Editor’s note: When she appeared at Fatima, Our Lady asked us not only to pray the rosary, but also to meditate on its mysteries. In this continuing five-part series, writer Steven Richardson explores how the mysteries of the rosary are reflected in the rosary prayers themselves.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come…”
Upon greeting Elizabeth at the Visitation, Mary sings the Magnificat, that grand song of praise to the Most High. And even though some 30 years later Jesus Himself would teach us how to pray, we see an echo of His words in those of his mother. The second joyful mystery, the Visitation, contains many revelations, not the least of which is the deep understanding displayed by the Blessed Mother and her cousin Elizabeth. We see here the parallel of John the Baptist, in the womb of Elizabeth, leaping for joy at the proximity to his Savior, and Jesus in the womb, aware of His mother’s words as well.
John was sanctified in that womb through Mary’s visit, which brought Jesus to him. From this, he commenced his ministry of repentance and fasting. Likewise, even in the womb, Jesus begins to craft the message of praise to His Father. “Hallowed be thy name,” He tells His disciples to say to God when teaching them this prayer. But the name of the Father could not be more hallowed, could not be held more holy, than when Mary declared, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Just as Jesus begins His prayer by hallowing the name of the Father, Mary begins it by hallowing the name of the Father.
By bringing Christ to the world, as she brings Him to Elizabeth in this mystery, Mary is bringing about the Father’s kingdom on earth. She is the Ark of the Covenant, the tabernacle of the Lord, as she holds Him within her womb. “When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tabernacle (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) He entered once for all into the Holy Place” (Hebrews 9:11-12). Through Mary, the perfect tabernacle, God comes to us. His kingdom has come.
“…thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”
Just before the second sorrowful mystery, the Scourging at the Pillar, Jesus gives Himself up to the will of His Father. He knows more than anyone what it means to do the Father’s will, and moreover to wish that the Father’s will be done. Jesus says: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). As we ourselves know, however, our human natures make it far easier to proclaim this in a time of peace than in a time of trial.
When Jesus prayed in the garden before being handed over to Pilate, He prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). Jesus’ resolution would soon be tested by those who would jeer at Him, stone Him, mock Him, and call for the release of a robber and murderer instead of Him. But through it all, Jesus remained silent. And when He was strapped to the pillar to be flayed, He trusted that it was indeed the will of His Father. How easy it would have been for Him to invoke His power to protest or escape the blows. But Jesus had asked His Father to take away the cup, and the cup remained. It wasn’t His to remove. To bring about the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, Jesus had to submit to those who led Him to death.
“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us…”
When Jesus tells His disciples that He is the bread of life, they aren’t sure how to react. In fact, He has to describe this in several different ways to convince them of the absolute, yet unsettling, truth. Peter and the apostles wanted Jesus to remain with them, in person. Peter wanted to build a tabernacle on the mountain at the Transfiguration, and he didn’t want Jesus to submit Himself to the authorities at the end of His life. But the daily bread could only come to them once Jesus had died and ascended to heaven, back to His Father. He tells them in John 6:51: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
After the second glorious mystery, the Ascension, occurs, Jesus is able to give us His Body and His Word. Just before He consoles them by saying, “I will not leave you desolate” (John 14:18), Jesus tells His disciples, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you always” (John 14:16). Because man does not live by bread alone, this is the Word that will remain with us and sustain us, even as Jesus will remain with us “even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
After He died and rose again, Jesus appeared to the apostles in the Upper Room. The Spirit that He promised would come upon them in that same room, some days later, but He gave them a bit of this spirit even then: “He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’ ” (John 20:22-23). Because of the Ascension, Jesus gives this power to those who succeed him apostolically.
“…and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
How strong the love of those around Jesus must have been! How much they must have adored Him, He who is most adorable from age to age, even to the end of the world. Those of us who gaze on the Blessed Sacrament with adoration can only imagine how wonderful it would have been to be near Him, to see His face, to reach out and touch Him. So we understand Peter’s affliction when Jesus tells him that He would be killed. “God forbid, Lord!” Peter says. “This shall never happen to you” (Matthew 16:22). “Get behind me, Satan,” Jesus tells his successor on earth. Even Peter needed to be delivered from evil.
Our Lady, most immaculate and most perfect, did not falter in the face of such temptations. But we can meditate on how she felt at the Wedding Feast, the fourth luminous mystery. For years and years she had held Jesus close to her, adoring Him. She knew that she would eventually have to let Him – when He would manifest Himself as the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the sacrifice. The temptation to keep Him for herself forever would have been too much for anyone else, even Peter. But on the contrary, it is Mary herself who initiates Jesus’ public ministry. She compels Him to change the water into wine. Even when He tells her that His hour has not yet come, she is resolute. Though it meant that Jesus would be given to the world, both in life and death, still she said, “Do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5).
That is the will of the Father, lived out perfectly by mother and Son. That is how to make one’s life a prayer, through the prayer that Jesus taught us.
Steven Richardson is a Lay Dominican and a member of St. Ann Parish in Charlotte with his wife Mary and his three children, Maria, Rita and Joseph. In the third installment of this series, to be published June 8, Richardson will explore the mysteries of the rosary in the context of the Hail Mary.
Read the first installment: The first prayer of the rosary: The Apostles’ Creed