It has taken me a while to foster my love of the chaplet of the sorrows of Mary. I didn't grow up with it a lot, and I am still getting familiar with each of the "mysteries" so I don't rely on my sheet of paper to get me through it. But this has become one of my favorite prayers for bad emotional days. It helps me to remember that Mary has felt all of those womanly emotions and sanctified them in her own way. My spiritual mentor first suggested it when I was really starting to struggle with the sadness of infertility. And while I do often pray it when issues arise with that area of my life, it has expanded to praying it when there are tough situations of any sort.
With Mary I've always thought of this tension...of course she was human and therefore not had no knowledge on her own of future events, but she also has these hints in Scripture that her Son will suffer somehow. We also read from mystics like Anne Catherine Emmerich how the child Jesus would tell Joseph and Mary, even from the crib, about great mysteries. One can only imagine from those descriptions to what extent He may have shared what He would go through in His sufferings. Regardless, the Seven Sorrows remind us of just how much Mary was tested in her faith. I imagine her walking through all of this, maybe trying to recite in her heart the hopeful verses of Scripture that she hoped her Son would fulfill. That those words are what allowed her to take the steps along with Jesus. If Mary was tested, then not only should we not be surprised when we are, but we should look to her example of how to hope through the sorrow. I think I've blogged before about how, strangely enough, I feel a bit sad when I pray through the glorious mysteries of the Rosary...well, I feel a bit hopeful when I pray through the Seven Sorrows, because we know that those are not the end for Mary. That she will see her Son, and that He will fulfill His promises, and that she will even be crowned in glory. Even in the worst of times, God yearns to fulfill the desires of our heart. The tough times may just be His way of allowing us to discover just what are those desires.
