The Sorrowful Mysteries - Meditations by Blessed Honorat Koźmiński
The Agony in the Garden
And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Lk 22:44). We must not give up remaining in prayer when we feel heaviness. Even if drops of sweat instead of sweet tears should flow, we are not to give up. We need to watch and pray, to watch over the heart, over the world, and to pray, because on our own we will do nothing.
Pray therefore and watch, lest you enter into temptation and waver in God's service, lest you deserve the reproach that you cannot watch one hour with Christ. Being in agony and dryness, pray all the longer. Even if you were to grow so weary from inner struggle that sweat breaks out upon you, your prayer will be more pleasing to God than if sweet tears flowed from your eyes.
Fruit of the mystery: Contrition, spirit of prayer, vigilance.
The Scourging at the Pillar
When the Lord Jesus was scourged for so long, no one was outraged, no one took pity, no one reproved. And yet, even when an executioner torments a criminal, it outrages people. This is a lesson for us on how we are to endure general indifference to the injustices done to us and a lack of compassion. We must then rejoice in this and not desire comfort. For agreeing with the will of God is the most sublime, most right, and most profitable virtue. And God announces His will to us: through commandments, through counsels, through orders of superiors, through internal inspirations, through various dispositions of Providence. Therefore, God's will should be done: in what He wants, only because He wants it, and as He wants it. Let the pains of the Lord's scourging move us, so severe because of the number of executioners and whips, so that we may show love to Him who was thinking of us then, who suffered for us and for our sake to obtain salvation for us.
Fruit of the mystery: Spirit of penance and external mortification.
The Crowning with Thorns
Our Savior is King, but He did not gain His Kingdom with gold or weapons, but with suffering. Thus a crown of thorns becomes Him, which best depicts passion. Our Lord Jesus is King, but He did not establish His Kingdom on splendor and wealth, but on the supreme poverty and contempt for earthly things. Therefore, a soldier's rag suits Him best. The Lord Jesus is King, but He did not establish His Kingdom on force, but on forgetting oneself and not trusting oneself, so what kind of scepter should be given to Him? No one can think of a more fitting one than a swaying reed. Recognize that Christ is God. Expect all good things from Him, love Him with all your strength, rejoice in His perfection, admire His graciousness and unfathomable humility, humble yourself. Beg Him to pour into you all virtues and gifts, and that a perfect unity of mercies, intentions, and will may be accomplished in you, and a transformation into Jesus may take place.
Fruit of the mystery: Internal mortification of one's own will and self-love.
The Carrying of the Cross
There is no doubt that in that hour of the Way of the Cross, our Beloved Lord carried all the sins of the whole world upon Himself. Your sins were there, mine were there, and those of each of us. And who can assure you that it was not under the weight of your sin that the Lord Jesus fell? Who knows if it was not for your conversion that He made these last efforts, rising from the fall and struggling to ascend Calvary. All graces were merited for us by His sweat and this Most Precious Blood. Oh, how rightly one should shed heartfelt tears at every glance at this image of Christ carrying the cross.
Recall the words of the Savior encouraging tears over one's sins, which were the cause of His Passion, and which threaten us with an even heavier torment. Try to bear with love and submission to the will of God the daily crosses that God will send upon you, and if a fall happens to you, rise immediately and continue to follow Jesus.
Fruit of the mystery: Patiently bearing the burdens of one's state of life.
The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
The Lord God loved us by creating us. He loved us more by creating the whole world for us. But when He suffered and died for our salvation, He showed us a love greater than which He could not show. He renounced everything that was His then and emptied Himself completely. He sought only our good. So too man, if he does not cease to love God when He sends upon him spiritual and bodily sufferings, truly shows that he seeks Him alone, and not His gifts. For true love desires only to suffer, outdoes one another in suffering, and will never be satisfied until it is reciprocated. Our love toward God is exceedingly weak if it is limited only to gratitude for His Passion, which was the cause of our salvation. It ought to inflame us to receive suffering, even in a tiny particle, to show Him mutual love. You died, Jesus, on the Cross so that people might believe in Your love, because they did not believe the love You showed in the work of creation; You died to move us to Your love, to co-suffering with You and carrying the cross, to dying for You.
Fruit of the mystery: Co-suffering with Jesus and Mary.