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MY THOUGHTS ON THE LUMINOUS MYSTERIES (MYSTERIES OF LIGHT) OF
THE HOLY ROSARY
By
Ikechukwu Albert Eseka Esq.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Hail Mary! Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.
Glory to Jesus! Honour to Mary! Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
*Please note that as the caption reads, these thoughts of mine, based on personal research are NOT meant to be forced on anyone, neither are these thoughts to be taken as sacrosanct or as an authority.
These are simply what they are…. My thoughts which are worthy of consideration.
The Luminous Mysteries were given to the Church by Pope John Paul 2 in the year 2000 with a directive that it should be prayed on Thursdays. I believe that the promulgation of the Luminous mysteries are okay to be prayed, but what I am yet to fully understand and appreciate about it is why a particular day (Thursday) was ascribed to it. (Please at the end of this write up, if anyone us able to make me understand and appreciate why, I would be eternally grateful).
Let us state some facts about the Holy Rosary. These include but are not limited to the following:
1. It was given to us by the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary through St. Dominic;
2. Mother Mary gave us the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries;
3. Each of these Mysteries has 5 decades making 15 decades in all or 150 Hail Mary’s;
4. The Ever Blessed Virgin directed that we should recite the Rosary as we do the Psalter;
5. The Psalter are the Psalms in the Bible;
6. The number of the Psalms in the Bible are 150. (Remember the 15 decades of the Holy Rosary?);
7. Mother Mary directed that we should recite at least a third of the Rosary daily;
8. A third of the Rosary is 50 decades;
9. Mother Mary directed that we say the Rosary in this manner:
a. Joyful – Mondays and Thursdays;
b. Sorrowful – Tuesdays and Fridays;
c. Glorious – Wednesdays and Saturdays; and
d. For Sundays, we were directed to say the mysteries in the season within which the Sundays fall into: i.e. Advent and Christmas – Joyful mysteries; Lent – Sorrowful; Easter and other Sundays of the year – Glorious.
10. The prayer we say after saying the Rosary goes thus: O God, who’s only begotten Son by his Life (Joyful), Death (Sorrowful) and Resurrection (Glorious) has purchased for us…… Nowhere in this prayer is the Word Luminous mentioned.
Why then was the Luminous mysteries assigned a day (Thursday) thus changing the sequence of Life, Death and Resurrection?
What we now have is as follows:
1. Mondays – Joyful;
2. Tuesdays – Sorrowful;
3. Wednesdays – Glorious
These are okay because these follow the Life, Death and Resurrection pattern as directed by Our
Lady. However, let’s go on:
4. Thursdays – Luminous;
5. Fridays – Sorrowful;
6. Saturdays – Joyful; and
7. Sundays – Glorious.
This shows a change in the order as we now have Luminous, Sorrowful, Joyful and Glorious. How come the Luminous Mysteries before the Sorrowful mysteries come before the Joyful mysteries which in turn comes before the Glorious Mysteries? It may be interpreted to mean that Christ’s Ministry existed before he died, then was born and then was resurrected and thus goes against the order of Life, Death and Resurrection.
Furthermore, you are kindly invited to note the following:
1. The inclusion of the Luminous mysteries and ascribing a day to it has made the Rosary as we now know it to be 20 decades or 200 Hail Mary’s;
2. 200 Hail Mary’s are more than the Psalter or the Psalms which are 150 in number;
3. If we divide 200 by 3 as directed by our ever Blessed Virgin Mary, we get 66.6 (666?) God forbid; and
4. Even at that, it means that after saying one set of the mysteries i.e. Joyful, we will eat into the 1st Sorrowful mystery and a 6th of the second – all in a bid to recite a third of same daily. I wish to reiterate again that I am NOT against the Luminous mysteries but I’m not comfortable with the directive of praying it on a Thursday, thus going against the Directive of our Ever Blessed Virgin Mary. I am even tempted to ask if our Mother Mary was wrong in giving us the Rosary in the way She did that the Church decided to add to it and to change the order in which She directed us to pray same.
These are my thoughts. I hope you can help me. I do NOT claim or pretend to be wiser than Holy Mother Church. I personally feel that ascribing a particular day to the Luminous Mysteries is not the way to go (I may be wrong but this is what I feel based on what I have explained above). I also feel that we should go back to the way the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary directed and thus the Luminous Mysteries may be prayed with
no day ascribed to it. What I mean is that the Luminous Mysteries may be prayed on any day after the statutory ones of either the Joyful, Sorrowful or Glorious Mysteries have been prayed.
As said earlier, these are my thoughts based on personal research. If you are able to help clarify same,
I will be most appreciative.
Thank you and God bless us. Amen.
© 2019, Anthony Stine. All rights reserved. You may reuse or copy this post by giving credit and providing a link.
I, too, have struggled with why Thursday? I decided that it may be because we would be focusing on Jesus’ life followed by his Sacrifice on Friday. But again it is still out of order. For me, I have decided to connect it at the end of my Rosary, especially after the Joyful mysteries so as to use it as an add on, rather than trying to make sense of that which makes little sentence.
As a sequel to my post on the Luminous Mysteries, kindly find below a response from a friend.
When John Paul 2 introduced the luminous mysteries he did not impose it on the Church. He said it was a suggestion. Thus, no Catholic is obliged to pray it. Mainline Traditional Catholics do not pray it because
1. Suspicion of things coming from Rome after Vatican 2. The post Vatican 2 hierarchy tries to “update” all Catholic beliefs and practices to align with Vatican 2s spirit of renewal and ecumenism.
2. Our Lady of Fatima confirmed the traditional 15 decades of the rosary when She said concerning the first Saturday devotion:”keep Me company for 15 minutes, meditating on the 15 mysteries of the rosary. ”
3. The luminous masteries destroys the Church’s order of meditation: Mon, joyful: Tue, sorrowful: Wed, glorious. Thurs, joyful: Fri, sorrowful: Sat and Sunday, glorious. This is sequential. Why should I finish meditating on the glorious mysteries on Wed and go into luminous mysteries on Thurs? Where is the order and sequence? Or why should I finish meditating on the sorrowful mysteries on Fri and go to joyful mysteries on Sat?
4. Since Vatican 2 no previous teaching or practice is complete unless it undergoes revision. Therefore traditional Catholics are right to view innovations with suspicion.
5. There are 153 Hail Marys in the traditional rosary, representing the nations of the earth assigned to Peter and the apostles to convert. Cf. John:21:11.
6. That Jesus was born(joyful mysteries), suffered and died on the cross(sorrowful mysteries) and rose again on the third day(glorious mysteries) was the basis of early apostolic preaching. Cf. Phil. 2: 6-11. Indeed, it was the basis for accepting into the canon of Scripture the 4 gospels, while those that did not meet that criteria were rejected.
7. The 150 Hail Marys that make up the fifteen decades represents the 150 psalms.
8. It is obvious that the distortion of the rosary by insinuating luminous mysteries into it has destroyed its symbolism