When we pray the rosary, we meditate on the “mysteries of
the rosary.” There are four sets of these
mysteries: the joyful mysteries, the
sorrowful mysteries, the glorious mysteries, and the mysteries of light. Protestants often criticize Catholics who
pray the rosary because they say it is an example of “repetition” prayer. They
point to the fact that we repeat the Hail Mary prayer fifty times in just one
rosary. Even some Catholics will say that they don’t
like the rosary because they get bored with the repetition and cannot keep
their mind on the prayer, since we just say the same thing over and over.
I really like the rosary. I
like it because I think of it as a meditation prayer and not a repetition
prayer. And this is where the mysteries
come in. During the recitation of each
decade (ten) of Hail Mary’s, we meditate on a particular mystery. For example, for the glorious mysteries, we
meditate on the Resurrection of Our Lord for the first ten, the Ascension Our
Lord for the second ten, the Coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost for the
next ten, the Assumption of the Blessed Mother into Heaven on the next ten, and
finally, for the final ten, the Crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.
The vast majority of the twenty mysteries are Bible stories. One exception is the Assumption of the
Blessed Mother into Heaven. It is easy to meditate on bible stories, but
what about the Assumption? The doctrine
of the Assumption has been handed on to us via Sacred Tradition, and not Sacred Scripture, i.e., the Bible. I would love to debate the validity of Sacred
Tradition, but that is not my purpose today.
What I would like to do is relate to you what it is that I meditate on
when I am praying this mystery of fourth decade of the glorious mysteries. I love to “imagine” what exactly happened
when this non-biblical story occurred.
I imagine Mary, being very ill and near death, lying on her death
bed, surrounded by some of the apostles, like St. John (who was caring for
her), St. Peter and Saint Paul (who arrived on the scene at some point), and
possibly others as well. I imagine Mary breathing her last and then suddenly her body being taken up through the roof
of her home and disappearing from sight in the same way Our Lord disappeared
from sight when He ascended in heaven (Acts 1:9).
By the time I complete this train of thought, I have prayed ten Hail
Mary’s. By the way, we celebrate the feast of the
Assumption on Saturday, August 15. I
will be having these same thoughts when I attend Mass that day. The picture below is of the Assumption window
in St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Lincoln.
My prayer for today:
Blessed Mother, intercede for me today as I meditate on the mystery of
your Assumption into heaven. Please ask
God the Father, in Jesus’ name, to bless my family. Ask Him to please keep all family members on
the straight and narrow so that we may all one day celebrate His glorious name
in heaven. Amen.
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