First Friday & Saturday of September 2025
5th September 2025
The First Friday & Saturday in September, being the month of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, will be Friday 5 September and Saturday 6 September. Mass will be celebrated at the following times:
Friday - Rosary 11.30am / Mass 12 Noon / Adoration 12.30pm / Benediction 1.20pm
Saturday - Rosary 8.30am / Mass 9am
Confession will be available from 12.45pm to 1.15pm on Friday and 8.00am to 8.30am on Saturday morning.
Confession will be available from 8.00am to 8.30am on Saturday morning.
Please come and join us in observing these holy and blessed days in honour of the Sacred Heart of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary for her Seven Sorrows
O Blessed Mother Mary, your Immaculate Heart was afflicted seven times with a deep anguish. In your great sorrow you never doubted God’s Divine Wisdom, but joined your Will to His. We beseech you to stand by us in our trials and teach us to follow your example of patience, love, and charity. Pray for us, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. 💖🙏💐
The Seven Sorrows
The Prophecy of Simeon, The Flight into Egypt, The Loss of the child Jesus in the Temple, Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary, Mary stands at the foot of the Cross, Mary receives the dead body of Jesus, Jesus is laid in the tomb.
Devotion to the Sorrows of Our Lady
In the 14th century, Our Lady revealed to St. Bridget of Sweden seven special graces that she would grant to those devoted to her Sorrows. She spoke at length to St. Bridget about the Passion of her Son and her own Sorrows, and made these promises to those who would say seven Hail Marys daily while meditating on her tears and sufferings:
- “I will grant peace to their families.”
- “They will be enlightened about the divine Mysteries.”
- “I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.”
- “I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.”
- “I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.”
- “I will visibly help them at the moment of their death—they will see the face of their mother.”
- “I have obtained this grace from my divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness, since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son will be their eternal consolation and joy.”
Prayer of Reparation for Offenses Made Against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary
O Merciful Jesus, my King and my God, I worship You. O Blessed Mother, Mary Immaculate, I cherish you. For those who offer you insult, I offer you praise. For those who offer you mocking, I offer you honour. For those who offer you disbelief, I offer you trust. For those who offer you hate, I offer you love. For those who offer you cursing, I offer you blessing. For those who offer you ridicule, I offer you loving gazes. For those who offer you blasphemy, I offer you adoration. For those who offer you rebellion, I offer you obedience. For those who offer you indifference, I offer you devotion. For those who offer you obstinate pride, I offer you a contrite heart. For those who offer you scorn, I offer you fidelity. Soften the hearts of those who offend you, that they may come to know you and love you as you deserve. Make my heart more fervent so I may pray without ceasing for the conversion and salvation of souls. Amen. 🙏💐💖
A brief reflection by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"If it be granted with Leo XIII that 'God willed that the grace and truth which Christ won for us should be bestowed on us in no other way than through Mary,' then she, too, had to will cooperation in redemption, as Christ willed it as the Redeemer Himself. Christ willed that she should suffer with Him, some theologians say, per modum unius. If He willed His death, He willed her Dolors. And if He willed to be a 'Man of Sorrows,' He willed that she be the 'Mother of Sorrows.' But it was no imposed will; she accepted it all in her original Fiat in the Annunciation. The Sword He plunged into His Heart, He, with her cooperation, plunged into her own. He could hardly have done this if she were not His Mother and if they were not in a spiritual sense 'two in one flesh,' 'two in one mind.' The sorrows of His Passion were His, but His Mother considered them her own, too, for this is the meaning of compassion.
"There were not seven swords but only one, and it plunged into two hearts. The Seven Dolors are as seven thrusts of the Sword Christ, one edge for Him as Redeemer, the other edge for her as the Mother of the Redeemer. Christ is the Sword of His Own Passion; He is the Sword of her compassion. Pius XII says that she, as the true Queen of Martyrs, more than any of the faithful, filled up for His Body the Church the sufferings that were wanting to the Passion of Christ!
"This was the first reason why God permitted her Dolors, that she might be the first after the Redeemer Himself to continue His Passion and death in His Mystical Body. Our Lord warned: 'As they hated Me, so will they hate you.' If the law that Good Friday is the condition of an Easter Sunday binds all the faithful, then it must with greater rigor bind her who is the Mother of the Saviour. An unsuffering Christ Who ignored sin would be reduced to the level of an ethical reformer, like Buddha or Confucius. An unsuffering Madonna to the suffering Christ would be a loveless Madonna. Who is there who loves, who does not want to share the sorrows of the beloved? Since Christ loved mankind so much as to want to die to expiate their guilt, then He should also will that His Mother, who lived only to do His will, should also be wrapped in the swaddling bands of His griefs.
"But she also had to suffer for our sakes as well as for His. As Our Lord learned obedience by which He suffered, so Mary had to learn motherhood, not by appointment but by experience with the burdens of the human heart. The rich cannot console the poor unless they become less rich for the sake of the poor; Mary cannot wipe away human tears unless she herself has been their fountain. The title 'Mother of the Afflicted' had to be earned in the school of affliction. She does not expiate for sins; she does not redeem; she is not a saviour — but by His will and by her own, she is so much bound up with Him that His Passion would have been entirely different had there not been her compassion."
(The World's First Love)