Working on My Prayer Life…

So, in an effort to work on my prayer life for Lent, I got out the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows that I got from an Italian nun while visiting the Holy Steps in Rome.

What is Truth?
What is Truth?
The Holy Steps, now in Rome,  are the
steps from Pontius Pilate’s Praetorium,
on which Jesus Christ stood, bled, and
was questioned by Pilate, after the
Scourging at the Pillar and the Crowning
with Thorns..
The steps were moved from
Jerusalem to Rome by Saint Helena,
the mother of the Emperor Constantine.
Anybody, including me, can now climb
those steps reverently on their knees,
and can touch (as I did) their rosaries

or chaplets to the places where Christ’s blood stained the steps.
Well, not literally; there is protective glass.

That very moving experience prompted me to write an article on Truth upon my return to Madison,  based on the question Pontius Pilate asked of Christ, “What is Truth?”
This Lent, I thought it would be a good idea to get out the Chaplet of Seven Sorrows which I had touched to the Holy Steps, and to use it.
What better way to prepare for Lent than to meditate on Christ’s life through the sorrows suffered by His Blessed Mother, the person who loved Him most?
Here’s how the prayer works (and if you don’t have a chaplet, you can do it with the photo or with the text):

Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows

also known as

Rosary of Seven Dolors

Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows

Instructions

1. Opening Salutation:

v.  O God Come to my assistance.
r.  O Lord make haste to help me.
Glory Be to the Father….

2.  Announce the First Sorrow –Meditation – Our Father – 7 Hail Mary’s and the Strophe are repeated after each sorrow:

Strophe:

My Mother, share thy grief with me,
And let me bear thee company
To mourn thy Jesus’ death with thee.

First Sorrow- The Prophecy of Simeon
Second Sorrow – The Flight into Egypt
Third Sorrow – The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple
Fourth Sorrow – Mary Meets Jesus carrying His Cross
Fifth Sorrow – – The Crucifixion
Sixth Sorrow – – Mary receives the body of Jesus From the cross
Seventh Sorrow – The body of Jesus is placed in the tomb

3.  Announce Second Sorrow – Repeat as above for all Seven Sorrows

4.  After completing the Seventh Sorrow add 3 Hail Mary’s in remembrance of the tears Mary shed because of the suffering of her Divine Son.

5.  Concluding prayers:

v. Pray for us O sorrowful Virgin
r. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ

O God, at whose Passion, according to the prophecy of Simeon,
a sword of sorrow did pierce through the most sweet soul of the
glorious Virgin and Mother Mary; grant that we, who commemorate
and reverence Her sorrows, may experience the blessed effect of Thy
Passion, who lives and reigns world without end. Amen.