The Sorrowful Mysteries

I thought I would begin my little series on the Rosary by starting with the Sorrowful Mysteries.  I must admit that these are my favorite. I love to mediate on the suffering, crucified Christ. In meditating on the suffering Savior I am constantly reminded how much Jesus loves us and to what lengths He went to in order to ransom us from sin and inspires me to try harder not to sin and cause Him more pain.

My earliest impressions of the suffering Christ was a beautiful picture that was in my parent's family bible. This beautiful bible, one of the large family editions, had the most wonderful color plates and I used to spend hours looking at the pictures and thinking about God, Jesus and Mary. My favorite was a picture of Jesus suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane.

This picture, titled Agony in the Garden, was done by artist Carl Bloch. This picture touchs my heart like no other religious picture. The loneliness of our Savior in his darkest moments, alone, with no human support is being beautifully supported and comforted by an angel. The angel knew and loved Jesus as the Creator and his/her King. He/she is the loyal subject from a "kingdom not of this world". I love the way the angel is softly holding Jesus's head against his/her chest, you can almost imagine the angel stroking his hair as he/she comforts him. I also really like the way Bloch has depicted the angel to look feminine yet masculine, since angels have no gender I like his take on these beautiful spiritual beings.

All in all this picture truly reflects the moment of Jesus's agony in the garden and is a wonderful picture to reflect upon as we pray this 1st mystery of the Sorrowful Mysteries. Let us always remember, when we enter into our own Garden of Gethsemane, that Jesus knows how it feels to be betrayed, abandoned and left alone and we can turn to Him to comfort us the way the angel in this picture comforted Him.