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 the fourth installment of this five-part series, writer Steven Richardson explores how the mysteries of the rosary are reflected in the rosary prayers themselves.
The first prayer of the rosary: The Apostles’ Creed
The Apostles’ Creed illuminates the first mystery from each of the joyful, sorrowful, glorious and luminous mysteries of the rosary.
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary…”
After making the sign of the cross, every rosary begins with these words. The first prayer that we say is the profession and description of our faith, the ancient creed. And what more fitting start could we have for the Annunciation, the first joyful mystery, than to repeat this belief that Mary held so close to her heart. Jesus Christ, His only Son, was born into the world because Mary believed so strongly in God.
Full of grace, Mary had been preparing for the Annunciation from the moment of her Immaculate Conception. But she didn’t know exactly what was going to happen. Before it did, and after it did as well, she drew upon her incredible faith in God to understand and believe and even rejoice. All mankind, living and dead, waited for the answer of a 14-year-old girl. The creator of heaven and earth came to dwell within her.
The first event recited in the Creed is the Annunciation, the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Because of this, He was born of the Virgin Mary.
“…suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell…”
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus can see the future unfolding through the tears of blood that ran from His eyes and down His cheeks. He already knows what is going to occur, who is going to betray Him, who will abandon Him. He knows the suffering He will endure. This is the first sorrowful mystery, the Agony in the Garden. This is the mystery that prepares us for the way of the cross.
But it is striking to note that the list of descriptions here moves directly from Jesus’ birth to His passion. They are not only the two most important parts of His life, they are the most connected. From the time that Jesus was born of Mary and laid in the manger, He lived under the shadow of the cross. Even the wood that supported His infant head was a foreshadowing of the wood to which He would be nailed. Without the cross, we have nothing.
“…on the third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead…”
After descending, Jesus rises from the dead in glory. This is indeed the first glorious mystery, the Resurrection. What great hope we have, with a risen Savior! What a glorious home awaits us, with Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. There is so much both joyful and glorious in these words that it must compel us to delight in the majesty and splendor of the plan that God ordained from the beginning of the ages.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” (Ephesians 1:3-4) As the Resurrection leads to the Ascension, and the Ascension leads to Christ sitting at God’s right hand, it is the basis for all that we believe in the life to come. Because Christ rose from the dead, we have a living faith, one that is guided by the belief that we do have every spiritual blessing waiting for us in heaven. “We are an Easter people,” St. John Paul II said in his Angelus message on Nov. 30, 1986, “and Alleluia is our song.”
St. Paul concludes this verse by explaining how we should behave in light of this truth: “That we should be holy and blameless before him.” (Ephesians 1:4) And this is our response to the majestic promise. We are born into the Resurrection when we are born from above (also see John 3:3), but we have to respond to this birth by striving to be found acceptable when Christ comes to judge. This is how we respect and adore the mystery of the risen Christ.
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12) Now that Christ has been resurrected and sits at the Father’s right hand to judge, we work out our own salvation, not in His absence, but with His Presence in a different form.
“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.”
What great and wondrous echoes of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River we have in this rhythmic poem that concludes the Creed. And that is the first luminous mystery, the Baptism of Our Lord. Of course, in the longer Nicene Creed, the corresponding section refers specifically to baptism (“I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins”), reinforcing the natural correspondence.
The path of rebirth through the Holy Spirit was unveiled at the moment that John baptized Jesus. The Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descends upon Our Lord at the time of His baptism. Later, Jesus referred to this in His conversation with Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5)
However, there is far more to be seen in this epiphany. Jesus is anointed as the Messiah with this baptism, and that transfers the promise from the Old Covenant to the New. When the multitudes witnessed this pivotal occurrence, they could begin to see how Jesus would establish the new Church, founded on the authority of Almighty God, who spoke from the cloud with the mission of His Son. And with the honor that Jesus bestows on John, which was foreshadowed from the moment that they met in their mothers’ wombs, He enrolls the Baptist into the communion of saints – the first of the New Testament.
Through baptism we rise with Jesus into life everlasting, provided that at the end of our journey we can say, with St. Paul, that “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7) St. Paul promises the crown of righteousness not for himself only, but for all who have loved Jesus’ appearing (also see 2 Timothy 4:8). The crowds that delighted in this “appearing” began to gather there at the Jordan, at Jesus’ baptism.
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.
The second prayer of the rosary: The Lord’s Prayer
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The second prayer of the rosary: The Lord’s Prayer
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.
The third prayer of the rosary: The Hail Mary
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The third prayer of the rosary: The Hail Mary
Hail, Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee…”
In the third joyful mystery, we behold Jesus in the manger alongside His parents. This is the great prayer of adoration, of the salvation that has finally come to the people of God. This is the Nativity of Jesus Christ. In Luke 2, the evangelist sets the historical scene, underscoring the significance of this event not just for the people of Israel, but for the whole world. And he sets the time, noting the significance of this event not just for the present, but for the past and the future.
The Lord is with thee, we pray. These are the words that Gabriel spoke to Mary at the Annunciation, and they remained with her in her heart. As those who have anticipated the birth of a child know, the baby is present from the very conception, and this is something that a parent can feel. The child is with us, even when contained by the body of his mother. But to see the child born into the world, to behold the glorious design of God in the flesh, is to participate in the great mystery of life. Any birth gives us a part in this joy, but the birth of Jesus is all the more joyful because it brought the God-Man into the world.
This birth could only occur because of Mary’s fiat, which she gave to God’s angel after he greeted her with “Hail, full of grace.” This is Mary’s name in God’s eyes, as she is absolutely saturated with grace, even from before she holds God Himself in her womb. She was created to be the ark, to bring forth Jesus spotless and immaculate, and to share in His humanity. There was no other way for this to occur than for Mary to be full of grace.
“…blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus…”
In the prayer this follows Gabriel’s words, and what followed Gabriel’s words at the Annunciation was a sign of Mary’s distinct humility. “She was greatly troubled at the saying,” the evangelist tells us in Luke 1:29. We see here another sign of the humility of Mary, for she is faced once more with words that could cause her to rejoice for herself, to magnify her own importance and significance, given what she held within her body. Elizabeth tells her that she is blessed among women. In other people, this would be a temptation to consider what part she might have played in this. But not for Mary.
In response to these words, Mary sings the Magnificat, a song of praise not for herself, but to God. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:46-47) Mary does not want to accept the credit here, but instead she makes it clear that God has done all things for her, that He is the one who accomplishes the miraculous and impossible. “He has helped His servant Israel,” (Luke 1:54) Mary says to her cousin, focusing the attention on what this great event means for His people.
Likewise, the third sorrowful mystery, the Crowning with Thorns, is the sign of Jesus’ great and infinite humility. In this mystery we see the King of the Universe derided as a false prophet, a pretender to the throne. He was made to endure intense suffering by the thorns that dug into His head. What humility it took for Jesus to accept these pains, both physical and mental, and refuse to answer those who were jeering at Him. It is the will of God that He wear the brutal crown. Perhaps He was already thinking of the salvation He would bring, the “remembrance of His mercy” (Luke 1:54), as He would when he would say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
“Holy Mary, Mother of God…”
In the Third Glorious Mystery, we find the apostles and Mary in the Upper Room. The Holy Spirit descends upon them, giving them the insight and courage that they need to preach the Gospel to all nations. They understand many languages and they even have a glimpse into the deepest secrets of theology, the things that God has “hidden from the wise and understanding” (Luke 10:21).
There are many, even today, who fail to understand that Mary is the Mother of God. And even though trying to deny this can twist a well-meaning Christian into knots, some persist in denying it all the same. Great heresies arise from the refutation of Jesus’ divinity, and to fail to recognize Our Lady as the Mother of God, the Theotokos, leads a person down these roads of error. To sustain this truth about the Blessed Mother, we need the Holy Spirit. We need the courage and insight that was given to the apostles in that room. We need to take this wonderful truth, along with all of the sacred truths of our faith, to the nations. Our Lady’s eternal motherhood represents the many vital truths of the Catholic faith that support God’s kingdom on earth, the dogmas that provide the blessings of living in God’s light. “He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know His ordinances” (Psalm 147:19-20).
In a way, the scene in which the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles and Mary is the first council, in which the succession is established, the task set, and the tools for the job given to those who would use them to defend Jesus. Many heresies would arise in the coming years, and not all will be defeated easily, but defeating those who deny the Theotokos was the start.
“…pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
In the third luminous mystery, the Proclamation of the Kingdom, Jesus attempts to enlighten His disciples as to what His presence means. He tells them why He has come and what He has come to accomplish. First, Jesus tells us, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32). Later in His ministry, He reinforces this: “The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.” When we ask Mary to pray for us – sinners, all – she is praying to God as our mother of mercy. She is carrying out the ministry that Jesus instituted when He proclaimed the kingdom.
In this prayer, we ask Mary to pray for us not only now, but at the hour of our death. The importance of this was highlighted again and again by Our Savior during His ministry. The hour of death is the hour that will bring judgment, when Jesus will deem us as either a goat or a sheep. When proclaiming the kingdom while journeying toward Jerusalem, Jesus was asked, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” (Luke 13:23) Jesus told them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Through the parables, He refers to this hour of our death as the eye of a needle, that narrow way. He taught specifically about death in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).
Jesus teaches us to store up our treasures in heaven, so that we can claim them at the hour of our death, helped by the prayers of Our Lady.
Steven Richardson is a Lay Dominican and a member of St. Ann Parish in Charlotte. Learn more about this series at www.bornofwoman.net.
The fourth prayer of the rosary: ‘Glory be to the Father...’
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The fourth prayer of the rosary: ‘Glory be to the Father...’
At the start of the fourth mysteries, we encounter Simeon and Anna in the temple. They are waiting for the Lord, “looking for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 1:25), filled with the Holy Spirit. The entry of the child Jesus into the temple is an occasion to give adoration to God and glory to His name, for with this He has entered human history as a baby even as He enters His temple.
When Jesus is presented, as the fourth joyful mystery, the glory of the mystery is proclaimed by Simeon in the “Nunc Dimittis,” a great canticle of praise. In it, he proclaims Jesus to be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel” (Luke 2:32). It is this glory that shines forth in Jesus from this mystery to the mystery of the Transfiguration, “the glory as of the only begotten of the father” (John 1:14). And even though a sword would pierce the hearts of both mother and Son, this is an opportunity and occasion to give thanks to God, just as Anna the prophetess did.“…and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit…”
From the beginning, the Blessed Mother was chosen to carry the Son of God in her womb. Her immaculate conception, her holy and sinless life, her chaste marriage and her devotion to her Son all lead to her Assumption into heaven. The beautiful link between the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, and the Holy Spirit, the Third Person, rests in the immaculate body of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We find this also in the Annunciation, the first joyful mystery, when St. Gabriel declares: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). That proclamation leads to Mary’s Assumption, the fourth glorious mystery.
As St. John Paul II noted in the general audience talk, “Mary’s Motherhood is Linked to the Spirit,” this overshadowing by the Holy Spirit is an ongoing, ever-present act in Mary’s life that inextricably joins her to the Spirit: “Mary continues to exercise in the Church the motherhood entrusted to her by Christ. In this maternal mission, the humble servant of the Lord does not compete with the role of the Holy Spirit; on the contrary, she is called by the same Spirit to co-operate in a maternal way with Him.”
“…as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be…”
Christ carries His cross toward the fulfillment of His earthly life at Calvary in the fourth sorrowful mystery. This journey of the first-begotten Son is one that has its origins at the very beginning. As St. John says in the prologue of his gospel: “He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:2-3). Jesus made the cross He bore and the very grass on which He walked to reach the top of the mountain. He made the mountain itself.
We even see the cross at His birth, in the manger, that great wooden foreshadowing that pointed toward His cross. Moreover, we carry our crosses with Jesus, fulfilling what is lacking in His suffering, making that trek ever present. He exhorted us in this way in Luke 9:23, saying, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” Through the grace of God, there are people who carry that cross as Jesus asked.
And as the fulfillment of His mission, the cross will exist for all time. It will always be the one sacrifice for sins. In fact, every time we attend Mass, we join in that carrying of the sacred cross, a commemoration of the offering of our High Priest, “one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 8:2). It ever shall be because “by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
“…world without end. Amen.”
On the mount of Transfiguration, Jesus reveals that His kingdom is not of this world, and that His kingdom will not end. And He references this in Matthew 24:35 when He says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” The “world without end” is the one that is revealed when Jesus reveals His glory to Peter, James and John.
We would do well to recall this when we long to bind Jesus to this earthly world, thus denying the true mystery of the fourth luminous mystery of the rosary – as when Peter says, “Let us make three booths, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah” (Luke 9:33). It is the “world without end” of which we catch a glimpse when Jesus is illuminated at the top of the mountain, and as the fourth mysteries give way to the culmination that rests within the fifth mysteries, we are reminded that Jesus’ kingdom is “not from the world” (John 18:36).
Steven Richardson is a Lay Dominican and a member of St. Ann Parish in Charlotte. Learn more about this series at www.bornofwoman.net.
The fifth prayer of the rosary: ‘Hail, holy Queen’
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The fifth prayer of the rosary: ‘Hail, holy Queen’
Hail, holy Queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope…”
After three days apart from His parents, Jesus is discovered in the temple by Mary and Joseph. Jesus converses specifically with Mary, His mother, after she tells Him that she and His father had been anx-iously looking for Him. As we begin the great prayer that concludes the rosary, the prayer of conversa-tion and supplication to the Holy Queen, we enter the temple along with Mary to find Jesus. As we do, we address her as our queen – the lady who can bring us with her into the temple, along with St. Jo-seph, to find Jesus waiting for us there.
Mary is the mother most merciful, and both mother and Son here display their most perfect love and mercy. Just as at the wedding feast, Mary and Jesus speak to each other with the utmost sweetness and respect, even in a situation of deep anxiety. Mary has lost her son. The couple has lost their sup-ply of wine. But the way to remain peaceful in times of trial is to have the constant Christian hope dis-played by Mary and Jesus in both cases. At the wedding feast, Mary tells those gathered, “Do whatev-er He tells you” (John 2:5). At the Finding of Jesus in the Temple, the fifth joyful mystery, even though Mary didn’t understand what her Son said to her, she “kept all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51). Through her mercy, she continues to intercede for us, helping us to react in the same way.
“…to thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears…”
St. Irenaeus described Mary’s relationship to Eve in this way: “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith” (“Against Heresies,” 3:22). This means that we, the “poor banished children of Eve,” have recourse to Mary for her help in undoing the damage done by Eve in the garden. As Jesus is the new Adam, Mary is the new Eve. And Jesus achieves that victory over death, for our sake, at the Cruci-fixion, which is the fifth sorrowful mystery.
Like Mary, we are at the foot of the cross, staring up at our crucified Savior. As St. Augustine said, “The cross and nails of the Son were also those of His mother; with Christ crucified the mother was also crucified.” We who unite our sufferings to His are partakers in that sorrow, but also in that redemp-tion. Even still, through those sufferings, we sometimes despair. We do cry for the fact that we are banished. Often we find that along our own personal way of the cross, mourning and weeping is all that we can do. This reminds us that we are not of this world, that we are made for something greater, that our bodies are meant to be elevated and glorified. Death is not natural, but it will be our end. In the face of this dark certainty, instead of losing hope, we look to Mary. We send her the sighs that overtake us.
Out of a great evil, God can bring a great good. From the crucifixion of Jesus, God brought about the redemption of all mankind. However, it’s sometimes difficult to see how any good can come from our sorrows and afflictions. When we are overcome, we can look to the Mother of Holy Hope, our Holy Queen, to whom we send those sighs.
“Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us…”
In our hours of darkness, when we feel that God is far away, we can rest assured that our mother is looking down upon us. She is crowned as queen of heaven and earth, and from her throne she is our advocate. The fifth glorious mystery is the Coronation of Mary, the mystery that reveals that Mary will reign both in heaven and in our hearts for all ages. She is full of grace, as the Angel Gabriel revealed, and this was the case even before she held Jesus in her womb.
But above all, she is the “mother of mercy.” Even her very eyes, as the prayer suggests, are eyes of mercy. She has come again and again in apparitions – more and more so in the past 150 years, in fact, to plead with her people. Her message is often that God’s mercy is available to us. Yes, we are sur-rounded by our sighs in this valley of tears. But there is a world beyond this one, one into which the King and Queen are waiting to welcome us.
“And after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus…”
The whole of the prayer that we are examining seems to point to a world beyond ours. It acknowledg-es that it is difficult to be in the world and not of the world, and further that living as a true Christian will cause pain and suffering. The fallen human condition itself creates pain and suffering. To avoid trials, we must avoid the cross. And Jesus told us that in order to follow Him, we had to take up our cross daily. This is our exile. We are here not because it is our home, but because we are traveling through this world to reach our home.
But we get a foretaste of heaven, our real home, every time we go to Mass. At Mass, we receive the fruit of the fifth luminous mystery, the Institution of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the sacrament that nourishes us during this exile, along the path of tears that we have to travel to reach heaven. When we receive Jesus – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – it gives us the strength to continue to pray, to con-tinue to hope, to continue to love.
And we could not have received this blessed gift from above without Mary. The Blessed Mother car-ried Jesus in her womb not for herself, but for us. He is now present in all the tabernacles of the world, in monstrances for adoration, on the tongues of the faithful, because she brought Him forth from her blessed womb. Just as she did when she laid Him in the manger the first time, when He was shown to be the fruit of her womb, she gives Jesus to us. This is her message. She points to Him. She guides us home.
“O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray for us, Most Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”Steven Richardson is a Lay Dominican and a member of St. Ann Parish in Charlotte. Learn more about this series at www.bornofwoman.net.