Friday of the Fifth Week in Lent is a day traditionally set aside to honour Our Lady in Passiontide, which is to remind us of the special role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is day when we remember Mary as the Woman of Compassion. In our culture, compassion is often thought of as kindness, or mercy. But there is more to it. It comes to us from two Latin words (cum= "with” and passio= "to suffer”) and literally means "to suffer with." So to be a person of compassion means that we share in the sufferings of another person. It is not simply empathy, but it means that we see the other almost as an extension of ourselves. If they are suffering, we, too, experience their pain.
This commemoration helps us to remember Mary’s sacrifice for our salvation, and also the importance of avoiding things in our own lives which would cause further sorrow to Mary, who is our Mother.
O Lord in whose Passion, according to the prophecy of Simeon, the sword of sorrow did pierce the most loving soul of thy glorious Virgin Mother Mary: mercifully grant that we, who devoutly call to mind the suffering whereby she was pierced, may, by the glorious merits and prayers of all the Saints who have stood beneath the Cross, obtain with gladness the benefits of thy Passion; who livest and reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
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Image: "Mater Dolorosa"
by Rogier van der Weyden (c.1399-1464)