Which Mystery of the Rosary doesn't resonate with you?

[mommyof4]

One possible reflextion for the Proclaimation of the Kingdom:

THE PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth, he said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.’” Mark 2:10-11

In this mystery, we hear about the forgiveness of sins, about healing and about the building of the Kingdom of God. As Christians, we are called to be forgiving of one another and to join together in building the Kingdom of God where everyone will know who Jesus is and will experience His healing and forgiveness in their lives.

Lord our God, may we always approach you for the forgiveness of our sins, the healing of the pain and hurt in our lives and by this grace filled encounter with you through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. May we rejoice in living a grace filled life with you and be able to contribute in a healthy way to the building of your kingdom here on earth.

 

[Zooey]

I’ve always thought that the 4th Joyful Mystery (Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple) wasn’t all that joyful. Here’s Our Lady, a happy young mother bringing her Baby to the temple, and Simeon gives her the news that a sword is going to pierce her soul. But then, I started focusing on the joy of the two old folks, Simeon and Anna, who have finally seen the Messiah.

Yeah, that one always has left me scratching my head a little, looking for something to anchor me…That’s good, I like that idea of focussing on Anna & Simeon!!

 

[LilyM]

I have always had trouble with the 5th Joyful Mystery, Finding Jesus in the Temple. I can picture myself as Mary, frantically searching for my son. It must have been awful! And then Mary finds Jesus and all He says is, “Of course I’d be in my Father’s house.” He was 12 years old and ran off without any human person knowing where He was!

First of all it’s a foreshadowing of his Resurrection (going up to Jerusalem for Passover, lost for three days, found again …) which was a happy event

Secondly is Joseph and Mary’s great faith to keep looking for him for days, and presumably their great joy when they find him safe and sound.

Thirdly is Jesus’ revelation of himself as the Messiah (by impressing the teachers in the Temple with his wisdom) and Son of God (‘my Father’s business’)

And finally - though he is a bit mean in the Temple (I think of it as typical teenage impatience) - he does in the end willingly go back to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph, and grows and matures through his loving obedience to them.

 

[Jennifer_G]

My reaction to the Luminous Mysteries was exactly the opposite. All my life I wondered why the mysteries of the Rosary skipped from Jesus’ childhood all the way to His Passion and missed all the good stuff (public ministry) that happened in between. Then JPII came along and added the Mysteries I had been “missing” all those years. I find them a wonderful way to meditate on the sacraments (Baptism, Marriage, Reconciliation, Eucharist) since four of the Luminous Mysteries are related to those sacraments.

I’m the same way - I like the Luminous Mysteries. (I guess it’s the Lutheran upbringing in me talking – Lutherans like to focus on the life of Jesus) I’m still having to relearn which days to say which ones after doing the old way (3 instead of 4) for several years - I still have the old printouts.

 

[Teelynn]

Is there a Mystery of the Rosary that you just don’t like/resonate/understand?

My personal pick is the Ascension. Whenever I try to picture the scene for meditation, all I can see are a bunch of betoga-ed people, staring slack jawed at the sky, while Our Lord zooms ever upward on a cloud. The whole thing is so full of campy B-movieness (in my mind, this is in no way a comment on the actual Ascension) that I find it almost impossible to glean any spiritual fruits from it.

What about you? What Mystery is a stumbling block for you and why?

lol, I am literally on the floor laughing. This struck me soooo funny. I’m counting on Our Lord having a sense of humor. I know where you are coming from, as I at times have problems with this one too. What I do, then is refer to my mystery prayer (I have a guide book) and meditate on that.

 

[Zooey]

I truly like all the others, but the Visitation makes me feel really guilty. There goes Mary, young and in the early stages of pregnancy, probably throwing up every morning, setting out for the hill country *in haste *to help Elizabeth. I feel like a total slacker.

Betsy

Good answers! (Particularly the one about the Visitation. While meditating on that one while in my miserable first trimester, I too, had the “Good grief, this Immaculate Conception thing must have covered EVERYTHING!” )

Now see, I have a whole different take on this one…
My grandmother had a sister, Jennie, who was much older than she was. (Jennie was married & had a family, while my grandmother was still a little girl).
She thought of her big sister as a kind of second mother figure. Only younger & more approachable, you know?? And whenever she had something happening in her life, where she wanted to talk things out with someone, she would catch the train [these were the days when trains were plentiful & cheap] & go to Jennie’s house & talk it over with her.
So, when I think about the Visitation, I see the two cousins like that. Close in spite of age difference & separated by miles, but not in their hearts…Sitting down together & talking & talking. It wasn’t, IMO, one sided at all; it was a real sharing that blessed both the Blessed Mother, and St. Elizabeth…

 

[tptram]

I like The Finding in the Temple.

St Luke told us that even Jesus is divine but He submitted to Mary and Joseph.
The perfect example for any teenager.

Also imagine the suffering of Mary when she realized Jesus is not with them.
To quote Fr Corapi: “Imaging that, God gave you His only Son and you misplaced Him!!!”

Mary also had to experience the Dark Night of the Soul.

Tak

 

[Larry1700]

I don’t have any problems with the Mysteries, but in spite of praying the Rosary daily, I still have a problem with the phrase “Our life, our sweetness, and our hope.” (Sorry, Lily_M, but I’m still searching for help on this one. )

 

[LilyM]

I don’t have any problems with the Mysteries, but in spite of praying the Rosary daily, I still have a problem with the phrase “Our life, our sweetness, and our hope.” (Sorry, Lily_M, but I’m still searching for help on this one. )

Oh dont apologise, I know people have problems with it.

 

[PhilotheaZ]

I still have a problem with the phrase “Our life, our sweetness, and our hope.”

Maybe Saint Alphonsus Liguori, in his “Commentary on the Hail, Holy Queen or Salve Regina” (part of the book The Glories of Mary published by Liguori) can help you with this. He has entire chapters devoted to these words. A few excerpts:

“Our life”

"To understand clearly why Holy Church bids us call Mary our life, we must realize that, as the soul is the life of the body, so divine grace is the life of the soul … Therefore, when Mary, by her intercession, obtains grace for sinners, she obtains life for them.

"… in the … book of Proverbs, these words are applied to Mary: He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord (Prov 8:35). ‘Pay attention to these words,’ exclaims Saint Bonaventure, ‘you that desire the kingdom of God. Honor Mary and you shall find life and eternal salvation.’ "

“our sweetness”

"As during our earthly exile Mary is our life, so too at the moment of death she becomes our *sweetness *by obtaining for us a sweet and peaceful death. From the very day when Mary sorrowfully stood at the cross of her son, Jesus, who is the head of the Mystical Body, she received the grace to assist the members of that Mystical Body at the moment of death. That is why Holy Church begs us to admonish Mary to assist us, particularly at the moment of death: ‘Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.’ "

“and our hope.”

"People outside the Church cannot bear to hear us call Mary ‘our hope.’ They say that God is our only hope … Mary is a creature, they argue, and how can a creature be ‘our hope’? … Nevertheless, Holy Church obliges all priests and religious to raise their voices every day in the name of the faithful and invoke Mary be the sweet name of ‘our hope,’ the hope of all: Hail, our hope!

"Because his goodness is infinite, the king of heaven is most eager to enrich us with his graces. On our part, we must have confidence. To increase this confidence, God has given us his own mother as our mother and advocate and has supplied her with the power to help us. Therefore he wants us to place our hope of salvation and of every blessing in her. To fix one’s hope on creatures alone, independently of God, as sinners are wont to do, and to outrage God in seeking the friendship and favor of men, is to bring down the curse of heaven, says the prophet Jeremiah. But to hope in Mary, the Mother of God, who can really obtain grace and eternal life for men, is to do something very pleasing to the heart of God. For God desires to see Mary honored in this way, that same Mary whom in this world he loved and who loved and honored him more than all angels and all people together.

“That is why we justly and reasonably call Mary our hope, trusting, as Saint Robert Bellarmine says, to obtain through her intercession what we cannot obtain by our prayers alone …”

I think the words “by her intercession” are key. Mary is not “our life, our sweetness, and our hope” by her own merits, but by the graces she has obtained from God and which she dispenses to us. She says as much in her Magnificat (“My soul magnifies the Lord …”). Everything about her in her role as Mediatrix refers back to the goodness of God; she never holds on to any of our praise for herself.

I hope this helps.

 

[Larry1700]

Thanks PhilotheaZ. I will mull it over. I may read the book from which you obtained the excerpts. I’ve read Montfort’s book, and JPII’s encyclical. I admit I’m a hard sell. I was a Southern Baptist for many years, so it’s a tough obstacle to overcome.

 

[Mary3]

I have always had trouble with the 5th Joyful Mystery, Finding Jesus in the Temple. I can picture myself as Mary, frantically searching for my son. It must have been awful! And then Mary finds Jesus and all He says is, “Of course I’d be in my Father’s house.” He was 12 years old and ran off without any human person knowing where He was!

I felt the same way until my first child hit the rebellious teenage years. Then it became a very fruitful meditation for me. It was very consoling to ponder how Mary and Joseph felt hurt and confused by their son’s behavior, just like me.

 

[Mary3]

I occasionally use CD versions of the rosary when I am ‘stalled’ with meditating on the mysteries. There is one that has become my favorite, though it is not actually a recitation of the rosary. The artist has written a song about each mystery. Every song is a different musical style. The lyrics of each song tell the story of that mystery from a different narrator’s point of view. For example, the 3rd joyful mystery, the nativity, is told from the point of view of the Star of Bethlehem. The 5th joyful mystery is told by St. Joseph.

For those who have trouble with the Luminous Mysteries, you may find these songs very helpful. She has woven all of these mysteries together so that they all point to the Mass and the Eucharist. Very lovely.

The CD is Mysteries, recorded by Danielle Rose. It’s a little expensive for a music CD, though it is 2 CD’s and well worth the price. amazon.com/Mysteries-Danielle-Rose/dp/B00012CTTM

 

[bakhita]

Like several others–the Proclamation of the Kingdom is a tough one for me.

Also, my priest pointed out that in our day and age, the concept of “kingdom” is a hard one to grasp anyway (he suggested a better way to put it would be “God’s dream for us”–which helps a little, but still I struggle with that mystery.)

Also, I always have trouble imagining the Transfiguration—even when I read it in the gospels and hear it at Mass–it’s hard for me to visualize what’s happening for whatever reason.