Hi’ for tradition Catholics, like myself, the luminous mysteries are not essential to the rosary itself. Our Lady gave us 15 mysteries of the rosary and these additional five are not from the Blessed Virgin but from Pope John Paul II. It also goes back to the original intent of the rosary, modeled after the psalter which contains the 150 psalms ergo the 150 Paters.
It’s important to say that the rosary itself is not essential: it’s a private devotion, albeit cherished & venerable for the Latin rite. The Liturgy of the Hours (LOTH), for example, is not a private devotion but the celebration of the public prayer of the Church, even recited individually. Thanks to the reform of the liturgy, it’s accessible to all who can read. It exists in the vernacular; its use is to be encouraged above all private devotion. It’s what the rosary was substituting for, after all. Still, there are those for whom the LOTH is not best suited or it can be augmented by praying the rosary.
The matter here discussed is the form of the Dominican rosary. There are many rosaries in the Roman Church…the Franciscan Crown of Our Lady’s Seven Joys. The Servite Rosary of Our Lady’s Seven Sorrows. The six decade Brigittine rosary worn on the habits of Carmelites, to name a few. Each of these have a supernatural event associated with them…which is, of course, not the determiner of theological soundness or being instituted a sacramental.
The true esteem to be shown to sacramentals doesn’t come from whether or not they have an alleged heavenly origin. It rests with the Magisterium and the judgement the Church makes. Taking the example of habits and scapulars, it’s alleged that there is a heavenly origin associated with the Carmelite and Dominican habits. There is none such associated with the Benedictine & Cistercian habits…or indeed most religious habits.
It’s the Church which constitutes all religious habits to be sacramentals for religious (or the scapulars laity wear, associated with religious). The Carmelite scapular is not more a sacramental for an alleged vision than the Benedictine scapular…both were instituted by the Church without regard to whether or not there was a vision.
This important theological point was articulated by the Council Fathers at Vatican II in
Sacrosanctum Concilium. As to how sacramentals come into being in the Church, the Fathers declared in paragraph 60: “Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments: they signify effects, particularly of a spiritual kind, which are obtained through the Church’s intercession. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy.” They went on to say
*79 The sacramentals are to undergo a revision which takes into account the primary principle of enabling the faithful to participate intelligently, actively, and easily; the circumstances of our own days must also be considered. When rituals are revised, as laid down in Art. 63, new sacramentals may also be added as the need for these becomes apparent.
/…/
Let provision be made that some sacramentals, at least in special circumstances and at the discretion of the ordinary, may be administered by qualified lay persons.*
When sacramentals allege to have a supernatural origin, such as the medal given to St. Catherine Laboure, the Church is approving the sacramental apart from an alleged supernatural manifestation…it is approving (or failing to approve) based on the soundness of the theology the sacramental itself presents.
A supernatural origin is always the manifestation of a charism. As
Lumen Gentium makes clear, however, charisms are subordinate to the apostolic gift the Church has and holds…the apostles and their successors who constitute the hierarchy of the Church.
The Church, which the Spirit guides in way of all truth and which He unified in communion and in works of ministry, He both equips and directs with hierarchical and charismatic gifts and adorns with His fruits. /…/ What has a special place among these gifts is the grace of the apostles to whose authority the Spirit Himself subjected even those who were endowed with charisms.
The rosary, therefore, is not something once given by Our Lady and altered by the Pope. It is, in fact, always under the domain of the Magisterium who first instituted it, can alter it, and can suppress it. The luminous mysteries, theologically, are as much the rosary as the other sets of mysteries.
Quite correctly theologically, when Blessed Pope Paul VI was speaking in
Marialis Cultus about the origin of the rosary, he did not reference a private revelation but the form given to the Rosary by his predecessor, Pope St. Pius V, since it is the Church who institutes and gives form and alters sacramentals by her proper power.
The Blessed’s splendid theological reflections on the rosary may be found notably in paragraphs 42-55 and should be read by all.
w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19740202_marialis-cultus.html
It was the exercise of this power that allowed Pope St. Pius X to institute the scapular medal and commute all the effects of wearing one or all the scapulars in which one had been duly invested to the wearing of the one medal. Pope St. John Paul II used the prerogative to alter the form of the rosary.
When, in my priesthood, I say the rosary publicly in a group, I specifically choose the luminous mysteries before all others. Not only is it a way to meditate on the mysteries from Christ’s public ministry, it’s an occasion to confess that the greatness of the rosary is that it was, is, and will always be a gift of the Church through the hierarchical gift: the apostolic college & its head, the bishop of Rome.
