New Rosary Mysteries

[Redbaron998]

I pray them,

They fill that gap between the early events and the Pascal events and thus have brought to me much help in striving to Live like Christ (as much as I can)

To me the Mysteries all have a clear theme to them,

Joyful in the beginning of Life and the joy from that promise of Christ.
Luminus in showing us the way to live.
Sorrowful in showing us the need for repentence and humility.
and Glorious in showing the fullfillment of the promise and our hope for ongoing salvation.

 

[ConstantineTG]

I see what you’re saying in post #7, but if you might permit me to drop one cent in the bucket as it pertains to how we view the Liturgical Year, (and concerning only the above quoted part of the post) :

Every Sunday is an Easter celebration. That’s a principal reason why even on Sundays during Lent we aren’t required to fast . So , we’re better to go “Glorious Mysteries” on Sundays. .

Sunday=Resurrection

I agree about the significance of Sunday. But the Gospel gear towards Ordinary Time, which is Jesus’ earthly ministry, which in the Rosary is represented by the Luminous Mysteries. That is why I made that suggestion. If you think about it, every day we live, we live in the context of the birth, dead and resurrection of Jesus, thats how we live our faith.

 

[georgewithfaith]

Personally, I do not recite the Luminous Mysteries. I pray the Holy Rosary nightly. I don’t think anyone has to recite the Luminous Mysteries if they choose not to do so. So we go on and maybe one day these Mysteries will disappear entirely.

 

[rwoehmke]

Good grief, Charlie Brown! I never realized that the rosary was something so set in stone. I rarely used to pray the rosary because the stories supporting it seemed to me to be romantic clap-trap. Then John Paul II in his wisdom added the new mysteries. Suddenly it seemed to make real sense. Now I try to pray a portion of the twenty mysteries each and every day. The full Gospel was being preached to me and meditated on. I really appreciate thr addition.

 

[st_lucy]

Good grief, Charlie Brown! I never realized that the rosary was something so set in stone. I rarely used to pray the rosary because the stories supporting it seemed to me to be romantic clap-trap. Then John Paul II in his wisdom added the new mysteries. Suddenly it seemed to make real sense. Now I try to pray a portion of the twenty mysteries each and every day. The full Gospel was being preached to me and meditated on. I really appreciate thr addition.

I agree, I love the new mysteries, infact they became my most favorite. Sometimes I think that some people try to make it out like JPII just made up these events out of thin air.

As Catholics are we to be sitting around questioning one God Himself put in charge of us. It is not as if JPII sat around thinking now how can I throw off those good Catholic, I know I will ask them to mediate on a whole new set of mysteries on the life of Our Savior.

These are good things nothing to complain about. You don’t have to say them but just know that they add to our rich history and to our spirital life.

 

[NeedImprovement]

I agree about the significance of Sunday. But the Gospel gear towards Ordinary Time, which is Jesus’ earthly ministry, which in the Rosary is represented by the Luminous Mysteries. That is why I made that suggestion. If you think about it, every day we live, we live in the context of the birth, dead and resurrection of Jesus, thats how we live our faith.

I do think about it. And I agree with what you say about living each day in the context of the birth, death and resurrection of our Blessed Lord - which is why I do my best to pray all three of those mysteries daily. Trying to squeeze in the liturgy of the hours as well doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to get my work done … which is why.…despite my hopeful prayer intentions, I end up living up to my user name on certain days.

As mentioned earlier, if we’re praying more than one set of Mysteries daily, then we aren’t going to be “missing” many Mysteries. Being taught by my dear mother to pray the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious - I have a personal preference for them and they remain my staples. But I pray the Luminous privately on occasion too, and am always happy to join anyone else praying them.

As far as the Gospel being geared towards ordinary time, I don’t think we can discount the significance of the Sabbath. The three year rotation upon which the cycle of readings is currently structured is for Sundays. And if we remove Jesus’ Birth, Death and Resurrection from the Gospels, or fail to see any of His “public ministry” events as connected to these, I believe we’re missing the entire eshatological point.

It would appear, that despite our differences, most of our members who are posting here pray at least some of the Rosary each day. That’s awesome.

 

[Miserys_Fence]

I don’t pray them simply because I haven’t yet “memorized” (for lack of a better word) a specific scenario to go with some of them (I meditate on the Mysteries by picturing myself there, and watching the scene unfold).

I do pray them in a group setting, i.e., at Adoration or before Mass. But I want to develop stronger images for my own meditations (by studying Scripture) before I add it to my personal devotions.

Miz

 

[Alindawyl]

I do pray them, but it makes absolutely no sense to me (and many others) why they were placed on Thursdays. Who decided this?

The Holy Father stated in Rosarium Virginis Mariae:

…for the Rosary to become more fully a “compendium of the Gospel”, it is fitting to add, following reflection on the Incarnation and the hidden life of Christ (the joyful mysteries) and before focusing on the sufferings of his Passion (the sorrowful mysteries) and the triumph of his Resurrection (the glorious mysteries), a meditation on certain particularly significant moments in his public ministry (the mysteries of light).

So, the Holy father recommended that the Luminous Mysteries be placed between the Joyful and the Sorrowful Mysteries. Sticking them in on Thursdays does not fulfill that, so Saturday, would seem to be the most fitting day, if we are going to change the order at all.

If you pray all of the mysteries in one day, then that’s the order you would use. If you only pray one of the mysteries in a day, however, then they were already out of order previously in Lent or Advent anyway. Or doubled up with both Saturday and Sunday being the same thing two days in a row for the rest of the year. So not being “in order” every day isn’t inherently a problem…

Much further in Rosarium Virginis Mariae (#38, to be precise), the Holy Father explains why Thursday makes sense for the luminous mysteries for those such as myself who only pray one set of mysteries a day:

The Rosary can be recited in full every day, and there are those who most laudably do so. In this way it fills with prayer the days of many a contemplative, or keeps company with the sick and the elderly who have abundant time at their disposal. Yet it is clear – and this applies all the more if the new series of mysteria lucis is included – that many people will not be able to recite more than a part of the Rosary, according to a certain weekly pattern. This weekly distribution has the effect of giving the different days of the week a certain spiritual “colour”, by analogy with the way in which the Liturgy colours the different seasons of the liturgical year.

According to current practice, Monday and Thursday are dedicated to the “joyful mysteries”, Tuesday and Friday to the “sorrowful mysteries”, and Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday to the “glorious mysteries”. Where might the “mysteries of light” be inserted? If we consider that the “glorious mysteries” are said on both Saturday and Sunday, and that Saturday has always had a special Marian flavour, the second weekly meditation on the “joyful mysteries”, mysteries in which Mary’s presence is especially pronounced, could be moved to Saturday. Thursday would then be free for meditating on the “mysteries of light”.

 

[Robert_Burns]

This has probably been discussed before, but, I want to know if any of the traditionalist Catholics here pray the Luminous Mysteries.

If this is a heated subject, I don’t want slander. I don’t know how volitile this subject is, but, I know this folder can get a bit passionate at times in regards to the love of God.

I dont consider them part of the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That being said - All prayer is good. I am not against people praying them - what I am against is people who think that they can substitute them for the 15 Mystery Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary which has attributed to it miracles - like Le Panto for example and the 15 Promises given by the Blessed Virgin Mary herself to those who recite HER Rosary and thus fail to pray at least 5 mysteries of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Holy Rosary having substituted these new mysteries. Thus far - no one has proven that they came from the Blessed Virgin Mary nor have i heard of an Authenticated Miracle attributed to them nor has the Blessed Virgin Mary given them her approval as sufficing for the promises. All pray is good - but the Rosary isnt just any prayer. I see no problem with someone praying them - but I dont consider them applicable to the Special Promises and thus IMO One should always make certain to pray at least 5 Decades of the 15 Mystery Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If after doing this - someone wanted to add the Lumenous - I see no problem with them.

 

[Momofmyangels]

I rarely used to pray the rosary because the stories supporting it seemed to me to be romantic clap-trap. :

I am not understanding this statement. What is it about the rosary that makes you think of “romantic clap-trap?”

 

[Sunflake9]

I guess I just don’t understand this whole debate the original Rosary is still intact, JPII just added to them. When did thinking or praying more about the life of Jesus get to be a bad thing? If you think that it isn’t a good thing to pray the mysteries of light then don’t!

But I’m new to the Catholic church this year and so maybe pre- vatican II dosen’t have any refrence for me but I consider myself no less Catholic. There are no rules to praying the Rosary pray them if you want to or not.

If you think that Our Lady would oppose the Luminous Mysteries being prayed (thinking more about her son) then I think your dead wrong!

 

[Miserys_Fence]

I guess I just don’t understand this whole debate the original Rosary is still intact, JPII just added to them. When did thinking or praying more about the life of Jesus get to be a bad thing? If you think that it isn’t a good thing to pray the mysteries of light then don’t!

But I’m new to the Catholic church this year and so maybe pre- vatican II dosen’t have any refrence for me but I consider myself no less Catholic. There are no rules to praying the Rosary pray them if you want to or not.

If you think that Our Lady would oppose the Luminous Mysteries being prayed (thinking more about her son) then I think your dead wrong!

Miz

 

[Hesychios]

I’ve never liked that the Rosary was added to, but I do pray them and do think they are ‘good’ mysteries.

This was just one more ina long line of ‘addings’. The rosary has been evolving from it’s beginnings many hundreds of years ago.

Probably everything you pray concerning the rosary is an adding, there is almost nothing left that is original to the rosary.

 

[mommyof4]

Personally, I do not recite the Luminous Mysteries. I pray the Holy Rosary nightly. I don’t think anyone has to recite the Luminous Mysteries if they choose not to do so. So we go on and maybe one day these Mysteries will disappear entirely.

I hope not! I love them!

 

[Robert_Burns]

I guess I just don’t understand this whole debate the original Rosary is still intact, JPII just added to them. When did thinking or praying more about the life of Jesus get to be a bad thing? If you think that it isn’t a good thing to pray the mysteries of light then don’t!

But I’m new to the Catholic church this year and so maybe pre- vatican II dosen’t have any refrence for me but I consider myself no less Catholic. There are no rules to praying the Rosary pray them if you want to or not.

If you think that Our Lady would oppose the Luminous Mysteries being prayed (thinking more about her son) then I think your dead wrong!

What would you say if a POPE added 50 more Psalms to the Old Testament and proclaimed that now there are 200 Psalms not 150.

Would you be OK with it.

 

[ElizabethPH]

Personally, I do not recite the Luminous Mysteries. I pray the Holy Rosary nightly. I don’t think anyone has to recite the Luminous Mysteries if they choose not to do so. So we go on and maybe one day these Mysteries will disappear entirely.

No one has ever had to pray the Rosary if they don’t want too; and that hasn’t made it disappear; certainly adding something as beautiful as the Luminous Mysteries to the rosary is going to make it disappear either.

 

[Robert_Burns]

No one has ever had to pray the Rosary if they don’t want too; and that hasn’t made it disappear; certainly adding something as beautiful as the Luminous Mysteries to the rosary is going to make it disappear either.

Thats just it. The Rosary didnt come from Man - it came from the Blessed Virgin Mary. Just as we have 150 Psalms prayed by Levitical priests since the time of King David so too did we have the Psalter (150 Our Fathers) and then the Marian Psalter(150 Hail Mary’s) which becmes the Holy Rosary with the aid of Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary which obtained promises for those devoted to it.

We dont have 50 more Psalms and we dont have 50 more Hail Marys.

Any devotion is good.

But it isnt part of the Holy Rosary.

The Holy Rosary doesnt come from the Pope.

 

[NeedImprovement]

Thats just it. The Rosary didnt come from Man - it came from the Blessed Virgin Mary. .

If we trace it further back to its origins, the Hail Mary actually comes from God.

---

I’ve already expressed a type of preference for the 3 conventional sets of mysteries, however I remain totally open to the Luminous mysteries - particularly when praying with others.

Only my limited personal opinion which follows here :

We would have to be totally aloof not to have noticed a type of erosion taking place in certain sectors of the Church ; an erosion of “the sense of the sacred” which doesn’t seem to have run its course just yet. Where it harms us the most as Catholics, is when there is no reverence or respect shown to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Even a general casualness regarding our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion , will eventually foster incredulity - in His True, loving, Presence.

As Catholics this doesn’t bode well for us; particularly considering that the Holy Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen gentium 11 ; CCC 1324.)

I believe part of the Church’s answer to this erosion of the sense of the sacred, are all the Eucharistic adoration chapels we see which have sprung up . You can bet that Our Blessed Mother is a poweful ally in having these chapels springing up - Her job is always to lead us or bring us to Jesus. that’s what She does. And this makes me wonder whether the Luminous Mysteries might also be meant for our time - this time of incredulity of God really being present in the Holy Eucharist, a lack of belief in the need for the sacrament of Reconciliation and actually a time of confusion in general.

In the fifth mystery we contemplate Jesus as the “source and summit” of our Christian life, truly and entirely present in the most holy Sacrament of the altar . We contemplate Holy Thursday - the feast of all priests.

In the first, we contemplate the first and only occasion of the simultaneous manifestation of all three Persons of the Holy Trinity in humanly sense perceptible form.

Although the Holy Rosary is not the “prayer of the Church” (the Liturgy of the Hours is the prayer of the Church) it is a staple for almost all of us who share a devotion to our Blessed Mother - Mary and it bolsters the Church. I love my Blessed Mother and I need Her dearly, but I just don’t seem to be able to imagine Her being displeased if we contemplate Jesus in the Holy Eucharist while invoking Her, or if we contemplate the Holy Trinity, and particularly our Heavenly Father’s words: " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased " , and " This is my beloved Son; hear him." In these mysteries even our Blessed Mother herself reminds us, " Do whatever he tells you.”

So many Saints and Popes have prayed and recommended the Rosary ; to maintain the family, to defeat evil and as the preferred weapon. St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort wrote: “The rosary is the most powerful weapon to touch the Heart of Jesus, Our Redeemer, who so loves His Mother.”

As a side note : There are some grounds supporting the possibility that the Luminous Mysteries did not originate with Pope John Paul II , although they may have come to us “through” him.

However we pray the Rosary, let’s try to make sure we persevere.

 

[Sunflake9]

What would you say if a POPE added 50 more Psalms to the Old Testament and proclaimed that now there are 200 Psalms not 150.

Would you be OK with it.

BAD comparison! Were talking about a optional devotional prayer, with the Bible being added to, come on! Of course I wouldn’t be happy with that! The rosary is beautiful with or without the newest mysteries. He didn’t mandate that anybody pray them a certain way.

 

[simple_soul]

If we trace it further back to its origins, the Hail Mary actually comes from God.

---

I’ve already expressed a type of preference for the 3 conventional sets of mysteries, however I remain totally open to the Luminous mysteries - particularly when praying with others.

Only my limited personal opinion which follows here :

We would have to be totally aloof not to have noticed a type of erosion taking place in certain sectors of the Church ; an erosion of “the sense of the sacred” which doesn’t seem to have run its course just yet. Where it harms us the most as Catholics, is when there is no reverence or respect shown to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Even a general casualness regarding our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion , will eventually foster incredulity - in His True, loving, Presence.

As Catholics this doesn’t bode well for us; particularly considering that the Holy Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen gentium 11 ; CCC 1324.)

I believe part of the Church’s answer to this erosion of the sense of the sacred, are all the Eucharistic adoration chapels we see which have sprung up . You can bet that Our Blessed Mother is a poweful ally in having these chapels springing up - Her job is always to lead us or bring us to Jesus. that’s what She does. And this makes me wonder whether the Luminous Mysteries might also be meant for our time - this time of incredulity of God really being present in the Holy Eucharist, a lack of belief in the need for the sacrament of Reconciliation and actually a time of confusion in general.

In the fifth mystery we contemplate Jesus as the “source and summit” of our Christian life, truly and entirely present in the most holy Sacrament of the altar . We contemplate Holy Thursday - the feast of all priests.

In the first, we contemplate the first and only occasion of the simultaneous manifestation of all three Persons of the Holy Trinity in humanly sense perceptible form.

Although the Holy Rosary is not the “prayer of the Church” (the Liturgy of the Hours is the prayer of the Church) it is a staple for almost all of us who share a devotion to our Blessed Mother - Mary and it bolsters the Church. I love my Blessed Mother and I need Her dearly, but I just don’t seem to be able to imagine Her being displeased if we contemplate Jesus in the Holy Eucharist while invoking Her, or if we contemplate the Holy Trinity, and particularly our Heavenly Father’s words: " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased " , and " This is my beloved Son; hear him." In these mysteries even our Blessed Mother herself reminds us, " Do whatever he tells you.”

So many Saints and Popes have prayed and recommended the Rosary ; to maintain the family, to defeat evil and as the preferred weapon. St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort wrote: “The rosary is the most powerful weapon to touch the Heart of Jesus, Our Redeemer, who so loves His Mother.”

As a side note : There are some grounds supporting the possibility that the Luminous Mysteries did not originate with Pope John Paul II , although they may have come to us “through” him.

However we pray the Rosary, let’s try to make sure we persevere.

*Dear NeedImprovement,

Thank you so much for the link and your words regarding the Luminous Mysteries.
You are the first person I have come across that has shared such good sound reflections on the Luminous Mysteries.
I know this is going to sound silly, but I was never told nor did I ever hear of the Luminous Mysteries until about a year ago. My daughter had come to ask me if she could start praying more. (talk about how a daughter can make a mother’s heart sing. )
So I ordered a Rosary book for reflections on the Mysteries that looked like it might be geared toward children that I could teach my daughter from. I was not only shocked at how simple and beautiful the prayer had become,(I was taught the Rosary with many personal add-ons) but I was also awed at the addition of the Luminous Mysteries.
To me life is all about being suffused in God’s loving radiant light and the Luminous Mysteries “seem” to show how through God’s Divinely Loving Grace He will pour His very Life into us and through us. Molding us so that He will see His reflection in us.
Through Baptism,
Through Listening to Him and doing whatever He tells us,
Through responding to His call for our conversion and ministry,
Through listening and following Him, He will transform us,
Through actually fusing His Body with ours so that we become one with Him,

Hopefully I am on the right path because this is how I have been teaching them to my daughter. Now I want to add some of your reflections to mine if you do not mind.

BTW, I like you user name. God knows I can relate.