For this October, we are releasing reflections on the mysteries of the rosary. This week we will be reflecting on the sorrowful mysteries.
I would also like to one again thank Fr. Thomas Crean for looking over and giving feedback on these reflections.
1 – The Agony in the Garden
The first Adam and the last Adam were both faced with decisions in gardens. In the Garden of Eden, Adam chose his will before God’s will. When Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed to His Father, “Thy will be done.” In this mystery, let us meditate on how Christ undid Adam’s sin in the garden through His perfect obedience to the Father and ask Our Lady to help conform our wills to the Father as well.
2 – The Scourging at the Pillar
Before Adam sinned, there was no suffering in the world. In order to undo the suffering that Adam caused, Christ underwent excruciating suffering during His passion. Nonetheless, Christ remained faithful, and “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter… so he opened not his mouth.” In this mystery, let us meditate on the suffering that Our Lord underwent for the sins of the world, and let us ask Our Lady to help us offer up our own suffering as reparation for the sins of the world.
3 – The Crowning with Thorns
As a punishment for his sin, Adam was told by God that the ground would now bring forth thorns and thistles for him. Although Adam was once in harmony with nature, he was now at war with it. To show that He was taking on the curse of Adam, Our Lord had the very symbol of the curse placed upon His head. In this mystery, let us meditate on how Christ restored our proper harmony with creation, and ask Our Lady to help us endure the thorns and thistles that we encounter in our own work.
4 – The Carrying of the Cross
When God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree, they knew not even to touch it because that would be a near occasion of sin. Once Eve did touch it however, that led to them eating of it and falling into sin. The human race has been forced to bear the weight of this tree ever since. Christ took the weight of the tree in the form of a cross on Himself and bore the weight of our suffering. In this mystery, let us meditate on how Christ patiently bore the weight of our sins during the passion and ask Our Lady to give us the strength to bear our sufferings patiently.
5 – The Crucifixion
When Adam ate from the tree, he placed us under a curse. But now, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree.’” Adam and Eve falsely believed that eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would make them like God, but it only brought them death. Now, we can become like God by eating and drinking from the fountain of immortality which poured forth from the side of Christ on the new tree and is offered to us under the appearance of bread and wine. In this mystery, let us meditate on how Christ freed us from the curse of the law and brought us under a new law of grace, and ask Our Lady to help make us worthy to receive the new fruit of the tree, grace of the Eucharist.
