CATHOLIC ARROWS

MAKE THE SIGN OF THE CROSS

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

INTRODUCTORY PRAYERS

(on the Crucifix)

My God, I offer you this Rosary for Your glory, so that I can honour Your Holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin, and share and meditate upon her suffering. I humbly beg You to give me true repentance for all my sins. Give me wisdom and humility so that I may receive all the indulgences contained in this prayer.

ACT CONTRITION

(on the Our Father bead)

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend You, my God, You who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins, do penance, and amend my life. Amen.

Pray 3 Hail Mary’s in honour of the tears of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

(You can now either pray the entire 7 sorrows or pray the sorrow specific to the day of the week)

SATURDAY

V. O God, come to my assistance.

R. O Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Sixth Sorrow of Mary: The Piercing of the Side of Jesus, and His Descent from the Cross

We must now consider the sixth sorrow which weighed upon the heart of Our Blessed Lady. On this day, You will be wounded with another sword of sorrow. A cruel lance will pierce the side of Your dead Son, and You will receive Him in Your arms after He has been taken down from the cross.

Meditation 1

It is enough to tell a mother that her son is dead to arouse in her heart all her love for the dead child. “One of the soldiers with a spear opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water” (Jn. 19:34). “Christ,” says the devout Lanspergius, “shared this wound with His Mother. He received the hurt; His Mother endured the pain.”
Mary’s sufferings were so great that it was only through the miraculous intervention of God that She did not die. When She suffered before, She at least had Her Son to pity Her; but now She had no Son to commiserate with Her. Jesus was taken down from the cross, the afflicted Mother waiting with outstretched arms to take Her beloved Son. She embraced Him and then sat down at the foot of the cross. Her Son died for men, men still continue to torture and crucify Him by their sins. Let us resolve not to torment our sorrowful Mother any longer. And if we have saddened Her in the past by our sins, let us now do what She wants us to do.

Meditation 2

It is over. Dark clouds have appeared in the sky and upon the world. Jesus is dead. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus take down the Body from the Cross. and Mary receives It in her arms. She is filled with a sadness that no human heart has known. This is her Son. Once she had cradled Him in her arms. listened to His voice, watched Him working at the carpenter’s bench. Now He is dead. She does not weep, her grief is too great for tears.
I grieve for thee, O Mary most sorrowful, in the wounding of thy compassionate heart, when the side of Jesus was struck by the lance and His Heart was pierced before His Body was removed from the Cross. Dear Mother, by thy heart thus transfixed, obtain for me the virtue of fraternal charity and the gift of understanding.

Sixth Dolor

I pity thee, oh my afflicted mother, on account of the sixth sword which pierced thy heart, when thou didst see the kind heart of thy Son pierced through and through after his death a death endured fer those ungrateful men, who, even after his death, were not satisfied with the tortures they had inflicted upon him. By this cruel sorrow, then, which was wholly thine, I pray thee to obtain for me the grace to abide in the heart of Jesus, who was wounded and opened for me; in that heart, I say, which is the beautiful abode of love, where all the souls who love God repose; and that living there, I will never love or think of any thing but God. Most holy Virgin, thou canst do it; from thee I hope for it.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Pray 7 Hail Mary’s

Verse: My Mother! share Thy grief with me, and let me bear Thee company to mourn Thy Jesus’ death with Thee.

Prayer of General Liguori

O afflicted Virgin! O soul, great in virtues and great also in sorrows! for both arise from that great fire of love thou hast for God; thou “whose heart can love nothing but God; O Mother, have pity on me, for I have not loved God, and I have so much offended Him. Thy sorrows give me great confidence to hope for pardon. But this is not enough; I wish to love my Lord, and who can better obtain this for me than thou, thou who art the Mother of Fair Love? O Mary, thou dost console all, comfort me also. Amen.

CONCLUDING PRAYERS

HAIL HOLY QUEEN: (Latin: Salve Regina)

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, Hail our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry,
poor banished children of Eve. 
To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears 
Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us and, after this our exile
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb,
Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

V: Pray for us, O Virgin most sorrowful

R: That we may be made worthy of the promise of Christ

Let us pray

Let intercession be made for us, we beseech Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, now and at the hour of our death, before the throne of Thy mercy, by the Blessed Virgin Mary, Thy Mother, whose most holy soul was pierced by a sword of sorrow in the hour of Thy bitter Passion. Through Thee, Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world, Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen.

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 livest and reignest world without end. Amen.

QUEEN OF MARTYRS PRAYER

Queen of Martyrs, your heart suffered so much. I beg you, by the merits of the tears you shed in these terrible and sorrowful times, to obtain for me and all the sinners of the world the grace of complete sincerity and repentance. Amen.

Conclude with:

“Mary, who was conceived without sin and who suffered for us, pray for us” (3 times)