Mary in the Season of Lent

“Lent is the season that precedes and prepares for the celebration of Easter. A time of listening to the Word of God and of conversion, of preparation for and remembrance of Baptism, of reconciliation with God and with our brothers, of more frequent recourse to the ‘weapons of Christian penance’: prayer, fasting, almsgiving (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 ‘Beware of practicing your justice before men… When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites…’)” (Directory on Popular Piety 124). The believer, who every year travels the Lenten itinerary anew with an ever-renewed spirit, finds in the person of Mary the concrete example of how the word of God is to be received and of how Christ is followed. At the end of the sacramental season of the forty days, when the Church contemplates the central moment of the Father’s saving plan, she turns her gaze once more to Mary who, as the “new woman”, stands at the foot of the Cross beside Christ, the “new man”. And, through the testament of love of the Son, who entrusts her to the disciple, Mary appears as the spiritual mother of those who direct the gaze of faith toward the Cross.

Mary in the liturgy of Lent: the Solemnity of the Annunciation (March 25), the New Eve, and the Marialis cultus of Paul VI

The presence of the Virgin in the season of Lent is not very evident. Nevertheless, in the current liturgical books, the remembrance of the Virgin is present in various ways along the Lenten journey.

First of all, on March 25 the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord is celebrated, rightly considered a “feast of the Lord” in the reordered arrangement of the liturgical year. But, as Paul VI observes in the Marialis cultus, it “was and is a joint feast of Christ and of the Virgin: of the Word who becomes the ‘son of Mary’ (Mk 6:3 ‘Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary’?), and of the Virgin who becomes the Mother of God” (Marialis Cultus 6). In any case, the euchological texts and the liturgy of the Word are situated entirely within the context of the paschal mystery. The euchology speaks expressly of “our Redeemer”, of the “Savior of the nations”, and asks that, “by the power of His resurrection”, we may be led to the possession of eternal joy. In the liturgy of the Word, the second reading (Heb 10:7 “Behold, I come… to do your will, O God”) underscores the sacrificial offering of the Son of God upon entering the world (“Behold, I come to do your will”), to which Mary joins herself in the Gospel account (Lk 1:38 “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord… let it be done to me according to your word”) with her fiat (“Behold, the handmaid of the Lord: let it be done to me according to your word”).

To the two “noes” of Adam and Eve, which brought ruin, are opposed the two “yeses” of the new Adam, Christ, and of the New Eve, Mary, which brought salvation. The paschal mystery depends on the total availability of the “Servant of JHWH” and of the “Handmaid of the Lord” to the divine will. It is, therefore, a feast centered on the incarnation but wholly oriented toward the redemption. The third typica edition of the Roman Missal, promulgated on April 20, 2000, and published in April 2002, presents, on the Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent, a newly composed Collect as an alternative to the one already in existence, in which Mary is recalled as associated with the Passion of Christ. Moreover, it is fitting to note that the “Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, drawing fundamentally on the structure of the liturgical year, proposes for the season of Lent five formularies that represent a genuine richness for this period, as a recovery of the figure of the Mother of God in the itinerary toward the celebration of the paschal night. Each formulary corresponds well to a moment of the liturgical journey of the Lenten season:
“Holy Mary, Disciple of the Lord” (10),
“The Virgin Mary at the Cross of Christ” (11 and 12),
“The Commendation of the Blessed Virgin” (13),
“The Virgin Mary, Mother of Reconciliation” (14).

Marian popular piety in Lent: processions, the Way of the Cross, and devotion to the Mater dolorosa in the Christian West

The scarcity of Marian elements in the liturgical season of Lent was matched, in the West, by a broad development of popular piety, which gave rise to multiple expressions of devotion. Referring to Christ crucified or to the Virgin of Sorrows, they take on particular prominence in churches dedicated to the mystery of the Cross or to the mystery of the Mother of Sorrows.

The customary elements of popular piety, such as songs, prayers, gestures, the kiss, procession, and blessing with the cross, are interwoven in various ways, giving rise to pious exercises at times notable for the value of their content and of their form.

The Way of the Cross and the presence of Mary on the path of the cross

Few pious exercises on the Passion of Christ are as beloved by the Christian people as the Via crucis, a synthesis of various popular devotions that arose from the Early Middle Ages onward: the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, during which the faithful devoutly visit the places of the Lord’s Passion. The devotion to the “falls of Christ” under the weight of the cross. The devotion to the “sorrowful ways of Christ”, along which one advances in procession from one church to another, in memory of the journeys made by Christ during His Passion. The devotion to the “stations of Christ”, that is, to the moments in which Jesus stops along the way to Calvary, whether because He is forced by the executioners, or because He is worn out by fatigue, or because, moved by love, He seeks to establish a dialogue with the men and women who witness His Passion (cf. Directory 132). In the pious exercise of the Via Crucis there also converge various expressions characteristic of Christian spirituality: the conception of life as a journey or pilgrimage from earthly exile to the heavenly homeland. The desire to be conformed to the Passion of Christ. The demands of the sequela Christi, by which the disciple is called to walk behind the Master, daily carrying his own cross (Lk 9:23 “If anyone wishes to come after me… let him take up his cross daily… and follow me”). A wise unfolding of the Via crucis, in which word, silence, song, processional movement, and reflective pause alternate in a balanced manner, helps to attain the spiritual fruits of this exercise, in which two stations, the Fourth and the Twelfth, are dedicated to the Virgin Mother.

The Via Matris: Mary’s compassio in the seven sorrows

The Via Matris Dolorosae, or simply the Via Matris, is a pious exercise in which a group of the faithful, or a single person at prayer, walks a stretch of path inside or outside a church or shrine, meditating on the seven sorrows of the Virgin. This path, traveled in prayer, is marked by seven stops (the “stations”), corresponding to the seven principal sorrows that the piety of the Christian people has identified in the life of the Virgin beside the Savior: the prophecy of Simeon, the flight into Egypt, the loss of Jesus, the meeting with Jesus on the way to Calvary, her presence beneath the cross of the Son, the receiving of Jesus taken down from the cross, the burial of Jesus. The metaphor of life as a journey emerges in the exercise of the Via Matris and in other forms of popular prayer (Via crucis, Via lucis, Via pacis). The Gospels inform us of various journeys made by Jesus and by Mary of Nazareth, His mother. With regard to the Virgin, they have handed down the memory of multiple journeys:

• the “journey of the Daughter of Zion” toward the house of the priest Zechariah (Lk 1:46-47 “My soul magnifies the Lord… my spirit rejoices in God…”).
• the “journey of a pregnant woman”, from Nazareth to Bethlehem (Lk 2:7 “She gave birth to her firstborn son… and laid Him in a manger”).
• the “journey of a devout Israelite woman”, who goes to Jerusalem and there hears the prophecy about the Son and about herself (Lk 2:35 “A sword will pierce your own soul”).
• the “journey of an exiled woman” (Mt 2:14-15 “He took the child and His mother… and withdrew to Egypt…”).
• the “journey of a pilgrim woman”, who every year, for the feast of Passover, goes to Jerusalem (Lk 2:49 “I must be in my Father’s house…”).
• the “journey of a woman who is a friend”, who goes solicitously to Cana of Galilee (Jn 2:5 “Do whatever He tells you”).
• the “journey of a faithful disciple”, by which she climbs Mount Calvary behind Jesus (Jn 19:26-27 “Woman, behold your son… behold your mother”).

As in the Chaplet of the Virgin of Sorrows, the spiritual value and the pastoral effectiveness of the Via Matris lie in its capacity to bring the faithful closer to one of the essential aspects of the paschal mystery:

• the saving passion of Christ.
• to let oneself be illumined by the mystery of sorrow with the light that flows from the singular way in which Mary of Nazareth, full of faith, lived that experience.
• to make those who pray sharers in the sufferings of their brothers, since the celebration of the Virgin’s sorrow entails an active attention toward those who suffer.
• to awaken sentiments of mercy, because nothing, after the contemplation of the merciful goodness of Christ, disposes the soul to mercy as much as contemplating the loving compassion of the Virgin.

For all this, the Via Matris is an exercise of piety particularly suited to the season of Lent.

The Stabat Mater: liturgical hymn of Mary’s sorrow in Lent

This celebrated planctus, held to be a masterpiece of medieval sacred literature, is attributed, though without decisive proof, to Iacopone da Todi (d. 1306). In the third edition of the Roman Missal, it appears in the solemn liturgical action of Good Friday, at the conclusion of the Adoration of the Cross. The Stabat Mater was and continues to be a beloved hymn, vitally understood and consciously prayed and sung by the Christian people. Its twenty stanzas are customarily sung after the pious exercise of the Chaplet of the Virgin of Sorrows, or else it appears as a processional chant in the Via Matris, with the aim of accompanying the journey from one “station” to another.

“The complete singing of the Stabat Mater makes it possible to grasp its extraordinary thematic variety: the calm narration, the ardent supplication, the silent astonishment, the living and repeated desire to share in the Mother’s sorrow, sharing her weeping:

• “Let me weep with you…” (st. 13. Cf. st. 9.14.15).
• the mystical impulse of “suffering with Christ”, by which the one praying asks the Mother: “Wound my heart with His wounds, unite me to His cross, inebriate me with His blood” (st. 17) and longs to share in the passion of Christ, so that nothing may be able to separate him from Him (Rom 8:38-39 “Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God… in Christ Jesus…”), but, on the contrary, may make him wholly like Him.

In the Stabat Mater, the only spatial reference is the Cross (Stabat […] iuxta crucem, st. 1. Cf. st. 14), but, as the Sequence advances, the place of the torment appears planted no longer on the summit of Calvary, but in the heart of the one praying. The drama of Golgotha becomes wholly interior: it unfolds in the depths of the soul, at its very center.

Mary and the Lenten journey: from conformation to Christ to the paschal synthesis at the foot of the cross

The Lenten itinerary, understood as a time of listening to the Word, of conversion, and of return to the sources of Baptism, finds in Mary a presence that is discreet and, at the same time, decisive. Discreet, because the Roman liturgy does not multiply Marian allusions in this period. Decisive, because, at the points where the mystery of Christ grows denser, the figure of the Virgin reappears as the purest ecclesial form of the acceptance of the divine will. The memory of the Annunciation, situated within the paschal horizon, recalls that the incarnation is not an isolated episode, but the concrete beginning of the redemption. Mary’s “yes”, inseparable from the “yes” of the Son to the Father, shows that Easter matures in obedience, in total availability, and in the faith that gives itself without reserve.

Along these same lines, the contemplation of Mary at the foot of the Cross illumines the core of Lent as a paschal journey: it is not merely a matter of ascetical effort, but of a progressive conformation to Christ, until the cross ceases to be only an external event and becomes, by grace, an interior place of communion. Mary, the “new woman”, remains beside the “new man” not as an ornamental figure, but as witness and mother, because the love of the Son establishes her as a spiritual presence for those who lift the gaze of faith toward the mystery of Calvary. Thus the Lenten experience, lived in a baptismal and penitential key, finds in her a criterion: to receive the Word, to persevere in trial, to remain in hope, to learn to love at the point where love costs everything.

It is also for this reason that, where the liturgy remains sober, the popular piety of the West developed rich and pedagogically fruitful forms, provided that they remain ordered to the Christological center of the paschal mystery. The Via crucis and the Via Matris, when well conducted, train the faithful in a spirituality of the journey, in which prayer, silence, song, and gesture sustain a real and not merely devotional conversion. In them, the compassion of the Virgin is not sentimentalism, but a school of mercy and of concrete solidarity with those who suffer. And the Stabat Mater, by placing the Cross back in the heart of the one praying, prevents Lent from being reduced to exterior practices, leading everything back to the interior transformation that springs from union with Christ.

Finally, the synthesis of the Marian Lenten journey may be stated thus: Mary helps the Church to pass through Lent with paschal eyes. She directs penance toward faith, discipline toward love, mortification toward the promised joy. In the silence of the Virgin, the community learns to listen. In her fiat, it learns to obey. In her remaining beside the Cross, it learns to persevere. And thus Lent fulfills its proper end: to dispose the faithful to celebrate Easter not as a mere memory, but as a living renewal of the covenant, in which the new life, received in Baptism, is reaffirmed and brought to maturity in the following of Christ.

Also read in this series: The sorrow of Mary: the Immaculate Heart at the foot of the Cross and The path of the disciple passes through Calvary with Mary. To go deeper into the role of Mary in the Christian piety of Lent, consult the apostolic exhortation Marialis Cultus §17: Mary and the liturgical season.

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