The Sorrowful Mysteries

​Suffering and sorrow is our lot here upon this sinful earth. Far from abandoning us to our self-imposed misery, Our Lord enters into our sorrows in His Incarnation, and particularly in His Passion and Death, in order to redeem us by setting us free from our sins. His Mother joins Him in her role as co-redemptrix, sharing His and our suffering as the most tender of mothers. Let us join with Our Sorrowful Mother and St. Louis Marie de Montfort in meditating on the great love of Our Lord in the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.

The First Sorrowful Mystery:
The Agony in the Garden
We offer Thee, O Lord Jesus, this decade in honor of Thine Agony in the Garden of Olives; and we ask of Thee, through this mystery, and through the intercession of Thy holy Mother, contrition for our sins. Amen.

​Our Lord takes on fully our pain and suffering; He bears our guilt, our shame, to the point where He is “sorrowful even until death”. We have turned away from our Father, rejecting His commands, but the Only-Begotten Son turns in obedience to receive the chalice of suffering from the hand of His Eternal Father. Contrition, the sorrow of one who has sinned, leads to repentance, a turning back to the God Who loves, saying in union with the Son, “not my will, but Thine be done.”

​O Mary, most obedient daughter of the Father, put into our hearts a sincere repentance, that we may always do the will of God.
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The Second Sorrowful Mystery:
The Scourging at the Pillar
We offer Thee, O Lord Jesus, this decade in honor of Thy bloody Scourging; and we ask of Thee, through this mystery, and through the intercession of Thy holy Mother, the grace of mortifying our senses. Amen.

​Jesus, our High Priest – holy, innocent, undefiled – begins His Sacrifice by subjecting Himself to the tortures of the scourging. The God-Man drips with blood in reparation for the sins of bodily excess – those who defile their flesh, and who make gods of their stomachs. Who will comfort Him in His pain? Those who follow Him in purity and modesty, by disciplining and subduing their bodies through mortification, in imitation of Him Who sacrificed Himself for us.

O Mary, Virgin most pure, pray that we may use our bodies only for the greater glory of God.​

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The Third Sorrowful Mystery:
The Crowning with Thorns
We offer Thee, O Lord Jesus, this decade in honor of Thy being crowned with thorns; and we ask of Thee, through this mystery, and through the intercession of Thy holy Mother, a contempt for the spirit of this world. Amen.

​“Who do you say that I am?” King of the Jews, the soldiers reply; but in mockery, with jeers, spitting and slapping. Will the high priests claim His rule? No, they reply, “we have no king but Caesar”. The world, too, rejects the Kingship of Christ, preferring the slavery of selfishness to the freedom of the children of God. Those who reject the spirit of the world and allow Christ to reign in their hearts, however, find that this King of love and mercy has a yoke that is easy and light, because He reigns with the sweetness of charity.

​O Mary, Queen of the World, rule in our hearts, and bring our selfish wills into holy subjection to thy Son.
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The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery:
The Carrying of the Cross
We offer Thee, O Lord Jesus, this decade in honor of Thy carrying of the Cross; and we ask of Thee, through this mystery, and through the intercession of Thy holy Mother, patience in bearing our crosses. Amen.

​Patience – the ability to suffer through evils for the sake of good – patience is what is needed to save our souls in the trials and sufferings of this life. Our Lord has displayed patience during His whole life, waiting and longing eagerly for the salvation of men. Here, too, He carries His Cross in complete patience, bearing the weight of the sins of the world on His Shoulder as He travels the road to Calvary. Those who choose to follow this bloody but blessed road must follow Christ in the way that He walks – in patience.

​O Mary, Mother most patient, look with pity on our sufferings, and in your mercy, grant us perseverance.
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The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery:
The Crucifixion
We offer Thee, O Lord Jesus, this decade in honor of Thy Crucifixion and ignominious death upon the Cross; and we ask of Thee, through this mystery, and through the intercession of Thy holy Mother, the conversion of sinners, the perseverance of the just, and the relief of the souls in Purgatory. Amen.

​The physical sufferings of Our Lord are immense, more than can be imagined – but greater still is His sorrow over those who will not receive what He is dying for: those who reject grace and never turn from their sins, those who fall away from the grace they had once accepted, and those who do not conform themselves fully in holiness to the grace that is given them. How generously Our Lord continues to give, despite the knowledge that so much of His love will be unappreciated and rejected! His Mother stands at the foot of the Cross, to gather in her heart all the grace and mercy that is poured forth for sinners, that none may be lost.

​O Mary, Mother of Mercy, and our Mother, may we never be far from your side and the side of Your Son, the fountain of grace and mercy.
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O God, Whose Only-Begotten Son, by His life, death, and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating upon these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mary, Our Sorrowful Mother, ora pro nobis!