Seven Sorrows of the BVM

Today is the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The feast is of greater double rite.

The liturgical observance of the feast began yesterday morning with first Vespers which has proper antiphons and psalms. The famous Stabat Mater is the Office hymn. A commemoration was made of the Office of St. Francis de Paul and the Lenten feria. A Doxology proper to the feast is sung at all hymns of Iambic metre.

At Mattins the invitatory is proper and the hymn continues. The antiphons are proper. In the first nocturn the lessons are from Isiah. In the second nocturn they are taken from a sermon of St. Bernard and in the third from a homily of St. Ambrose. The ninth lesson is from the Lenten feria. At Lauds the antiphons are again proper and the psalms of Sunday sung.

At Prime the festal psalms are sung, the versicle in the short responsory is Qui passus es propter nostram salutem and the short lesson Generationem. Mass follows Terce the Gloria is sung, the second collect of the Lenten feria. The sequence Stabat Mater follows the tract. The Credo is sung and the last Gospel is of the feria. Private Masses may be of the Lenten feria with a commemoration of the BVM, Oratio super populum, Benedicamus Domino and the last Gospel for the feast of the Seven Sorrows.

Following Mass Sext, None and Vespers are sung. At Vespers there is a commemoration of the following Office of St. Isidore the Lenten feria.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' the feast is reduced to a commemoration in the ferial Mass and Office. However a rubric in the Sanctorale directs that where local devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows exists two festal Masses are permitted.