Sorrowful Mysteries

This set of five sorrowful mysteries cover the events of Holy Week, from just after the Last Supper to the Crucifixion itself. Though each of the mysteries involves pain, each was an essential part of the whole process of God’s redemption of the human race.

Sorrowful Mysteries

The Agony in the Garden

The Scourging at the Pillar

The Crowning of Thorns

The Carrying of the Cross

The Crucifixion

The Agony in the Garden

The Agony in the Garden

After the Last Supper, Jesus went with three of his disciples to the olive garden at Gethesemene. The “agony” referred to is Jesus’s time of prayer in which he sweated blood. Given the intensity of Christ’s prayer, it is tragic that the disciples slept as Jesus prayed alone.

The Scourging at the Pillar

The Scourging at the Pillar

After his arrest, Pilate ordered Jesus flogged, hoping that this penalty would satisfy the irate crowd. The whip used may have been studded with metal pieces to tear into the flesh, and 39 lashes was the most that any human being could stand and not die.

The Crowning of Thorns

The Crowning of Thorns

To mock Jesus, the Roman soldiers fashioned a crown out of thorns and forced it on his head. Sharp thorns pressed into Christ’s flesh, drawing blood. The soldiers’ scorn and contempt was made visible in the wounds that the crown made.

The Carrying of the Cross

The Carrying of the Cross

The Roman soldiers made Jesus carry the heavy cross (or perhaps the crosspiece) from Pilate’s court to Golgotha, the place of the skull, where executions were carried out. The heavy weight of the wood pressed into the torn flesh, and Christ fell three times under its load. One of the most devastating moments had to have been Jesus meeting his mother Mary on the way, and recognizing her sorrow at his impending death.

The Crucifixion

The Crucifixion

Christ was nailed to the cross and hung between two thieves. The cross was a cruel and barbaric method of inflicting the death penalty, causing a slow and painful death as the condemned man struggled to breathe. The nails through his hands and feet caused Christ excruciating pain, but he reached out, even in his agony, to those he loved and those around him. Among the woman who stood by him was Mary, who despite her own grief, stood with him and one of his last acts was to entrust her to his beloved disciple as mother.

It is humbling to think that Christ suffered this bitter pain and death for our sake, but meditation on these Sorrowful Mysteries in the Rosary brings us deep into the heart of God’s saving love that held back nothing on our behalf. Jesus’s death is our life.

Contemplating on the Sorrowful Mysteries is part of Praying the Rosary.
Click here to learn more about How to Pray the Rosary.

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