THE LITURGICAL YEAR

Sermons, hymns, meditations and other musings to guide our annual pilgrim's progress through the liturgical year.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

THE SERVITE ROSARY

A MESSAGE ON THE FEAST OF THE SEVEN SORROWS OF OUR LADY


Devotion to the Sorrowful Virgin began in thirteenth century Florence, when seven professionals withdrew from the world of business to serve God in a life of penance and prayer.  They had a particular devotion to our Lady, and founded a new religious order dedicated to her service.  They were named, appropriately enough, the Order of Servites, and their prayer was focused specifically on a form of the Rosary that recalled the following sorrows our Lady endured in union with her Son.


THE SEVEN SORROWS OF OUR LADY
1.  The Prophecy of Simeon.
2.  The Flight into Egypt.
3.  The loss of the Christ Child in the Temple of Jerusalem.
4.  The Meeting with Jesus on the Way of Cross.
5.  The Crucifixion of Jesus on Mt. Calvary.
6.  The Piercing of the Side of Jesus with the Lance, & his Descent from the Cross.
7.  The Burial of Jesus by St. Joseph of Arimathea.

This form of the Rosary became extremely popular between the years 1347 and 1351, when members of the Servite Order actively promoted its use during the period of the Black Death, a terrible plague that wiped out a large percentage of the population of Europe.  The Servites were given permission to celebrate a new feast in honour of these Seven Sorrows, and it is this same feast that was later formally approved by Pope Pius VII and which we celebrate today.

These so-called Servite Rosaries are readily available online.  To say this Chaplet, begin with the Sign of the Cross and an Act of Contrition.  On the first bead, announce the First Sorrow (from the list above), say the Our Father, then say a Hail Maryon each of the seven beads that follow, concluding with the invocation Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.  Repeat this formula for each of the Sorrows.  After the invocation at the end of the Seventh and Last Sorrow, say three Hail Marysdedicated to our Lady’s tears, and conclude as follows:
V.  Pray for us, O Virgin most Sorrowful.

R.  That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. 

Let us pray.  Lord Jesus, we now implore, both for the present and for the hour of our death, the intercession of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Thy Mother, whose holy soul was pierced at the time of Thy passion by a sword of grief. Grant us this favor, O Saviour of the world, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.

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