Mary, Help of Christians, and the Fourteen Saints Invoked as Holy Helpers / Instructions, Novenas and Prayers with Thoughts of the Saints for Every Day in the Year; To Which is Added an Appendix on the Reasonableness of Catholic Ceremonies and Practices

by Unknown

[Prayer of the Church (p. 117).]
[Litany of Loreto (p. 322).]

Prayer

I COMPASSIONATE thee, sorrowing Mary, for the anxiety which thy most tender heart underwent during thy flight into Egypt and thy sojourn there. Dear Mother, by thy heart then so sorrowful, obtain for me the virtue of liberality, especially toward the poor, and the gift of piety.

Hail Mary, etc.
[Ejaculation (p. 118).]

[FOURTH DAY]

Mary's Third Sorrow: Jesus Lost in Jerusalem

[Preparatory Prayer (p. 115).]

MEDITATION

WHO can describe Mary's sorrow when, returning from Jerusalem, she missed her divine Son? With St. Joseph she retraced her steps in anxious search of Him whom her soul loved. She went to all her relatives and acquaintances in Jerusalem, but heard no tidings of her lost Child. She passed three long days of anxiety in her search, and this constitutes her third sorrow. Of it, Origen writes: "On account of the ineffable love of Mary for her divine Son, she suffered more by His loss than the martyrs suffered amid the most cruel tortures."

PRACTICE