Yesterday was the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.  While it took me longer than hoped to sit down here I did want to still share a bit about this devotion that rather found me.  You see, not only was it not on my radar but I fancied that the joyful images were more appealing to me.  This was another one of those things that I felt was for other people but not me.  I can only chuckle at my own ignorance now, which I seem to do more and more the older I get. 

About a year and half ago my friend, Suzanne, mentioned her boys had brought her information about devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows and special graces for mothers.  I searched all over the internet at the time but was not finding this information myself.  Frustrated, I dropped it as life picked up again.  Then some months later a small package arrived in the mail from our daughter's godmother, a busy mother of many herself whom I don't speak with often.  She thought I might be interested in…… devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows.  She sent me prayers and blessings from her chapel and mentioned the Mother Love book.  

Now, I love this little volume, given to me many years ago by yet another dear friend.   I somehow had not until that moment connected the dots that the Mother Love book was, back in the day, a handbook of sorts for the Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers. At that point I stopped cherry picking through the book for relevent prayers and began to use it as the handbook it is, following the daily prayers and carefully reading the instructional part for fresh inspiration on the vocation of a wife and mother. 

This weekend we said the Litany of Our Lady of Sorrows from the Mother Love prayers.  A copy from a beautiful vintage book is here. The various titles never cease to draw me in and inspire emulation.  The Litany of the Seven Sorrows is here. 

More information on the history of this devotion, including the connection to Fatima here. 

We sometimes joke that we could have used a manual for this job.  I am reminded again and again that this one works pretty well.