Traditional Luminous Mysteries

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St_Laurence_258

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In other forums (and maybe here too) I’ve seen traditionalists oppose the Luminous Mysteries for various reasons. Here is my take on how to include them in one’s Rosary in a “traditional” manner.

Traditionally, the mysteries of the Rosary are said according to the following schedule:

Monday Joyful
Tuesday Sorrowful
Wednesday Glorious

Thursday Joyful
Friday Sorrowful
Saturday Glorious

Sundays of Advent: Joyful
Sundays of Lent: Sorrowful
All other Sundays: Glorious

The “Rosary”, by definition, is three sets of five mysteries. In this case, the Joyful follow the life of Christ, the Sorrowful follow the events of the death of Christ, and the Glorious follow the events of the resurrection of Christ. In the above pattern, the complete Rosary is said twice during the week, following the pattern of Life, Death, Resurrection. The Sorrowful mysteries fall on Friday, the day of the Crucifiction of Our Lord. On Sundays, the Rosary cycle is spread out through the year; with the Glorious mysteries being said most often, as Sunday is the day of Christ’s resurrection.

The Joyful mysteries celebrate the events of Jesus’ early life: His conception, birth, and childhood.

The addition of the Luminous Mysteries in 2002 introduces the events of Jesus’ adult life, beginning with His Baptism.

In the gospels of Mathew and Luke, the story of Jesus’ life begins with His conception and birth. In the gospels of Mark and John, however, the story of Jesus’ (spiritual?) life begins with His baptism.

This allows for two parallel verions of the Rosary: Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious; in keeping with tradition and with the beginning of Mathew and Luke; and a second version: Luminious, Sorrowful, Glorious; in keeping with the beginning of Mark and John. Just as the different gospels present different aspects; these two different versions of the Rosary, taken together, provide more for meditation. A “third of the rosary” thus remains as 5 mysteries.

So a new, complete mystery schedule—incorporating both the tradtional pattern described above and the newer, contemporary pattern proposed by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 2002—would be:

Monday Joyful
Tuesday Sorrowful
Wednesday Glorious

Thursday Luminous
Friday Sorrowful
Saturday Glorious

Sundays of Advent: Joyful
Sundays of Septuagesima: Luminous
Sundays of Lent: Sorrowful
All other Sundays: Glorious

This proposed pattern keeps the Luminous on Thursdays as suggested by Blessed Pope John Paul II, which coincides with Holy Thursday and with the Feast of Corpus Christi. The pattern also preserves the saying of the Sorrowful mysteries on Fridays followed by the Glorious on Saturdays, thus maintaining the beauty of saying two, complete, unscrambled rosaries of 15 mysteries each during the weekdays.

Additionally, the Luminous Mysteries are added to the traditional Sunday rotation cycle.

As already stated earlier, we keep with Our Lady’s request of saying a third of the Rosary every day, since a “third” remains 5 mysteries.

(Also posted here)
 
Plenty of traditionalists pray the luminous mysteries, myself included, and I attend an FSSP parish.:tiphat:
 
Many traditionalists oppose the Mysteries added by JPII because of the constant turmoil and changes that came about after Vatican II, including right up until very recently.

The changes that occurred to the Rosary since the 1200’s have for the most part been request by Mary herself. JPII’s addition were of his own making.

I, personally, do not pray them and never have, nor do I intend to start. And yes, I too attend an FSSP parish and have never heard them said before Mass or after for that matter.
 
corsair said:
Many traditionalists oppose the Mysteries added by JPII because of the constant turmoil and changes that came about after Vatican II, including right up until very recently.

The changes that occurred to the Rosary since the 1200’s have for the most part been request by Mary herself. JPII’s addition were of his own making.

I, personally, do not pray them and never have, nor do I intend to start. And yes, I too attend an FSSP parish and have never heard them said before Mass or after for that matter.
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I used to recite the Luminous Mysteries but now pray only the traditional Rosary.
 
If I have an opportunity to pray the Rosary more than once in a day, I’ll recite the luminous mysteries. Other, no, I don’t pray them. I am traditionalist, and I have no problem with using the luminous mysteries. God didn’t strike down His Holiness for adding the luminous mysteries. The Rosary has always been a private devotion. You can make up your own mysteries if you want to. 👍
 
St_Laurence_258 said:
Really? Why the change?
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It became difficult for me to meditate on the Luminous Mysteries - can’t really put a finger on why, exactly, although I fully agree with corsair’s post…

I suppose I am trying to attach myself to antiquity 🙂
 
I only meditate on the three mysteries given by the Blessed Virgin unless I pray more than one rosary in a day, then I will either pray the luminous mysteries or just not meditate on mysteries with it.

God bless!
 
The luminous mysteries are luminous because they have to do with light, with revelation, with God revealing himself progressively in the person of Jesus Christ.

The revelation of God in the luminous mysteries starts with Jesus’ baptism when God reveals His Son’s identity and culminates in the institution of the Eucharist when Christ reveals his sacramental presence in the world until he returns.

We would not have fully known God had he not revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Those who don’t make use of the luminous mysteries are missing out on a great way to grow closer to God through meditating on his progressive revelation of himself to man.

-Tim-
 
The main crux of why the Luminous mysteries are not prayed by many is that we adhere to praying them as Mary requested that they be prayed. If she wanted the Luminous mysteries added then she would have appeared and requested that they be added.

The Pope is still a man and his addition of the luminous mysteries was of his own accord. Not to say that is bad, but it is a deviation of the way Mary requested that they be said. If one desires to pray them, they can do so, but to the OP seems to hint at some type of negativity towards those who choose not to say them.
 
moon1234 said:
… If one desires to pray them, they can do so, but to the OP seems to hint at some type of negativity towards those who choose not to say them.
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As a new member, I’m not sure what “OP” stands for, but if it’s “Opening Post” then you are right and I apologize.

I have recently returned to the church, discovered the Traditional Latin Mass, and have been going to it pretty much exclusively. I’ve seen that there are quite a number of Traditionalists that are opposed to everything post-Vatican II; contrariwise, I have also seen that there are quite a number of “Novus Ordo” or contemporary Catholics that are opposed to everything that is pre-Vatican II (ie Traditional).

But to me there is only one faith, so I have been struggling on a number of issues, the Rosary being one of them. I don’t want to have to pick sides. I love the traditional 3 mysteries, the symbolism of the Trinity and the 150 psalms, and that Mary requested the tradtional 3. But I also love blessed Pope John II, his devotion, and the love and history behind the creation and use of the Luminous Mysteries.

I don’t want to have to be in one box or the other - I don’t want to have to pick one at the expense of the other.

So the Rosary meditation schedule that I describe in the opening post is my personal solution to the issue. I combined the two and found that it works for me. If someone else in a similar situation finds it useful, then I am grateful.
 
The only real “issue” with the Luminous mysteries is if you pray all the mysteries at once, it throws off the parallel to the Psalter (making it 200 rather than 150 Aves). If you only pray 50 a day on a weekly schedule, the parallel to the Psalter has already been lost (you always have an extra 50 per week).

I read a book on the history of the Rosary a while back and it is actually unclear what Our Lady actually taught to St. Dominic if anything (she may have just encouraged the Marian Psalter):

The first documented mysteries to be associated with the Marian Psalter (150 aves) was in about 1275 and the mysteries were three in number: Annunciation, Nativity, Assumption–that’s it. Additional mysteries then developed–all joyously themed. These mysteries are mostly found in the modern non-sorrowful mysteries, but there were others like the adoration of the Magi or more heavenly Marian ideas, like her being given the role of Illuminatrix, or having her wishes united to Christ’s and answered by Christ (ie her role as Mediatrix), or her eternal joy.

The next development was the addition of the Pater Nosters in the 1400s. I forget the name of the person who spread this, but he suggested meditating on the Passion of Christ on the Paters. This is when roses became more formally associated with the Marian Psalter–he said the prayers were like Roses sent to the Blessed Mother, Aves were white roses and the Paters (with Passion meditations) were red roses. The Sorrowful meditations were pretty much identical to the Sorrowful mysteries now in most versions of the Psalter back then, but one less popular version had more Marian-themed sorrows (similar to the seven Dolors we recognize today). The number of mysteries still varied though. Some had more general themes, rather than specific mysteries (ie “heavenly joys of Mary”), some versions had ten total mysteries, some had sets of seven (not sure how that worked), one had ninteen (I can see how these odd ones didn’t stick as long!), etc…

This was also when the Psalter began to be reduced to only 50 Aves per day in many areas. The Vita Christi Rosary spread by Dominic of Prussia (50 Aves, but with 50 mysteries on the life of Christ; although supposedly he had a 150 mystery version too) became the most popular (more on its origins below). At the time, some condemned this as destroying the Psalter (including Bl. Alan de Rupe, who first related the idea that St. Dominic was taught the Marian Psalter by Our Lady).

This is when Bl. Alan de Rupe wrote his work on the Marian Psalter in order to return to the more authentic version as he saw it. He supported only praying the 150 a day and refused to call it the “Rosary” and forbade others from calling it that too, since he saw what was called the Rosary at the time (the fifty per day) as a corruption of the Psalter. His mysteries had three groups, they were general and not specificly listed except for the last group. His general themes were: Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection (which included the Resurrection, Ascension, Holy Spirit’s descent, Glorification of Christ, Final Judgment).

The Dominic of Prussia Vita Christi Rosary and Bl. Alan de Rupe’s version were the most popular and seemed to morph into generally what we have today (witha few changes to the mysteries here and there) as people embraced parts of each (50 Aves per day, with five set mysteries for each day).

So, where does St. Dominic’s experience fit in? It is also around this time that St. Dominic’s experience is first mentioned (or at least of where the earliest evidence of it is). Bl. Alan says the Blessed Virgin appeared to himself and told him (Alan) to pray according to the method she said taught St. Dominic, which she said consisted of meditiating on “the life and passion” of her Son (no specifics on the mysteries are mentioned). The reference to “life and passion” makes it sound like the Vita Christi method, but Bl. Alan on the other hand didn’t seem to take it that way. On the other hand, a prominant handbook of the same period which listed various methods (the Ulm handbook), the method listed as the “method of St. Dominic” is the a variation on the Vita Christi rather then the de Rupe method. This book also contains a picture of the Rosary very similar to what became the more uniform version, with only the last mystery different (Final Judgment rather than Coronation). So it’s tough to say what St. Dominic’s method really was, other than it doesn’t seem to be what we have today–it seems it’s either Bl. Alan’s method or the Vita Christi method.

This brings us to the 16th century. At this time, while what we all think of as the Rosary was the most common (including the shift to the Coronation as the final mystery beginning to take hold), there was still a lot of variation into the 17th century. However, it was in the 17th and 18th centuries in response to the Reformation that Rome began issuing a lot of legislative documents regulating and promoting Marian devotions, etc.–which, like the liturgy, led to more uniformity.
 
I pray the Luminous on Mondays, preceded by the Joyful on Sunday and the Sorrowful on Tuesday and Glorious on Wednesday. Thursday thru Saturday I pray the traditional Rosary.

This allows a chronological progression thru the Mysteries, and is the best solution to the problem presented by the traditional Rosary–reciting the three Mysteries in succession, through the course of a seven-day week.

And, I had long before wished for a set of mysteries which reflected on the Earthly ministry of Christ. It gets overlooked, but apparently, this had been dabbled with long before JPII formally introduced the Luminous Mysteries.

Of course, having 20 mysteries instead of 15 breaks the historic link between the Psalter and the Rosary. And it would have been wonderful if the Mysteries of Light had been revealed by an authentic apparition of Our Lady. Rather than by Papal fiat. OTOH–to pray is the main thing, and I see no evil in meditating on the life and ministry of our Blessed Lord.

Besides–wasn’t the Prayer To St. Michael also composed and introduced by Papal fiat?
 
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