Insights during the Rosary

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lief_Erikson
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Lief_Erikson

Guest
Let’s share in this thread insights we have gained while practicing the meditations and prayers of the Rosary.

One I gained while praying the Joyful Mysteries last Monday was this:

Scientists, you know, have become increasingly confident that life on Earth evolved first in volcanic deep sea chasms. That, in their view, is when life originated in the seas (which parallels Genesis 1, as it says life started in the seas).

While I was reading the Nativity Mystery, I was blessed wonderfully by the realization that life’s origin on Planet Earth in the deep sea caves parallels the birth of Christ. For Jesus, too, was born in a cave, according to Catholic Tradition.

The origins of all life on Earth therefore are a foreshadowing of the birth of the Incarnate Jesus.

Other parallels I came upon at the same time:

Just as Jesus was conceived in amniotic fluid in the darkness of His mother’s womb, life on Earth was conceived inside darkness in the seas. It came into being also in a cave, just as Jesus was born in a cave. Then, it came forth and roamed the Earth in the light, just as the infant Jesus passed out of His mother onto the Earth.

Furthermore, human life starts as a tiny single celled zygote at the moment of conception. Life on Earth evolved from extremely non-complex organisms to extremely sophisticated ones, just as the embryo, fetus and then infant Jesus evolved from a tiny organism into a baby and then an adult. The evolution of all life on Earth foreshadows the growth of Jesus in His mother’s womb!

Earth’s origins of life and evolution of life are carefully crafted foreshadowings of the glory of the Incarnation, who is the fulfillment of all life and of the entire universe.

WOW. That pretty heavily whacked me on the head when I came to grasp it, during my meditation for the Rosary on the mystery of the Nativity.

What insights have some of the rest of you had, small or big, but important and valuable to you, while praying the Rosary?
 
Lief_Erikson said:
Let’s share in this thread insights we have gained while practicing the meditations and prayers of the Rosary.

One I gained while praying the Joyful Mysteries last Monday was this:

Scientists, you know, have become increasingly confident that life on Earth evolved first in volcanic deep sea chasms. That, in their view, is when life originated in the seas (which parallels Genesis 1, as it says life started in the seas).

While I was reading the Nativity Mystery, I was blessed wonderfully by the realization that life’s origin on Planet Earth in the deep sea caves parallels the birth of Christ. For Jesus, too, was born in a cave, according to Catholic Tradition.

The origins of all life on Earth therefore are a foreshadowing of the birth of the Incarnate Jesus.

Other parallels I came upon at the same time:

Just as Jesus was conceived in amniotic fluid in the darkness of His mother’s womb, life on Earth was conceived inside darkness in the seas. It came into being also in a cave, just as Jesus was born in a cave. Then, it came forth and roamed the Earth in the light, just as the infant Jesus passed out of His mother onto the Earth.

Furthermore, human life starts as a tiny single celled zygote at the moment of conception. Life on Earth evolved from extremely non-complex organisms to extremely sophisticated ones, just as the embryo, fetus and then infant Jesus evolved from a tiny organism into a baby and then an adult. The evolution of all life on Earth foreshadows the growth of Jesus in His mother’s womb!

Earth’s origins of life and evolution of life are carefully crafted foreshadowings of the glory of the Incarnation, who is the fulfillment of all life and of the entire universe.

WOW. That pretty heavily whacked me on the head when I came to grasp it, during my meditation for the Rosary on the mystery of the Nativity.

What insights have some of the rest of you had, small or big, but important and valuable to you, while praying the Rosary?
Click to expand...
If you haven’t read it yet, you should definitely read G.K. Chesterton’s Everlasting Man. It works along these same premises, right down to the cave bit.

The difference is that he takes the caveman, and Jesus - both born in caves. The book is divided into two part: “An Animal Called Man,” showing that even if man is fully animal, he’s also ensouled (and distinctly “man”). Part II is “A Man Called Christ,” showing that even if Christ is fully man, He’s also divine (and distinctly God). It’s slow in the middle of the first section, but a great book overall - it helped convert C.S. Lewis… which is saying something huge.
 
Wow, that does sound exciting! I’m certainly interested, and I’d like to read it.

Thanks for the recommendation!
 
This isn’t much, but for a long time I used to meditate on the mysteries seperately, not as one continuous mystery. Finally, God showed me, while I was meditating on the Carrying of the Cross, that while Our Lord was suffering so much with that Cross on His torn up back, His knees torn and bruised from falling three times, blood burning his eyes, body trembling with exhaustion and dehydration – that all He had to look forward to at the end of this awful walk was even worse torture on the cross. See, I didn’t let the mysteries run together. Bad enough that He was being crushed on the Way of the Cross, but then only to reach His destination for greater suffering? Wow. That was definately a “wow” moment for me.
 
Oh, there was this book I browsed once that attempted to reconstruct the Way of the Cross from the evidence given us on the Shroud of Turin (sure wish I’d purchased it): It concluded that the wounds showed that the crossbar of the Cross was tied across His shoulders so his arms were outstretched on either side of Him and tied to the wood. That means He couldn’t have broken His fall with his hands. They explained what evidence they used to conclude this, but they also continued that therefore the falls would have damaged His heart, and that when he cried out on the Cross right before He died, it was because His Heart literally broke for us. They believed that also explained the blood and water spilling forth when His Heart was later pierced…
Have no idea if that’s how it happened, but it seems fitting, doesn’t it? His heart breaking for us?
 
*Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. *

Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse. Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse. Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse.
When I pray the most Holy Rosary sometimes I read the gospel readings pertaining to the mystery before each decade. I noticed today while doing that → that since John was the beloved disciple, who stayed with Jesus and Mary while the others fell away (“Mother, here is your son.” “Son, here is your Mother”), he has the most depthful account of the crucifixion (in my pitiful opinion), not missing people - like Mary - as do the other disciples. I also heard somewhere and would love to know if it is true - is it true that John was the only disciple who was not martyred? Is that what Jesus means when he says to Peter, “If I will that he should stay here until I come, what is it to you?” Thank you greatly for your insight, and please say a simple prayer for me if you ever have any free time.
Click to expand...
Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse. Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse. Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse.

*Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. *
 
I had some new thoughts concerning the Rosary that I wanted to share. As always, I’m also very eager to hear what insights everyone else here has had while praying the Rosary!

Here’s the Rosary meditation I usually go over:

The First Joyful Mystery
THE ANNUNCIATION
The time for the Incarnation is at hand.
Of all women God prepared Mary from her conception to be the Mother of the Incarnate Word.
The Angel Gabriel announces: “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with thee.”
Mary wonders at this salutation.
The Angel assures her: “Fear not . . . you shall conceive in your womb, and give birth to a Son.”
Mary is troubled for she has made a vow of virginity.
The Angel answers that she will conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit, and her Son will be called the Son of God.
The Incarnation awaits Mary’s consent.
Mary answers: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word.”
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
rosary-center.org/joyful.htm

I realized today, while meditating on the Mystery of the Annunciation, that when God prepared Mary from conception to be the Mother of Christ, He was also preparing her from conception to be my Mother. Our Mother. Because just as she gives birth to Christ, she spiritually gives birth to the Body of Christ in the world. So when she says, “Let it be done for me according to your word,” not only Christ is brought into the world; all of us are brought into the world. The Annunciation describes the conception of all of Christ’s Body. It was amazing for me to notice suddenly that I was reading the scene not only of the conception of Jesus, but I was reading about my own personal spiritual conception. Man did that personalize it.

Something else I noticed was that in the mystery where Christ is lost for a time and Mary and Joseph have to seek Him, at this moment the greatest saint endures what all the saints endured, the spiritual dryness, emptiness and torments of having lost Jesus. This is the “Dark Night of the Soul,” the point where the saints describe feeling Christ is gone from their lives and they endure unrelenting suffering for a massive, excruciating period of time. Because Mary is immaculately conceived and Christ’s personal Mother, she endured His disappearance during that period with pain such as no other human will ever be able to imagine. Even though He was only missing for three days, her suffering was greater than any human saint’s can be, because of her Immaculate Conception and the fact that she was Christ’s personal mother.

My Rosary says of this scene:

The Fifth Joyful Mystery
THE FINDING OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE

When Jesus is twelve years old, He goes with His parents to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover.
After the feast of the Passover, Joseph and Mary unknowingly set out for Nazareth without Jesus.
At the end of the first day’s journey they discover Jesus is missing.
His parents return immediately looking for Him.
This loss causes grief and anxiety beyond our understanding to the hearts of Mary and Joseph.
On the third day they find Jesus in the Temple among the Doctors who were astonished at His wisdom.
Mary: “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been searching for you in sorrow.”
Jesus: “Why did you search for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?”
Jesus goes down with them to Nazareth, and is subject to them.
Mary keeps all these things in her heart.

Now I believe I can see where Mary endured the Dark Night of the Soul and how that links her to all the saints. In fact, she was the first saint to endure this. And just as the saint, rising from the Dark Night of the Soul, is consoled by Christ, so Mary saw Him in the Temple surrounded by all the learned. She saw Him elevated in glory, and her heart leapt with joy. Then she treasured the experience in her heart, and Jesus accompanied her constantly from then on, until He had to depart to begin His ministry.

In fact, the words Mary heard here are also the same as those that often reach souls in the Dark Night. Souls sometimes doubt in that time whether God loves them any more. They wonder why He is so absent. He gently says to them at the end, though, “Did you not know I must be about my Father’s business?” The call is to have faith.

This experience also was a precursor to the Passion. Jesus was gone from her life for three days, just as He would die and for three days lie in the earth. Then He was found surrounded by the learned in the Temple, just as Christ was raised in glory.

This scene also presents the fabulous intimacy of the Trinity. Jesus was behaving with His Father just as any human might their natural father, because the Father was Jesus’ natural Father. Their intimacy is powerfully expressed in this scene.
 
One that I’ve had while praying the Luminous mysteries - specifically the Wedding at Cana.

The fact that Jesus asks the servants to provide Him with water, by filling the jars, and then He uses His power to turn that water into wine. Why didn’t He just ‘hey presto’ fill the jars with wine directly?

I think it’s an image of us bringing the ordinariness of our lives - our work, prayers, joys and sufferings - to the Lord. Now by God’s standards they aren’t a major offering, in fact they are ordinary like the water.

And He turns that ordinary water, our humble gifts, not just into wine but the best quality wine. From the act of our offering, He transforms our ordinary lives into something extraordinary.

Hope this makes sense to someone else out there 😃
 
It makes sense to me. I never thought of that before; it’s a really neat perspective on it. In fact, Jesus does that through a number of His miracles, use human effort and then transform it through divine grace. When He spat on the ground to make mud and put it on a blind man’s eyes, for instance. Or when He told the person to bathe in the Jordan and when the person did, he became well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top