 Hey friends, you're watching behind the scenes Divine Intimacy Radio. You're not going to miss our upcoming guest who's going to talk to us about Our Lady of Sorrows Devotion which is a very powerful devotion and something that we want to encourage you to pray and learn a bit how to do it with your children. Teach your children how to do it, which is how to pray it, which is great. Before we jump into the show, for those of you hate commercials just you know, if you're watching the recording, scroll ahead. But you don't know what you're going to miss. You don't know what you're going to miss. FOMO, fear of missing out. Right, right. Something coming up pretty shortly here. It's our, and without a date, I have a marketing thing without a date. Isn't that cool? That's just awesome. Eche Homo, you want to tell him? He's going to look it up. So, Eche Homo Lenten Retreat is, oh, you know why? It's because there's a bunch of things they're doing. They're not as bad as they thought. Spiritual Warfare and Discernative Spirits in Louisiana, a women's silent retreat here in Montgomery on Spiritual Warfare and Discernative Spirits and then a marriage retreat in Rhode Island. So if you want to learn about any of those spiritualdirection.com forward slash events. They're all up. They're all open right now. They're all open. So you don't want to miss it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Eche Homo is going to be March 21st. Eche Homo is in March 21st. That's coming up pretty quick. A lot of great speakers. And then when is Spiritual Warfare and Discernative Spirits in Louisiana coming? April 20th. Okay. And the marriage retreat in Rhode Island? Might as well. Is it up? August. August 2nd to the 4th. Okay. Marriage retreat in Rhode Island. So I want to tell you too, a lot of people don't know that for a period of time, devotion to, so everyone knows how popular Saint Elizabeth, Saint Therese is. Everyone knows incredibly popular. And then a couple of popes got on her bandwagon and made her extraordinarily popular. But obviously there's spiritual reasons behind all of that. But as they were emerging in the public awareness, there was another saint who was emerging just as powerfully. And then by God's province, because of, you know, saints are always elevated in the times they're needed. And so, so Therese sort of won that race. She skyrocketed. Skyrocketed because of the interest of several popes primarily. Well, the one that was left behind is now emerging in the church. And she was recently canonized. And she is extraordinary. I mean, as is Therese, of course. And she's also Carmelite. And her name is Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity. And so we have a course coming up here on her at the Abola Institute, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, with Julie Ensler. And I, you know, students rave about the course. So if you want to learn about an incredibly powerful saint whose mission was to help people to come to contemplative prayer. And I mean, the kind of infused contemplation from a carmelite standpoint. That's a gift. The one that's a gift. So check that out at avala-institute.org. All right. And then you too can be holy. You too can be holy. Okay, you ready? And your market's set. Go. This is Dan and Stephanie Burke. Welcome to Divine Intimacy Radio, your radio Haven of Rust. Your Hermitage of the Heart. Your monastery of the mind where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven to draw upon the wisdom of the saints to help us to navigate this crazy, crazy life that we live. Your life's crazy too. Yeah, the world is upside down. It is outside the church. But the Lord is well, he's in control lady. He's present. He's not napping. We just need to rest. He's not asleep in the boat. Right. So let's once you introduce our guest, because he is going to talk to us about one of the more one of one of the most popular and important devotions in the church and one that we want to be a part of spreading and celebrating as does he. So tell us who's who's coming on with us. Okay, so I'd like to introduce Mr. Patrick O'Hearn. He is a devout Catholic, a husband and a father. He is an author, content writer at Fusati literary consultant speaker and the freelance editor. He has authored or co authored seven books and counting and was a contributor to Father Donald Callaway's latest release 30 day Eucharistic revival of retreat with Saint Peter Amard. Yeah, his writings have also appeared in the National Catholic Register, Spiritual Direction.com and Catholic exchange. Welcome Patrick. It's great to have you. Thank you for having me. So Patrick, when did your devotion to our Lady of Sorrows begin? I think it began as a young boy and it started with one of my mom's good friends was dying of cancer and we would just we would pray a decade of the rosary every night with that candle by our Lady statue and I just had that the idea of someone suffering and and then I was drawn to that image of our Lady with the seven swords and so you can see behind me. I don't know if it'll get cut off or not, but I have a big statue of our Lady that I bought at after visiting mother Angelica's the place where she was cured. The mystic wrote a wisest how she had only statues and I just felt like I need to have a statue and I needed to have our Lady of Sorrows and it's funny when when we have guests that come over to my house, my mom kind of sometimes she'll like you're going to scare them away with that statue. But I just there's something about you know, these swords that are Mary's heart and just seeing her in pain and so that devotion has I think been cultivated since a young boy and then it's intensified through the years. Now in terms of your own devotion, the that's also shifted because of your I'm assuming your fatherhood and and and bringing that to your children. Is that the motivation behind the the new book and just for folks who are wondering what we're talking about the book is titled devotion to Mary's seven sorrows for children. Our Lady of Sorrows and I don't know if there's you can see it here and hiding my mug, which is it's much better looking than my face. People just hold it here. It's a beautiful cover. It's very striking. But what what inspired that? Yeah, you know, I want to spread devotion to Our Lady and that's I felt like she she chose me to you know, to be one of her instruments and you know, obviously having my children to to pass on that faith like you know, during Lent, you know, I never in sense, force my devotions on my children, you know, or even my wife, but I do lead by him. And so like this Lent, I was like, you know, we're going to pray as a family, we're going to do the seven Hail Mary's, you know, every night I you know, I do I kneel down before my statue. It just that statue strikes me. If I forget to say that devotion, it's like Our Lady, she reminds me and so then this Lent, you know, I just our family, I wanted to pray that together. So it is there is an element of spreading not only to my children, but really to the whole world, this this great devotion and the promises are so are so powerful and and also to give gratitude to Our Lady, because I felt she's protected me in so many times throughout my life. And I think this just a way for me to give back to her. You know, I know Stephanie's wanting to get in and ask a question, but this will be, I'll stop. I'll pause after this one is I'm curious, you know, like with the rosary, a lot of us have a favorite particular, you know, mystery. Is there a particular one of Mary's sorrows that really gets under your skin or strikes you? And I'm actually curious if that's true for you too. I don't know. Yeah, I would say, you know, the image, the pietà that I had, you know, my illustrator Adelaide, who did who did do the illustrations are just beautiful and that one it just just and that's why in that reflection, you know, in these reflections, you have Our Lady speaking to the child and I can't but help but think about Our Lady holding the baby Jesus, you know, at Bethlehem when as she's holding him at Calvary, you know, her mind was going back to that moment. And so I think that that, you know, just when I see that that image there, it just it just it's always captured my attention and to enter into Mary's pain at the moment when she's holding her her son for the last time. So the seven sorrows are the prophecy of Summium, the flight into Egypt, the loss of the child Jesus in the temple. Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary. Jesus dies on the cross. Mary receives the dead body of Jesus in her arms and Jesus is placed in the tomb. Which of those tends to get under your skin a little bit? The one that always comes to mind first is Mary standing at the foot of the cross as Christ is dying and has died on the cross. There's something about her standing number one. She hasn't turned in on herself in despair. She is standing in the truth of God. She's standing in the love of God, the understanding that this is necessary for the resurrection, that the idea of being crucified is necessary. And so I tend to love that devotion because I see the different trials through that lens. Oh, what is the Lord doing in this? He's doing something. We have to die to something. My loved one has to die to something. Maybe it's sin, maybe it's theirself, maybe whatever it is in order that God might be glorified and manifested in and through this suffering to bring about a greater good. That for me is extraordinarily powerful. And so I really identify with our Lady of standing there in that truth. We need not despair. The resurrection is coming. The Lord's at work. He is not asleep. God is sovereign. He conquers all. And recently, I just had this even deeper, greater awareness of this understanding that Christ gave his life over. He wasn't killed by us. Well, he was, but he also gave his life over. But in the moment of his death, he chose to give his soul over. Yes, that's true. Right? And so we wounded him. We crucified him. We scourged him. We beat him. We derided him. We betrayed him. We did all those things. But at the moment of his death, he gave his soul over. It was a choice to lay his life down and take it up again. And so I think so many times in our trials, we can, we can lack the understanding that God is sovereign. We can get turned in on ourselves and forget that he's in control. And so for me, that's the sorrow that really speaks to me. It speaks to you. Patrick, why, why, why do you think devotion to our ladies of sorrows is so essential to our spiritual life? What, what is it about the devotion that's so powerful and important? I think there's two reasons. And I wanted to get Father Rippegger, Rippegger, I always mispronounce his name involved. And he wrote the forward. And he talks about our lady of sorrows as the key to revealing our hidden, hidden vices and sins. And I've seen this in my own life just asking her under this title of our lady of sorrows, you know, what areas in my life am I not being transparent with God? You know, there's so many obviously pride, it blinds us, sin blinds us. And so this devotion and even one of the promises to St. Bridget of Sweden says, our lady says, that I will enlighten them about the divine mystery. So not only the mystery of the cross, the suffering, but even the mystery of our cell. And so I think that's key. And then the other reason is I think, you know, we're just in our times that we live in, you know, we're, we're so turned in on ourselves with our suffering, people don't know how to suffer well, you know, we see euthanasia on the rise. And, and so this devotion allows young children from, you know, to start realizing that like suffering has a purpose. And then to, and ultimately to forget our suffering and to focus in on, on our lady and Jesus, you know, I think Mary, I think she was so focused on Christ that she forgot about her own sufferings and Christ was so focused on our lady's pain that he forgot about his own. So that's, I think those two elements are present and why this devotion is so important. Thank you. Yeah, I think one of the things that it could be really beautiful here is also to help children understand the idea of redemptive suffering and that we can make it an offering, that it can be a very special offering to the Lord. Oh, you know, my, I scrape my knee, it hurts. And as mommy bless, you know, kisses it and bandages that and, you know, we remember our Lady of Sorrows, it's, oh, I can offer this to Jesus for my best friend at school who's, you know, going through a hard time or our neighbors who, you know, whose dad maybe lost their job and we're trying to help them out. So it is this beautiful gift of also teaching children how to offer that suffering. Why, why do you consider, why is our Lady of Sorrows the secret to the best lint? As you wrote in a recent online article, why do you think she's this devotion is the secret to the best lint? Yeah, I mean she knew Jesus is suffering more than anyone and often, you know, our Lady is, she's forgotten by the world. I mean she's hated, I'd say, despised by many in the world and sadly our Protestant brothers forget about her. And so she has this, it's like she almost has this key that could unlock the heart of Christ. And so when we ask her, you know, we always say when we pray the rosary, we contemplate, you know, Jesus through the eyes of Mary, but when we, this devotion is mostly focused on our Lady, but I think she does, she takes us by the hand and she walks us to Calvary. And last year, I felt inspired to read an article for your, your great website, you know, Spiritual Direction and it was a quote by Saint Alphonsus and he said that, you know, the interior sufferings of Christ were greater than his exterior sufferings and our Lady suffered in her soul exteriorly everything that Christ suffered in his body. So what better model than we have than Mary to show us, again, to show us, to lead us to Calvary and to help us understand her son's pain. So that's, that's why I think she is, if we want to have the best Lent ever, we go through our Lady of Sorrows. We're going to head into a break. We're with Patrick O'Hearn and he's written a new or compiled a new and written a new book. I think compiled is a better word. Devotion to Mary's Seven Sorrows for Children, Our Lady of Sorrows. We get back from the break. We'll talk about the promises attached to our Lady of Sorrows and why they're important to us and learn a bit more about this devotion and then we'll we'll jump into the way the book is structured and why parents would really want to get this and use it to help their kids better understand the suffering of Mary and the wisdom of God and how he works in and through our suffering. So we'll be right back before we jump back in. I wanted to just for those who are just joining us, you may have missed it at the beginning, check out if there's a bunch of events at spiritualdirection.com, marriage retreats, forward slash events at you yeah spiritualdirection.com forward slash events at J-Homo, spiritual warfare and discernment spirits in Louisiana, Louisiana's where we have a bunch of events that I am speaking like four times there while we're down there I think. So make sure you check us out spiritualdirection.com forward slash events our next marriage retreat is up there as well it is I just thought it was in Rhode Island no it's it's on the website oh it's on the it's up there means well yeah because Louisiana is down there right yeah I should have picked that up it's uploaded it's not too bright you got it you just what are you gonna do I mean I got limits you know and then the other thing I want to remind you about introduction to Elizabeth of the Trinity a great saint that will lead you to contemplative graces and that starts Wednesday April 24th so let's head back into our conversation with Patrick on your market tech go welcome back this is Dan and Stephanie Burke with Divine Intimacy Radio we're talking about this really powerful and important devotion to Mary Seven Sorrows and this particular our particular guest Patrick O'Hern is helping us or helping the church by compiling something in particular for children but before we jump to that just a personal admission so and then I want you to get to the secrets as it relates to this so last year my beloved spouse approached me and said hey you know I you're a wonderful husband but I sure wish you know XYZ was different I can't remember what it was and it was all appropriate and you know and it was something that I was blind to and it really bugged me what really bugged me the most is that I was blind to it and I didn't see that and she was right of course and what I'm saying and so that was when I started my devotion to our Lady of Sorrows I had we have it in our prayer book for our community of Apostle EVA so it's not like it wasn't prominent for us but I hadn't I wasn't doing it daily like I am now so I started then daily and I started it for the specific attention of self-awareness and and and just mitigating you know those things in me that would in any way harm Stephanie or do anything but bring her joy so talk to us a bit about I mean do you agree is that an appropriate application of the of the devotion and in terms of intentions and how does that relate to the promises am I on or off base tell us a little bit about that no you're absolutely correct on that and again that's what and I was really drawn to get father ripping her involved in this because he speaks so much on our Lady of Sorrows you know he named his religious order after her and just this idea that in the spiritual warfare you know we we need to understand we need to know thyself right and our Lady of Sorrows she's our mother you know and our mothers they know their children more than like you know my like my mom she knew me more what I needed than what I what I thought I needed and and so I think that there is that element we ask our blessed mother under this title reveal to me you know reveal to be those those uh those sins that I'm holding on to that I'm maybe I'm afraid to confess those you know and so that's why again this devotion is so important for these times that we live in especially at times of I would say a pride and autonomy when people don't even need God anymore to you know our Lady of Sorrows will humble us you know she's she has so much humility and then in terms of as you mentioned I have my book here too is the you know the graces that flow from these you know some of the promises you know there's seven promises which I don't think is a coincidence you know those those line up with the seven sorrows but you know they're similar as to the Sacred Heart so you have I will grant peace to their to their families and you know you see that Dan and you know when when your wife is calling you out on something and you're correct you know there's there's not that there's a an element of uh there's not total peace in your home and and the more we can we combat these vices that's when peace reigns in our homes when we're living in accordance with God's will and then the other one is I will enlighten them about the divine mysteries there's insights when you pray this devotion you know you will understand Mary's suffering you understand Christ's suffering that like like you've never known before and then she says I will console them in their pains and a company in their work so it's like when you console Mary's heart she in turn consoles you and there's there's more I can if you want me to go on there's four uh the four other promises but I think that those first three show that our lady wants to bring this level of a peace in your soul it's really beautiful um I have a profound devotion to our Lady of Sorrows and we even have a pietat that we found in a at an antique show and she's enthroned in in the retreat center here really exquisite and really wonderful and you know Dan shared a little bit of what she did for him a couple of years ago when we first opened this retreat center there was discord and pain and and distance with a family member and I was very very heart broken about it and praying and praying and praying for resolve for that and I undertook this devotion and I and I did it for nine days I did a novena and every day I would pray all seven mysteries as as part of my prayer disciplines during that time and and the beautiful thing about our lady if we think about who our mother is and a mother in the truest sense if if she's safe and and if we go to her she's going to tell us the truth because she loves us if she's a true mother right she's going to tell us the truth in a way that nobody else can tell us and and really speak to our hearts and so I went to her as my mother and I said this is this pain is beyond me and I give it to you each each time and what she gave to me at the end was extraordinary because I was praying for the healing of the relationship and what she revealed for me on the last day was what I had done to contribute to the brokenness of the relationship now I will tell you that is hard to stomach you know and and my knees buckled and I went to profound tears and sorrow and contrition but it was a light that I needed because I had not seen that and then I could go to confession well that opened up a space for grace and brought profound healing to the relationship that now two years later is is like a different relationship that came at the feet of my mother of our mother and our lady of sorrows so we can trust her to deliver it in a way that won't crush us but that sometimes we need to know what are those blind spots and you know and what can we do about it so I I think we've kind of answered the question but I want to hear for from you as well in what other ways do you believe that this devotion is essential what did Father Rippegor say how how did he explain that this is essential to our growth as authentic catholics well thank you for sharing that he said in you know in the forward that he wrote just said you know children at a young age you know they have this capacity to suffering they see one of their classmates or maybe one of the relatives suffering and so he touches on that like you know our lady again draws them into this mystery of suffering and suffering well and then secondly is this notion we've been talking about revealing our sinfulness revealing those hidden vices and even for children it's tough to you know that they we just you know because of original sin we hide our faults we you know it's like we have this we don't want to maybe go to confession we're afraid to tell Jesus and again it's our lady of sorrows that says you know like why do you fear my son like she grabs us by the hand and says you know like do not be afraid like you know pour forth you know your sins to my son you know like I'm there with you and as you know I'm your advocate so I think you know that that's what I see in this and this devotion and one of the the fifth promise is probably the most powerful one and she our lady says the same Brigida Sweden to those who have this devotion I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives and so that is like you know I've you know I've touched on this briefly I don't want to go into huge detail but you know I was in a religious order for about three years and you know I had a someone come after me and I believe you know the moment that I left my monastery our lady was in my monastic cell I didn't see her but that's the power of this devotion like I mean I told my wife I was really close to I'd be knocked out of my vocation I probably in a mental hospital I mean if just the effect of you know when you see homosexuality that the effect that you know the people in the church that are come after young men in seminary it messes you up and this is where you know I brought our lady a sorrow statue with me into the monastery and and that's where she's with me and that's where I feel like people that you know that are spiritually attacked maybe there's physical attack by people this is where she is so powerful and I just encourage everyone to have this devotion so let's talk to parents really quick how is the book laid out and and I'll just give folks a little bit who are we're a live streaming audience a little bit of a glimpse of the of the artwork on the inside it's beautifully illustrated and it's simple in its layout which is obviously for children I like that it has the Hail Mary both in English and Latin so you can teach young children the Latin if you desire but tell us a little bit about what inspired the layout yeah I wanted you know I start with you know Adelie the illustrator so she starts with you know she has the one sword and so we we progress so that's the first sorrow and then we have where it comes from in scripture and then then there's a little message from our lady you know and kind of this is you know like the fruit of you know obviously insights our lady's given me and so what would our lady say to a child in that mystery and then we go into the Hail Mary in English and Latin and then a prayer asking for a particular virtue associated with that sorrow and so you'll progress again through the next the second sorrow the flight into Egypt with you know the second heart and these heart these are there's flowers that are associated with Mary and I don't know all the names of them but each you'll see it's pretty pretty beautiful like the third one is the forget me not and they're like associated they have some kind of association with Mary and so as you go through the book you'll it's almost like a lexiodivina with each of these you know like each of these sorrows that you can just sit with and then after the seven sorrows I I found this litany by a servant of God Pope pious the seventh and I have to say this is one of the most beautiful litany's I've ever ever prayed in my life that some of the titles of Mary you know like he calls her the the sea of bitterness the mass of suffering I mean it just I think it's probably my favorite litany and then so so again adults can tap into this to this this devotion as well this isn't just you know I did write it for children but I really believe that adults can can pray this this book as well no absolutely and you know I just even looking at it just now had you not pointed out the different flowers I may have missed that because it's rather subtle but it's extraordinarily beautiful and then you have the scripture verse with each sorrow so it starts with this is the third sorrow the loss of the child Jesus in the temple and then the scripture verse that you can use for lexio for mental prayer and then go into the different prayers I actually think this is an extraordinary way for adults or children or parents with their children to pray through this devotion it's it's very it's very beautiful yeah thank you for your devotion to her thank you for putting it in such a beautiful simple form that we can all benefit from and with that I okay we I before we go I just want to tell folks this this this show has been sponsored by holy habits which is a an app that's available in all platforms that will help you to let's say you want to begin to practice the devotion to our lady of sorrows you can put it in holy habits and in like a little rule of life and you can get accountability with a friend and check whether or not you did it every day so check out holy habits and also to learn more about Patrick O'Hern you can go to patrickohern.com that's p-a-t-r-i-c-k-o-h-e-a-r-n dot com and keep an eye out he has seven other books that are worthy of your consideration and in particular check out our lady of sorrows devotion to Mary seven sorrows for children published by Sophia Institute Press Patrick thank you for being with us hey hey thank you Dan real quick there's an R in the between the Patrick and the R Patrick R O'Hern okay if you go to patrickohern.com you'll get a new age musician so oh no Patrick R O'Hern Patrick R O'Hern dot com all right thank you so much for having me thank you take care brother thank you until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness may he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body irreproachable at the coming of our lord Jesus Christ amen amen and we'll