Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary
The Seven Sorrows Rosary!
There are various types or rosaries, chaplets and other prayers that can be offered with a variety of “beads”. Last week I wrote about the traditional rosary. One of the next “rosaries” I learned about was the Seven Sorrows Rosary.
Twice, in a short space of time, I had the gift of being with Imaculee Ilibigiza. The first was at the ManUp Philly men’s conference, the second was at my home parish, St. Luke the Evangelist in Glenside, PA. Imaculee tells the story of her experience during the Rwanda genocide that occurred in 1994. There are many YouTube videos in addition to her own writings including her book, “Left to Tell” that detail the story. In addition to learning about the horrific events surrounding the genocide, Imaculee talks about how she started to pray the Seven Sorrows Rosary.
When Imaculee came to St. Luke’s my wife attended with me. She was immediately drawn to the Seven Sorrows Rosary. Susan started a prayer group on Tuesday’s where they would gather prayer intentions and offer this rosary. Sometime later she was invited to attend an Imaculee event in New York City. When she returned she gave me the rosary pictured above which I have prayed, off and on, for a number of years.
Like any of our Catholic prayers, people add and subtract prayers to a particular devotion. The way I pray this rosary is to start with an Act of Contrition and then start praying and meditating on Mary’s seven sorrows. The prayers consist of an Our Father and seven Hail Mary’s for each Sorrow. The seven sorrows are: (1) The Prophecy of Simeon, (2) The Flight Into Egypt, (3) the Loss of Jesus for Three Days, (4) the Carrying of the Cross, (5) The Crucifixion of Jesus, (6) Jesus Taken Down Fromthe Cross and (7) Jesus is Laid in the Tomb. Conclude with three additional Hail Mary’s. I believe the total of 52 Hail Mary’s is supposed to represent the 52 years Mary lived.
Recently someone shared a YouTube with me that talked about the “Irresistable Novena”. In addition to praying the seven sorrows rosary you pray the Litany of Our Lady of Sorrows . This is how I now pray the Seven Sorrows “novena”.
I would add a couple other things I have learned over the last few years:
First: one of the common traits you will find in the lives of the saints is there meditation on the Passion of Jesus Christ. The Seven Sorrows includes the Passion. I would also encourage you to download and use Luisa Piccarreta’s, “Twenty Four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ”. You can’t help but be moved by Luisa’s writings.
Second: I have watched quite a few videos with Fr. Chad Ripperger lately and he often talks about Our Lady of Sorrows. One thing he teaches is that we pray to Our Lady under this title to reveal any unconfessed sins we might have. If you are looking to go straight to Heaven, i.e. avoid purgatroy!, it will help to confess every sin.
Next week we’ll talk about the “Gratitude Rosary”.
As always, please feel free to share and comment on my posts!
Ken, you have been blessed to share the beauty of our Faith. You never fail to awaken my desire to know more. It's so easy to get "stuck" in doing the same thing over and over. When the window is opened (your sharing), my prayer life is enriched.