The Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary

Reflections by Fr. F.X. Lasance


I.        The Agony in the Garden

Offered for fervor in prayer and sorrow for sin.

Divine Saviour, under the weight of sorrow and sadness caused by our sins, Thou fallest, bathed in a sweat of blood, and Thou endurest a mortal agony. In the Blessed Sacrament, also, Thou art still more humbled and annihilated on account of our sins.

We adore Thee and we compassionate Thy agony of suffering in the Garden of Gethsemani, as well as Thy agony of humiliation in the Eucharist, and we beg of Thee, through the intercession of Thy holy Mother, a heartfelt sorrow for our sins.

II.      The Scourging of Our Lord at the Pillar

Offered for penitence and mortification.

O good Jesus! scourged and covered with wounds, the sins committed by men against the holy virtue of purity thus torture Thy innocent flesh; and in the Blessed Sacrament impure hearts insult Thee by their sacrilegious communions.

O Thou bloody Victim, scourged at the pillar, patient Victim abused in the Sacrament, we adore Thee and we beg of Thee, through the intercession of Thy holy Mother the grace of mortifying our senses.

III.    The Crowning with Thorns

Offered for moral courage and love of humiliations.

O King of glory! crowned with thorns and proclaimed in derision king of the Jews by brutal soldiers who ignominiously spit upon Thy adorable face, Thou fallest a victim to the sins committed by pride; in the Blessed Sacrament also Thou bearest a crown of ignominy made up of the many acts of irreverence, contempt, hypocrisy, and vanity committed by Christians in Thy sanctuary.

O loving King! overwhelmed with insults both in Thy passion and in the sacred Host, we adore Thee and we beg of Thee, through the intercession of Thy holy Mother, the grace of mortifying our self-love.

IV.    The Carrying of the Cross

Offered for patience.

Curses, outrages, ill-treatments, anguish of heart, sufferings of all kinds, nothing can, O dear Redeemer, alter the mildness and patience with which Thou carriest Thy heavy cross; with like sweetness and patience dost Thou bear in the long course of ages...doubts, want of confidence, murmurs, insults, discouragement on the part of Thy children.

O Jesus! we adore Thee carrying with love the cross prepared for Thee by Thy Father, and we beg of Thee, through the intercession of Thy holy Mother, patience in the trials of this life.

V.      The Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord

Offered for self-sacrifice for God, and our neighbor, forgiveness of injuries.

O good and merciful Saviour! Thy love, more than iron nails, keeps Thee riveted to the cross whereon Thou atonest for our sins in the midst of unspeakable torments; we find Thee also riveted by the same love in the Sacrament of the Altar, continuing Thy sacrifice to the end of ages in order to apply to us the fruits thereof.

Sweet Lamb, perpetually immolated for us, we adore Thee, and we beg of Thee, through the intercession of Thy holy Mother, such a hatred of sin as will make us prefer the death of the body to the staining of the soul.