Recently, I’ve come across a talk that talked about the Rosary. Now, I love praying my Rosary, and I do wish I could be more consistent and not miss any days, but overall, I make a sincere effort.
When praying the Rosary, I always thought that we’re 4 mysteries. Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious. But some things seemed “off” to me.
Like, during the season of Advent, we focus on the Joyful mysteries. Lent, it’s all about the Sorrowful Mysteries. Finally, Easter (and original time) it’s the Glorious Mysteries. Where and when do we focus on the Luminous?
When I was taught to Pray the Rosary
Thinking back on this, I always took it for granted. When I learned to pray the Rosary, every book (because I learn by reading), talked about the four mysteries. This is the order of the Rosary, according to the “New Way”
Joyful – Monday
Sorrowful – Tuesday
Glorious – Wednesday
Luminous – Thursday
Sorrowful – Friday
Joyful – Saturday
Glorious – Sunday
All the books that I’ve read never addressed this issue that I’ve had. They never discussed why it seemed to be so disordered after Wednesday. I honestly just thought that there were Theological reasons why things were done the way that they were. Since Saturday is for the tradition of devotion of the Blessed Mother, maybe that’s why the Joyful Mysteries were on Saturday. Thursday, like Holy Thursday was the establishment of the Eucharist, so maybe that’s why the Luminous mysteries were on a Thursday. However I liked to rationalize it, it didn’t answer my underlying question: Why was the rest of the week so confusing for the meditation? Why did it seem it was out of order.
Confusion explained…
So while we focus on the Birth, Death and Resurrection of our Lord, when we pray the Rosary according to the “New” way, it’s out of order. Birth, Death, Resurrection (so far so good), Life, Death, Birth, Resurrection (confusion). Regardless of the confusion, I still prayed the Rosary, confused as to why it is in this order, but what do I know?
In recent years, I’ve been increasingly become devoted to Our Blessed Mother, so understanding that the Rosary is a huge part of it for me, I wanted to make sure I was doing it the way she loved. While I love Jesus, I’ll admit, that it’s taken me time to be devoted to Our Lady, but when I finally got my mind out of it, and just started, I feel in love with her humility and willingness to please God. It’s beautiful. I so want to be like Our Blessed Mama in everything that I do!
So naturally, the Rosary is held very dear to me. Then one day, I heard a Homily about this very thing! Like a answer to my prayers, This was explained in so much detail, that I listen to it again and again just to get all the life of wisdom that this Priest shares with us. Briefly, here is what was discussed, but I hope you guys will take out 20 minutes of your day to listen to the whole thing (to listen click here):
• Originally, the Luminous Mysteries were not apart of the original Rosary. Our Blessed Mother revealed to herself to Saint Dominic with the three mysteries (Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious). This pious devotion was to be taught and spread far and wide.
• The 150 “Hail Mary’s” that we say, is like the 150 Psalms that the Monks (or those in Religious life) said daily.
• If you think about Fatima, again she reveals herself to the three children to pray the Rosary.
Significant Number of Three
Looking deeper, there is a Theological reason for the number 3 in all of this. The Blessed Trinity (three Persons in One God), Three Mysteries of the Rosary, revealing herself the Three Children. Oh man! My head was reeling with all of this information! It wasn’t until fairly recent ( and I mean in history) that Pope Saint John Paul II, introduced the Luminous Mysteries.
The idea was to breath new life in the devotion, but the devotion didn’t need a new Mystery, it was perfect the way our Lady gave it to us. It didn’t need any adjustments (that’s the way I saw it). It should have been promoted just the way that she said.
And I get it, the Luminous Mysteries has us meditate on Jesus’ ministry, and when he started, up until he established the Eucharist. I’m not saying that it’s a bad Mystery, but its not what our Lady gave us. I’ll still focus on Jesus’ ministry, but I’ll do that in addition to the Rosary that was originally given to us.
There are so many devotions that are given to us that we pray on the Rosary beads, so I’m not worried about that. What does concern me, is that the way that I learned the Rosary was not the complete story. What concerns me is that while the Luminous Mysteries are optional it has never been taught in that way–at least to me.
So, how have you been praying the Rosary? The Traditional Way, or the New Way? What were your reasons?
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