immaculate Heart when Jesus was only forty days old. Alongside the good St. Joseph, you presented Him in the Temple in Jerusalem to consecrate Him to the Lord. As you held Him close to your most pure heart and gazed upon His Holy Face, your joy soon turned into sorrow as holy Simeon entered the Temple and prophesized that “Thine own soul a sword shall pierce”. You then understood more profoundly that Jesus would suffer cruel tortures for the Salvation of mankind through ingratitude, coldness of heart, sacrileges and profanation. Please come to our assistance and obtain for us the purity and thankfulness of heart to adore, with a firm purpose of amendment, the most Holy Face of your Son.

O Blessed Mother, you received your second sorrow while Jesus was still of a tender age. The Father’s will was manifested in a dream of gentle Joseph directing the Holy Family to flee to Egypt to escape the murderous intentions of Herod. During this arduous journey, you contemplated the angelic countenance of your Son asleep in your arms. You suffered the sword of grief at the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, and the anxiety of travelling unprepared to a pagan land. Assist us by the help of your prayers to turn to the Holy Face of your Son, in order to forbear all evil which assails, so that sinners throughout the world will be converted.

Most Holy Mother, you suffered the third sword of sorrow as you and St. Joseph searched in earnest for Jesus for three long days when He was lost in Jerusalem at the age of twelve. Upon finding Him in His Father’s House, you beheld His Holy Face with relief, but deeply pondered the will of God in your heart. Please obtain for us the graces to patiently pursue the Face of Jesus as a remedy in those moments when we have difficulty accepting the Father’s will, or when Jesus is lost to us through our sins.

O Mary most sorrowful, you endured the fourth sword as you followed Jesus along the road to Calvary. The weight of our sins was insupportable, and He fell to the ground for the first time. It was then that your eyes took in the sight of His Divine Countenance, scarcely recognizable by the blood, wounds and bruises found thereon. At this moment, your mutual gaze became arrows that pierced your two hearts which loved each other profoundly. Teach us dear Mother, through the anguish of seeing our Lord’s Face, covered in wounds, to persevere in desire to love Him and make Him loved by all mankind.

O Queen of Martyrs, you stood resolutely at the foot of the Cross and endured your fifth sword of sorrow, as you glanced at the disfigured Holy Face of your Son Jesus. When He spoke His third word,

“Woman behold thy Son,” it was then that He sacrificed the last earthly consolation of your tender contemplation of His Holy Countenance to direct you to turn toward the beloved disciple. Out of obedience and trust, but with great anguish you complied, and so took on the whole human race as your beloved children, and gave your fiat to the Father once more. Tender Mother of all people, come to our

assistance, so that the will and most Holy Name of Jesus will be praised, blessed, loved, adored, and glorified in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth by all of your children.

Most afflicted Mother, you beheld Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus take the lifeless body of Jesus down from the Cross, at which point you received Him into your outstretched arms. This was the sixth sword of sorrow. As you contemplated His breathless Holy Face, you recalled that first Christmas morning, when you peered into His eyes at birth and He cried out for love, nourishment, and warmth.

At that moment, there was only silence, as you had just suffered through the hearing of His death cry.

What torment you must have braved, as in His humanity, Jesus could not return your loving gaze. In your desolation, you could only reflect that the cruel wounds that He had received to His Sacred Face and Head, and which you in turn felt concretely in your soul, were the price paid for the salvation of mankind. O Holy Virgin Mary, deign to assist us in proclaiming the Good News of Salvation through the

Most Holy Name of Jesus, so that the Word of God and discipleship may spread throughout our country

Canada, and the errors of Communism may be defeated throughout the world.

Virgin most sorrowful, you suffered the seventh sword as Jesus was placed in the Sacred Tomb. You knelt at His graveside, praying to the Father in earnest that you may be granted the favour of remaining there at His last resting place. When it was time to move the stone to close the entrance, the Father’s will was manifested – the disciples with the utmost reverence, bid you to take leave of your Son’s side.

Your loving gaze turned one last time to His Holy Face, now hidden behind the burial cloths. You then left your most pure heart there in the sepulchre with Jesus as the great stone was rolled forward as you would experience for the first time the absence of His Holy Presence. However, your sorrow was not sadness. It was tempered with hope as you anticipated His Glorious Resurrection on the third day.

O Queen of Intercessors, obtain for us a share in your lively faith, that we may know without a doubt that

Your Incarnate Son has shown us the Face of God the Father, which is love itself. Pray for us, that we will live forever united to Jesus in the hope of one day enjoying the Beatific Vision for all eternity and partaking in your crown of glory in Heaven, Amen.

4 June 2023 Littlest Wren of the Holy Face.