Rosaries remind us of many ways to meet the Lord

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

Days to pray • The Joyful Mysteries are said on Monday, Saturdays, and the Sundays of Advent and the Sundays following Epiphany to Lent. • The Luminous Mysteries are said on Thursday. • The Sorrowful Mysteries are said on Friday and every day during Lent. • The Glorious Mysteries are said on Wednesday and Sunday (except as noted.) (Before the Luminous Mysteries were added by Pope John Paul II, the Joyful Mysteries were also said on Thursday and the Glorious on Saturday.)

This week, we celebrated the feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Feb. 2). Under the Law of Moses, a firstborn son belonged to God. On his 40th day of life, parents would bring their first son to the Temple to offer him to the Lord and then redeem him back from God. (This goes back to the days of the priesthood of the Levites). At the same time, the mother would be purified from the birth process by a sacrifice of either a lamb and a dove, or - if they were poor - two turtledoves.

This was done for Jesus and Mary - though neither needed redemption or purification - both to honor God's law and to show God's presence. In the Eastern Church, the feast of the Presentation is also called the Hypapante tou Kyriou - the meeting of the Lord.

The Presentation is one of the joyful mysteries of the rosary. Each mystery - 20 in all - reveals the Lord uniting God's work with the life and work of humanity. As Simeon proclaimed at the first Hypapante, Jesus always reveals himself as "a light of revelation ... and glory to his people" (Lk 2:32). Seeing this Light revealed - meeting the Lord - is part of praying each Rosary mystery.

From the joy of birth and new life, to weddings and meals, to suffering and death, Jesus revealed the light of God's presence at work in the world in a new way - a way leading through normal human existence onward to what God had always planned for us: resurrected life and eternal glory with God in a union of divine love.

Pope Paul VI called the rosary "the epitome of the whole gospel." By reflecting on each rosary mystery - and turning to the Scriptures to more fully explore those stories of God's light in the world - we move into closer union with Jesus. Here we learn more deeply about God's plan of salvation through reflection on each Rosary mystery:

• The Joyful Mysteries present the wonder of the Incarnation and the childhood of Jesus, "who grew in wisdom ... before God and man" (Lk 3:52). These mysteries are the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Presentation, and Finding Jesus in the Temple,

• The Luminous Mysteries present Jesus' ministry, where the Good News was proclaimed and God's healing love revealed. These mysteries are Jesus' Baptism, the miracle of the wedding wine at Cana; the preaching of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration and the Last Supper.

(While the rest of the rosary dates to 15th century, when Dominicans began this devotion as a simpler way of saying the Daily Office, the luminous mysteries are a recent addition. In 2002, Pope John Paul II asked that five mysteries be added "to bring out fully the Christological depth of the Rosary." He added that by reflecting on these five events in the public life of Jesus, "we contemplate important aspects of the person of Christ as the definitive revelation of God" RVM, 19.)

• The Sorrowful Mysteries present Jesus' suffering and death, the first half of the great Paschal Mystery which fully restored humanity's relationship with God. The five mysteries are the agony in the garden, the scourging at the pillar, the crowning with thorns, the carrying of the Cross, and the crucifixion and death on that cross.

• The Glorious Mysteries present the second half of the Paschal Mystery that restored us to union with God. Here the power and glory of God are revealed in the Risen Christ - and offered to all, starting with his mother. These mysteries are the Resurrection, the Ascension, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Assumption and coronation of Mary.

In each mystery of the Rosary, we meet the Lord. The mystery of divine love is revealed in the events of human life, in events similar to our own experiences, but lighted fully by the presence of God.

By reflecting upon the mystery of her son's life, Mary united herself to God - and the light of God was revealed to her, and in her. God filled Mary with the Spirit and, in the proper time, raised her to the heights of heaven.

Similar reflection is meant to do the same for us. God With Us wants to fully reveal his light to us - and in us. We must reflect, as Mary did - and act, as she did.

Mary went from speaking with an angel to help an elderly, pregnant cousin, from hearing angel song to fleeing to Egypt, from hearing her son's teaching to standing at his cross and, finally, to prayer - and divine fire - with others in the Upper Room. Mary met the Lord and followed his light, reflecting that light in her own life.

This is what the rosary should do for us. As the Catechism says of the rosary: "This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him" (no. 2708).

We are called to meet the Lord - God With Us - in prayer and action. That meeting should lead to the union of his life with ours, whether he reveals himself early in life, as he did to Mary, or later, as he did to Simeon and Anna.