"Tradition indicates that Mary was pierced seven times with swords of sorrow and that these constitute her Seven Dolors. The position we will take is not that there were seven swords, but seven thrusts of the one sword, and the sword that pierced her soul was Christ Himself. This Sword has a double edge: one edge ran into His own Sacred Heart, the other into her Immaculate Heart... One edge of this sword- to speak metaphorically- Christ ran into His Own Sacred Heart, in the sense that He willed all the sufferings from Bethlehem to Calvary. He was the cause of His own death... The Sword, therefore, was His Own will to die, that we might be saved from the double death. But He also willed that His Mother should be as closely associated with a Divine Person... 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... 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 tears away from human tears unless she herself has been their fountain. The title "Mother of the Afflicted" has to be earned in the school of affliction. She does not expiate for sins; she does not redeem; she is not a savior- 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." -Fulton Sheen, Taken from "The Worlds First Love Mary, Mother of God" Chapter 21
The seven thrusts of the Sword are Simeon's prophecy, the flight into Egypt, the three days' loss, meeting Jesus with His Cross, the Crucifixion, the taking down from the Cross, the burial of Jesus.
Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro
4:01 The Second Sorrow
10:36 The Third Sorrow
17:28 The Fourth Sorrow
22:46 The Fifth Sorrow
33:49 The Sixth Sorrow
39:43 The Seventh Sorrow