The Rosary of Our Lady of Sorrows

The name Rosary of Our Lady of Sorrows expresses the sorrows in the life of Mary and is the title of the Memorial on 15 September conferred by Pope Paul VI in preference to the former title “The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary”. The Devotion reflects on Mary’s Pilgrimage of Faith and as the Second Vatican Council states in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church this devotion contemplates her co-operation in the redemptive work of Christ her Son, the “Man of Sorrows”, by whom, as St Paul puts it, “God reconciled everything in His Person both on earth and in the heavens, making peace through the blood of His Cross”. The Rosary of Our Lady of Sorrows is a biblical prayer because the events it describes are recounted in the Gospels and prophesied in the Old Testament where Christ is described by the prophet Isaiah as “the suffering servant who bore our infirmities and endured our sufferings”. Mary is “the woman of sorrow” foretold in Lamentations where we read “come all you who pass by the way, look and see whether there is agony like mine”. She is the faithful Daughter of Zion and the new Eve who with Christ struggles against the ancient serpent as foretold in Genesis. According to the tradition and liturgy of the Church we also see a prophetic image of the Mother of Christ in Judith, who endangered her own life to save her people. Anthony Jeremy is a member of the Ecumenical Rosary Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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