Mass Honoring Our Lady of Sorrows this Friday

This week Friday, April 15th — the Friday before Palm Sunday — there will be a special morning Missa Cantata of Our Lady of Sorrows at the Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan at 8:30 AM.

This Mass is celebrated in white vestments and includes the chanting of the Stabat Mater sequence.

From the organizers of this Mass: “On your way to work Friday, join us in reviving this wonderful tradition of anticipating the beginning of Holy Week with the Mass of Our Lady of Sorrows.”

Please note that this Mass is at 8:30 AM . (The Mass of Our Lady of Sorrows will NOT be celebrated at 6 PM at Holy Innocents. The 6 PM Mass that day will be a Solemn Requiem Mass marking the Anniversary of a Death.)

From the organizers: “The history of the celebration of this Mass on the Friday before Palm Sunday is an interesting one. It was approved for the universal calendar of the Church in 1727 and continued to be celebrated as a high-ranking feast until just before the Second Vatican Council. In the calendar of the Roman Missal of 1962, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is still celebrated on September 15th, the day after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. However, the 1962 calendar reforms reduced the Feast celebrated on the Friday before Palm Sunday to a commemoration. Fortunately, the Mass of Our Lady of Sorrows may still be celebrated on the Friday before Palm Sunday where special devotions to Our Lady of Sorrows are observed.”