The sweet side of suffering
Patrick O'HearnLINCOLNTON — Pain and sorrow are top of mind during Lent as Jesus’s Passion draws near. They are difficult topics, but like a true mother, Our Lady of Sorrows soothes the sting of her children’s suffering in whatever form it may take through her own “dolors” or sorrows.
Perhaps no one understands this better than Patrick O’Hearn, a Catholic husband, father and parishioner of St. Dorothy Church in Lincolnton. He has been devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary under her sorrowful title since childhood and is the author of seven books, including his most recent project, “Our Lady of Sorrows: Devotion to Mary’s Seven Sorrows for Children,” a new release from Sophia Institute Press.
“Mary is the secret to the best Lent ever because she understood Jesus’s pain more than anyone, so I believe she takes us by the hand and walks with us through these sorrows, but then at the end we’re consoling Jesus,” O’Hearn says. “It is the perfect book during Lent because it really helps us enter into the mystery of suffering in a beautiful way.”
Because the devotion waned in popularity since its inception during the Middle Ages, O’Hearn says he felt called by Our Lady to introduce her seven sorrows to new generations to help them navigate the inevitable sufferings of life, grow in virtue and strengthen in faith.
The Church observes two feasts in honor of the Seven Dolors of Mary – one on the Friday before Good Friday and the other on Sept. 15. The devotion itself includes a short introductory prayer, then a prayer for each of the sorrows, followed by a request for the given virtue and gift of the Holy Spirit, ending with a Hail Mary each time and brief concluding prayers after the seventh sorrow.
The sorrows include the Prophecy of Simeon, 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. Great graces and heavenly favors are promised to those who pray the devotion.
“I’ve felt Mary’s presence throughout my whole life, protecting me from a lot of evils, so I think that writing this book was a way for me to say thank you to her for all she’s done for me,” O’Hearn says.
In the book, young readers will find Scripture, meditations and prayers for each mystery, aimed at helping children overcome fear, worry and doubt, develop virtues such as faith, courage and perseverance, and reflect on the life of Jesus.
Included in each sorrow is a reflection in which Mary speaks to the child, and then there’s a prayer to ask Mary for the virtue associated with the sorrow. O’Hearn says the work can be considered a devotional or mediational book. It also contains a collection of traditional prayers in English and Latin as well as four original prayers by Father Chad Ripperger that children can pray daily to grow closer to Our Lady and for their vocation and protection.
“I’ve always been drawn to the image of the seven sorrows,” O’Hearn says. “It took on greater depth throughout the course of my life, but I’ve always been drawn to her image of the swords in her heart. As a boy, I thought that was cool.”
As he grew, O’Hearn relied on Our Lady of Sorrows while he spent nearly three years in a Benedictine monastery and ultimately discerned out of religious life and into married life. When he and his wife Amanda lost two of their children to miscarriage, it was his devotion to the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary that helped ease the pain.
“I think any woman – or man – can identify with Our Lady of Sorrows more than I think any other title because she’s suffering and she’s standing by her Son, and as parents we don’t want to see our children suffer. It’s that element that makes her so relatable to us.”
Order and learn more
At www.sophiainstitute.com: Buy a copy of “Our Lady of Sorrows: Devotion to Mary’s Seven Sorrows for Children.”
At www.patrickrohearn.com: Get to know the author and St. Dorothy parishioner
— Annie Ferguson
Pilgrimage of life
Best-selling author and journalist, Paul Elie was the guest lecturer for the 2024 Kennedy Lecture at St. Peter Church. Elie spoke about his books and career, then participated in a question-and-answer session with Tim Funk, a former religion and politics writer for The Charlotte Observer and one of the event’s organizers. (Christina Knauss | Catholic News Herald)CHARLOTTE — Paul Elie has come to think about life as a pilgrimage, traveled in the company of others yet ultimately up to each individual to interpret its significance.
The best-selling author and journalist was the featured speaker at the 24th annual Kennedy Lecture at St. Peter Church in Uptown Charlotte on Saturday, Jan. 27. The event drew about 300 people for the series’ first in-person lecture since the pandemic began.
Elie covers the Catholic Church and Pope Francis for “The New Yorker” and wrote the best-selling book “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”— a biography of Catholic authors Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy. He also is a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkely Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.
Elie said studying the lives and faith journeys of the four authors he profiled helped him develop a sense of Catholic life as a modern pilgrimage, and to think of the faithful as “people of God on a pilgrimage in time.”
“A pilgrimage is a journey to a place with a story that precedes us,” Elie said. “Our challenge is figuring out where we fit into that story.”
Each of the iconic Catholic authors he wrote about embarked on their own pilgrimage of sorts, he noted, leading Dorothy Day to become a writer, activist and co-founder of The Catholic Worker social justice movement. Walker Percy’s journey took him through serious illness and a challenging family life to explore philosophy in novels such as “The Moviegoer,” which chronicles man’s search for faith. Thomas Merton’s spiritual longing led him to become a Trappist monk in Kentucky, and Flannery O’Connor’s faith led her to look at her home in the rural South through a Biblical lens as she produced her iconic short stories and novels, which included “Wise Blood.”
The four writers are still inspiring people today, Elie said, because of the sincerity and integrity of their searches for faith and truth, and because they wrote so well about them.
“The word pilgrimage has great resonance in this country not only to Catholics, but to Protestants and in Judaism as well,” he said. “The word has not been degraded by overuse.
We can look at a pilgrimage as a journey where something significant is going to happen, and learning about others’ pilgrimages can help us understand the narrative we belong to as Catholics.”
The format of this year’s lecture differed from prior years, with Elie talking about his work and then participating a question-and-answer session with Tim Funk, a former religion and politics writer for The Charlotte Observer and one of the event’s organizers.
The conversation featured questions submitted to the lecture’s organizing committee in advance and explored Elie’s perspectives on a variety of topics.
On Pope Francis
Asked about his experience covering Pope Francis, Elie compared our current pontiff with our two previous popes he wrote about, Saint Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, describing each pope’s personality and way of interacting with the world.
“Pope John Paul II had a background in acting and his style was very much the dramatist, while Benedict was a scholar,” Elie said. “I see Pope Francis as a conversationalist. He is present for each person he meets. He looks you right in the eye when he talks to you and gives you his attention. He also doesn’t seem to be drawn from a playbook but is more spontaneous. He is a pope who looks the whole world in the eye.”
Elie said Pope Francis makes a point of “being present” in meetings with the faithful and is more interested in “listening than wagging his finger.”
He also called Pope Francis a “transformational” leader who has taken landmark positions on world affairs, including his condemnations of war.
“Pope Francis when asked about the conflicts in Gaza and in Ukraine openly denounces war in general – that is a minority position in the world,” he said. “It’s easy for us to forget how radical that is even within the Church.”
On Jesuits
St. Peter is the only Jesuit parish in the Diocese of Charlotte, and Elie talked about the order’s role in the world today, especially since he was educated by Jesuit teachers and works at Georgetown University, a Jesuit institution.
“Those of us who have been formed by the Jesuits can’t help but embody their charism in our lives,” he said. “St. Ignatius, their founder, is regarded by many as the first ‘modern man’ because he brought religious life down from the walls (of the Church) and put it into the head. He created an approach to religion that is personal, imaginative, intense and mobile.”
On the sex abuse crisis
Elie said the Church in the U.S. has “dealt with the problem with resolve,” but must continue its work to earn trust by supporting and providing opportunities for abuse victims to openly tell their stories.
“One of the best ways to show the desire to be honest about the abuse crisis would be to truly encourage people to say what happened to them and let them tell their stories…,” said Elie, who described himself as a victim of clerical misconduct. “If you can’t say what happened, there’s a loss of honesty that leaves a lot out.”
On the rise of “Nones”
Recent polls in the U.S. indicate the rising number of so-called “nones,” people who claim affiliation with no specific religious tradition.
“One reason this may be happening is that God and religion are not being presented as much in today’s culture,” he said. “When something is not presented, it doesn’t become an option for people’s lives in the same way that it used to. The Church assumes that religion is natural to human nature, is deeply wound into our nature and that we are oriented toward the divine and the good. Once you remove that perspective from people’s lives, the discussion is not the same.”
Elie talked briefly about politics, social issues and the role of women in the Church. As a new dad, he also noted his deepening interest in Catholic parenthood, as well as his evolving exploration of – and inspiration from – various Saints at different times in his life.
People in the pews at St. Peter applauded his observations and waited in long lines for him to sign copies of his book.
“I think it is fantastic how he projects so many facets of Catholic charisms and offers more than just a one-dimensional view of the church,” said Cristobal Villapando, a parishioner at St. Peter. “He has synthesized the gift of Catholic genius.”
— Christina Lee Knauss