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)

WEDNESDAY

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 Third Sorrow of Mary
The Loss of Jesus in the Temple

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 third sorrow was one of the greatest that Mary had to endure in Her life, the loss of Her Son in the temple. Having lost Her Son for three days, She was deprived of His most sweet presence.

Meditation 1

What anxiety this broken-hearted Mother must have felt during those three days when She searched everywhere for Her Son, and asked for Him as the spouse did in the Canticles: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth? (Cant. 3:3). This third sorrow of Mary ought to serve in the first place as a consolation to souls who are desolate, and who no longer enjoy, as they once enjoyed, the sweet presence of the Lord. They may weep, but they should weep confidently, just as Mary wept over the loss of Her Son.

But whoever wants to find Jesus must look for Him as Mary did, not amid the pleasures and delights of the world, but amid crosses and mortifications. “We sought Thee sorrowing,” Mary said to Her Son. Let us learn then from Mary, to seek Jesus. Moreover, we should look for no other good in this world than Jesus. St. Augustine says that Job “had lost what God had given him, but not God Himself.” If Mary wept over the loss of Her Son for three days, how much more should sinners weep who have lost sanctifying grace. To them God says: “You are not My people, and I will not be yours” (Os. 1:9). For this is the effect of sin: it separates the soul from God. “Your iniquities have divided between you and your God” (Isa. 59:2). Sinners may possess all the wealth in the world, but inasmuch as they have lost God, everything in this world becomes a source of affliction to them, as Solomon confessed: “Behold all is vanity, and vexation of spirit” (Eccles. 1:14).

Meditation 2

When Jesus is twelve, He is taken to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. On the return journey Joseph and Mary find at the end of the first day that Jesus is not with them. Racked with anxiety, they search for Him. Nobody in the streets, not even the beggars, can tell them where He is. Not till the third day do they find Him, in the Temple.

I grieve for thee, O Mary most sorrowful, in those anxieties which tried thy troubled heart at the loss of thy dear Jesus. Dear Mother, by thy heart so full of anguish, obtain for me the virtue of chastity and the gift of knowledge.

Third Dolor

I pity thee, oh my afflicted mother, on account of the third sword that pierced thy heart at the loss of thy dear son, Jesus, who remained absent from thee in Jerusalem for three days, when not seeing thy beloved one by thy side, and not knowing the cause of his absence, I conceive, my loving queen, how in these nights thou didst not repose, and didst naught but sigh for him who was thy only good. By the sighs, then, of those three days, for thee so long and bitter, I pray thee to obtain for me the grace never to lose my God, that I may always live closely united to God, and thus united with him, depart from this world.

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 blessed Virgin, why art thou afflicted, seeking thy lost Son? Is it because thou dost not know where He is? But dost thou not know that He is in thy heart? Dost thou not see that He is feeding among the lilies? Thou thyself hast said it: “My beloved to me and I to Him who feedeth among the lilies.” These, thy humble, pure, and holy thoughts and affections, are all lilies, that invite the divine spouse to dwell with thee. O Mary, dost thou sigh after Jesus, thou who lovest none but Jesus? Leave sighing to me and so many other sinners who do not love Him, and who have lost Him by offending Him. My most amiable Mother, if through my fault thy Son hast not yet returned to my soul, wilt thou obtain for me that I may find Him. I know well that He allows himself to be found by all who seek Him: The Lord is good to the soul that seeketh him: ” Bonus est Dominus . . . animse quaerenti ilium.” Make me to seek Him as I ought to seek Him. Thou art the gate through which all find Jesus; through thee I too hope to find Him. 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)