Recognizing the role our sins played in Our Lady’s sufferings, begin with the Act of Contrition.
Pray one Our Father and seven Hail Marys for each sorrow. At the very end, pray three Hail Marys in honor of Our Lady’s tears.
One practice that facilitates meditation on Mary’s sorrows is to announce each sorrow before the Our Father and the seven Hail Marys. Here is the text given by the Church in the 1910 version of the Raccolta:
With this confidence in my heart, I meditate on the First Sorrow, when Mary, Virgin Mother of my God, presented Jesus her only Son in the Temple, laid Him in the arms of the holy and aged Simeon, and heard his prophetic word, “The sword of grief shall pierce thy soul,” foretelling thereby the Passion and Death of her Son Jesus.
The Second Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin was when she was obliged to fly into Egypt by reason of the persecution of cruel Herod, who impiously sought to slay her well-beloved Son.
The Third Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin was when, after having gone up to Jerusalem at the Paschal Feast with Joseph her spouse and Jesus her beloved Son, she lost Him on the way back to her poor house, and for three days bewailed the loss of her only Love.
The Fourth Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin was when she met her dear Son Jesus carrying to Mount Calvary on his tender shoulders the heavy Cross whereon He was to be crucified for our salvation.
The Fifth Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin was when she saw her Son Jesus raised upon the hard tree of the Cross, and blood flowing from every part of his sacred Body, and then beheld Him die after three hours’ agony.
The Sixth Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin was when she saw the lance pierce the sacred Side of Jesus, her beloved Son, the nails withdrawn, and his holy Body laid in her purest bosom.
The Seventh Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin, Queen and Advocate of us, her servants, miserable sinners, was when she saw the holy Body of her Son buried in the grave.
V. Pray for us, Virgin most sorrowful.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray. Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, that the most blessed Virgin Mary, thy Mother, may intercede for us before the throne of Thy mercy, now and at the hour of our death, whose most holy soul was transfixed with the sword of sorrow in the hour of Thine own Passion. Through Thee, Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow” (Lamentations 1:12).
Meditations from the Raccolta (1910).
The Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows, also called the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows or the Servite Rosary, honors the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin Mary as she shared in the life and Passion of her Son. The chaplet has seven sets of seven beads. For each sorrow, we pray one Our Father and seven Hail Marys while meditating on that moment in Mary’s life, and we close with three Hail Marys in honor of her tears.
The Church keeps the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15, the day after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
According to EWTN, the newly founded Order of the Servants of Mary (the Servites) decided in 1239 to devote their order to the Sorrows of Mary, meditating especially on her seven sorrows. The Servites promoted this chaplet during the Black Death in the 14th century.
The chaplet has drawn new interest because of Our Lady of Kibeho in Rwanda, the only Church-approved Marian apparition in Africa. The apparitions were reported between 1981 and 1989. In 2001, the local bishop, with the Holy See, declared the testimonies of three visionaries authentic (CNA). In those apparitions, Our Lady strongly recommended the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows.
St. Bridget of Sweden (1303–1373) reported that Our Lady promised seven graces to those who honor her each day by praying seven Hail Marys while meditating on her tears and sorrows (National Catholic Register):
These promises come from a private revelation. The Church does not require Catholics to believe private revelations, but this devotion to Our Lady’s sorrows has long been encouraged as a way of drawing closer to Christ in His Passion.
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