The First Sorrowful Mystery
The Agony in the Garden. Matthew 26: 36-48.
Then Jesus came with them (his disciples) to a garden called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples: “Sit down here while I go and pray over there.” Taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to show signs of sadness and deep distress of mind. “I am sad at heart,” he said, “sad even to death; wait here and watch with me.
Fruits of the Mystery: Acceptance, Surrender to God’s will.
The Second Sorrowful Mystery
Jesus is Scourged, John 18:22 to 19:1
From Caiaphas they took Jesus to the government house. It was early in the morning. But they did not enter the government house themselves, otherwise they might become unclean, and so be unable to eat the Passover. Therefore Pilate came outside to speak to them. “What charge do you bring against this man?” he asked. If he had not been a criminal, we should not have given him up to you,” they answered.” After [his exchange with the crowd], Pilate had Jesus scourged.
Fruits of the mystery: Steadfastness, Purity, Temperance.
The Third Sorrowful Mystery
Jesus Is Crowned With Thorns. John 19:2-6
The [Roman] soldiers made a crown with some thorns and put it on his head and threw a purple robe around him. They kept coming up to him and saying: “Long live the kind of the Judeans!” and they gave him blow after blow with their hands. Pilate again came outside, and said to the people: “Look! I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find nothing with which he can be charged.” Then Jesus came outside, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe; and Pilate said to them: “Here is the human one!” When the chief priests and the police officers saw him, they shouted: “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Fruits of the Mystery: Courage, Trust, Witness.
The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery
Jesus Carries His Cross. John 19:16-17, Luke 23: 26-28
Pilate gave Jesus up to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus; and he went out, carrying his cross himself, to the location called “The Place of a Skull,” or, in Hebrew, Golgatha.
As they were leading Jesus away, they laid hold of Simon from Cyrene who was on his way in from the country, and they put the cross on his shoulders, for him to carry it behind Jesus. There was a great crowd of people following him, many being women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him.
Fruits of the mystery: Patience, Resolve.
The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery
Jesus Dies on the Cross. Luke 23: 33-46
When they had reached the place called “The Skull,” there they crucified Jesus and the criminals, one on the right, and one on the left. Then Jesus said: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” It was nearly midday when a darkness came over the whole country, lasting until three in the afternoon, the sun’s light having failed; and the Temple curtain was torn down the middle. Then Jesus, with a loud cry, said: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” And with these words he breathed his last. The Roman captain, on seeing what had happened, praised God, exclaiming: “This was a good human being!”
Fruits of the mystery: Mercy, Faith, Awareness, Vision.
Bible verses taken from Taussig, Hal. A New New Testament: A Bible for the Twenty-first Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
The Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary
For more than 2,000 years, the heroes, champions, and saints of Christianity have been meditating on the passion and death of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is time we all spent a little time exploring the genius of the cross. The world changed at three o’clock on that Friday afternoon when Jesus laid down his life for us. The Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary meditate on key moments in the passion and death of Jesus.
The First Sorrowful Mystery: The Agony in the Garden. Stay awake. Jesus said it three times. But his disciples could not. They let him down. Imagine how alone he felt that night in the garden. Have you ever been in agony—physical, spiritual, emotional, psychological? Multiply that by infinity and take it to the depths of eternity, and you may get a small glimpse of what Jesus was experiencing that night in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The Second Sorrowful Mystery: The Scourging at the Pillar. One sentence. “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged” (John 19:1). Eight words. But it would have been enough to kill most people. The flesh on his back torn in a hundred places, blood dripping from each, small pieces of his divine body that had been ripped off scattered on the ground—the body of Christ. Still, this was almost nothing compared to what he was to go through.
The Third Sorrowful Mystery: The Crowning with Thorns. They crowned him with thorns and used a stick to smack the crown down on his head driving the thorns deep into his skull. He felt it all. He accepted it all. He embraced it all. It seems we will do anything to avoid pain and suffering today. But not Jesus, he embraced every experience of pain and suffering. He allowed each thorn, each taunt to strengthen his resolve to do what was before him.
The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery: The Carrying of the Cross. As Jesus carried his cross, it was a wonder how he was even still alive. He was beaten by the guards as he struggled to carry the cross. He collapsed three times, magnifying his pain. The guards knew he would not make it to Calvary, so they forced Simon of Cyrene to help Jesus so he would not die along the way.
The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery: The Crucifixion. There is a time and place for everything in God’s plan, and every debt in the universe needs to be settled eventually. This was the day, Calvary was the place, two thousand years ago was the time, that God decided to settled our debts.
Accessed January 30, 2021 from https://www.dynamiccatholic.com/rosary/unlocking-mysteries-rosary.html