To Weep Like Mary: The Extraordinary Gift of the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows

Barb Szyszkiewicz reviews a new book by Wincenty Łaszewski that focuses on the prayers specifically recommended by Our Lady of Kibeho.

To Weep Like Mary: The Extraordinary Gift of the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows

By Wincenty Łaszewski

Published by Marian Press

Are you interested in learning to pray the Seven Sorrows Rosary? Are you interested in learning about Our Lady of Kibeho, who appeared in Rwanda on numerous occasions from 1981 to 1989? And are you interested in finding out how these first two questions are connected?

To Weep Like Mary

Marian scholar Wincenty Łaszewski has written a new book that puts it all together. In To Weep Like Mary: The Extraordinary Gift of the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows, he weaves the story of the centuries-old Seven Sorrows Rosary with an account of a modern-day Marian apparition.

"Our Lady of Sorrows" is an uncomfortable title today because it speaks of suffering. Moreover, it speaks of our participation in the Passion of Christ. Venerating Our Lady of Sorrows commits us to something, commands us to rise from our armchair, participate in the divine plan, and express readiness to accept the Gospel, which speaks of love to the point of giving up one's life. (37)

This Devotion Is Not a Substitute Rosary

Wincenty Łaszewski is careful to emphasize that the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows is not a substitute for the Rosary. It's an entirely different devotion. It cannot be prayed on a regular rosary with its five decades of Hail Marys; the Seven Sorrows Rosary contains seven sets of seven Hail Marys, separated by one Our Father, with three Hail Marys at the conclusion to represent Mary's tear-filled sorrows.

One of the three visionaries from Kibeho wrote the Foreword to this book, noting:

[Mary] said it should be prayed on Tuesdays and Fridays, but praying it daily is a blessing. Often during her visits, she encouraged us to pray the Holy Rosary and the Seven Sorrows Rosary, but she clarified that the Seven Sorrows does not replace the Holy Rosary. (8)

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Two samples of Seven Sorrows chaplets. The chaplet on the left was made for me by my friend Barbara Stein, who creates beautiful rosaries and has an Etsy shop. The one on the right belonged to one of my grandmothers. The medals are very thin, quite worn, and a little bent from the pressure of her very arthritic fingers as she prayed.

The Congregation of Holy Cross, of which Holy Cross Family Ministries (including Catholic Mom) are missions, has a particular devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows.

At the end of the book, the author explains different ways to pray this devotion: meditating upon one Sorrow each day of the week (the "Seven Minute Method") or praying the full chaplet on a particular day, especially Tuesdays and/or Fridays, the days on which the Church remembers, with Mary, the Lord's Passion.

To Weep Like Mary is a fresh and fruitful look at a beautiful devotion.

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Ask for To Weep Like Mary at your local Catholic bookseller, or order online from the publisher, Marian Press.

Is this a book you'd like to read? Share your thoughts with the Catholic Mom community! You'll find the comment box below the author's bio and list of recommended articles.

To Weep Like Mary: The Extraordinary Gift of the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows