THE LIVING ROSARY

N.10 - YEAR XXXVI - OCTOBER 1983

THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES

1st SORROWFUL MYSTERY

In the first sorrowful mystery we contemplate the agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gesthemene.

It is necessary to keep in mind the reasons that motivated Jesus prayers in the Garden of Olives.
This great prayer occurred in the solitude of the night, surrounded by misunderstanding, and full of such grievous motives that transported Jesus to a state of suffering and anguish that caused him to literally sweat blood.
This teaches us that there can be for us as well moments in which prayer is an explosion of unutterable pain, pain that for this very reason can resemble the sorrowful prayers of our Saver.
Let us pray to obtain the ability to pray and always to persevere in prayer.

2nd SORROWFUL MYSTERY

In the second sorrowful mystery we contemplate the flagellation of Jesus at the pillar.

Prayer did not take away the pain and passion of Jesus, but it did sanctify that pain and passion.
Thus the prayer of Jesus rendered His flagellation inexpressibly divine so that it might pay for all of our sins.
When we pray, let us ask the Lord to grant us a sense of well being, for the peace and serenity that comes from an honest life; but we must all be ready to embrace the flagellation inherent in our earthly life in order to sanctify each and every one of our sorrows in union with the sorrowful life of our Redeemer.

3rd SORROWFUL MYSTERY

In the third sorrowful mystery we contemplate the crowning with thorns.

This is the refined torture of barbarians as well as the infinite and loving patience of Jesus.
Every one of those thorns recalls the millions and millions of impure thoughts, pride, envies, suspicions, slanders and injustices of each sinner, even of the sinner who sinned the least, but who nevertheless still sinned is always a sinner; therefore each thorn represents with certainty our own misery.
Let us pray to change those thorns into roses, asking for a love that is confident and held in the embrace of the adorable Heart of our Saver.

4th SORROWFUL MYSTERY

In the fourth sorrowful mystery we contemplate the voyage to Calvary undertook by Jesus under the weight of His Cross.

After sweating blood, the flagellation and the crowning with thorns, we arrive at the condemnation to death of Jesus who, as if he were a repugnant and loathsome evildoer, must carry on his shoulders the heavy instrument of torture, the cross, down the long road to Calvary.
It is not easy to fully grasp the atrocity of that journey, with all the blows, the falls, the every and every possible type of pain and exhaustion, with the taunting, the humiliation, the abandonment and the painful meeting with the Most Holy Mother.
All of this was to facilitate and secure our own way of passage towards Salvation and Sanctity.
Let us pray to Jesus and to the Holy Mother in order that our own footsteps might be pure and holy and that our own souls might live perfectly in God.

5th SORROWFUL MYSTERY

In the fifth sorrowful mystery we contemplate the death by crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The sorrow-filled life of Jesus comes to an end in a final frightful strain: the crucifixion.
Jesus, burdened by an immensity of physical and moral afflictions, covered with bruises, with lashes and with blood, with his head wounded by large, sharp thorns and oppressed by the walk under the weight of the Cross and the whippings, is stripped and nailed to the Cross.
We would really have to use our imaginations to try and picture ourselves in this ocean of pains in order to fathom an iota, even an iota, of Jesus's pain!
Prostrating ourselves at the feet of Jesus crucified let us pray to obtain for ourselves the divine fruits of the Redemption and let us thank Jesus and Holy Mother for their generosity.