At a meeting at our parish several weeks ago, we talked about the devotion to the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Mother. I put this devotion into my prayer life that day. When saying the prayers and meditating, I found myself wishing that I had something to guide me in my meditations - to help to make sure I was not missing the point, as I knew I was meditating on each of the seven Sorrows as a mother would, but not necessarily from the viewpoint that the Blessed Mother might have.
For those new to this devotion, Our Lady promises (According to St. Bridget of Sweden)
The Blessed Virgin grants seven graces to the souls who honor her daily by saying seven Hail Marys while meditating on her tears and dolors:
1. "I will grant peace to their families."
2. "They will be enlightened about the Divine Mysteries."
3. "I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work."
4. "I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my Divine Son or the sanctification of their souls."
5. "I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives."
6. "I will visibly help them at the moment of their death--they will see the face of their mother."
7. "I have obtained this grace from my divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness, since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son will be their eternal consolation and joy."
The Seven Sorrows are:
The prophecy of Saint Simeon.
The flight into Egypt.
The loss of the Child Jesus in the temple for three days.
The meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross.
The Crucifixion.
The taking down of the Body of Jesus from the Cross.
The burial of Jesus
So I've been searching for a meditation that would work for me. I found some early on, but they were too flowery which I found distracting, and would get so caught up in the language that I had difficulty remembering to say the Hail Marys! I thought that maybe I would re-write it in language that was not so archaic. So to make sure I found the one that was the best for my purpose, I did some more searching (I found that using different search terms got me some other meditations that worked much better for me.)I thought I would share the meditations I found in case there is someone that has had the same difficulty as me.I am pleased with these so will not do the re-write that I was thinking of.
Tonight I found this meditation -- I think this is my favorite. It is in modern language, and is very much in a story form that works for me. Then I also found this page that is a rosary of the Seven Sorrows. (A very nice fellow commented that there are 15 promises with the Seven Sorrows Rosary by the way.) I found the pictures of the paintings that go with each of the separate sorrows on the Rosary site to be quite nice and helpful to visualize the situation that Our Lady was in at that time.
