The Glorious Mysteries

April 9, 2020 The Cup of Tea Rosary

These mysteries are ideal for meditation during the Easter Season (50 days to Pentecost)as we contemplate what the resurrection of Jesus means for us all.

Let us begin:

1. The Resurrection

“Filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples.”

(Matthew 28:1-10)

O Blessed day of the Resurrection, which of old time was called the Queen of Festivals….Blessed day, once only passed in sorrow, when the Lord actually rose, and the disciples believed not; but ever since a day of joy to the faith and love of the Church ! In ancient times, Christians all over the world began it with a morning salutation. Each man said to his neighbour, ‘Christ is risen’; and his neighbour answered him, ‘Christ is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon’. Even to Simon, the coward disciple who denied him thrice, Christ is risen; even to us, who long ago vowed to obey Him, and have yet so often denied Him, before men, so often taken part with sin, and followed the world, when Christ called us another way. ‘Christ is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon !’ To Simon Peter the favoured Apostle, on whom the Church is built, Christ has appeared. He has appeared to His Holy Church first of all, and in the Church He dispenses blessings, such as the world knows not of.

(Parochial and Plain Sermons II, 13)

Pause and Imagine you are with Jesus.

Then, Pray One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory Be.

2. The Ascension

“And know that l am with you always; yes, to the end of time.”

(Matthew 28:16-20)

‘So, then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God’ (Mark 16:19)…. What a time must that forty days have been, during which, while He taught them, all His past teaching must have risen in their minds, and their thoughts then must have recurred in overpowering contrast to their thoughts now. His manner of life, His ministry, His discourses, His parables, His miracles, His meekness, gravity, incomprehensible majesty, the mystery of His grief and joy; the agony, the scourge, the cross, the crown of thorns, the spear, the tomb; their despair, their unbelief, their perplexity, their amazement, their sudden transport, the triumph- all this was in their minds; and surely not the least at that awful hour, when He lead his breathless followers out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and bless them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them and carried her into heaven

(Luke 24:50-51).

(Parochial and Plain Sermons VI,16)

Pause and Imagine you are with Jesus.

Then, Pray One Our Father, One Hail Mary and One Glory Be.

3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said.”

(John 14:15-16,23-26)

It was the great promise of the Gospel, that the Lord of all, who had hither to manifested Himself externally to His servants, should take up His abode in their hearts. This, as you must recollect, is frequently the language of the Prophets; and it was the language of our Saviour when he came on earth: ‘I will love him, He says, speaking of those who love and obey Him, ‘and will manifest Myself to him…We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him’ (John 14:21,23). Though he had come in our flesh, so as to be seen and handled, even this was not enough. Still He was external and separate; but after His Ascension He descended again by and in His Holy Spirit, and then at length the promise was fulfilled.

(Parochial and Plain Sermons lV, II)

Pause and Imagine yourself with Jesus.

Then, Pray One Our Father, One Hail Mary and One Glory Be.

4. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven

“Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:39-56)

Another consideration which has led devout minds to believe the Assumption of our Lady into heaven after her death, without waiting for the general resurrection of the last day, is furnished by the doctrine of her Immaculate Conception. By her Immaculate Conception is meant, that not only did she never commit any sin whatever, even venial, in thought, word, or deed, but further than this, that the guilt of Adam, or what is called original sin, never was her guilt, as it is the guilt attaching to all other descendants of Adam. By her Assumption is meant that not only her soul, but her body also, was taken up to heaven upon her death, so that there was no long period of her sleeping in the grave, as is the case with others, even great Saints, who wait for the last day for the resurrection of their bodies. One reason for believing in our Lady’s Assumption is that her Divine Son loved her too much to let her body remain in the grave. A second reason -that now before us-is this, that she was not only dear to the Lord as a mother is dear to a son, but also that she was so transcendently holy, so full, so overflowing with grace.

(Meditations on the Litany of Loretto, lV)

Pause and Imagine yourself with Mary.

Then, Pray One Our Father, One Hail Mary and One Glory Be.

5. The Crowning of Mary, Queen of Heaven

“Still happy those who hear the hear the word of God and keep it”

(Luke 11, 27-28)

If the Creator comes on earth in the form of a servant and a creature, why may not His Mother on the other hand, rise to be the Queen of Heaven, and be clothed with the sun, and have the moon under her feet ?

(Discourse to Mixed Congregations, 17)

She is the house and the palace of the Great King, of God Himself. Our Lord, the Co-equal Son of God, once dwelt in her. He was her Guest; nay, more than a guest, for a guest comes into a house as well as leaves it. But our Lord was actually born in this holy house. He took His flesh and His blood from this house, from the flesh, from the veins of Mary. Rightly then was she made to be of pure gold, because she was to give of that gold to form the body of the Son of God. She was golden in her conception, golden at birth. She went through the fire of her suffering like gold in the furnace, and when she ascended on high, she was, in the words of our hymn,

Above all the Angels in glory untold.

Standing next to the King in a vesture of gold.

(Meditations and Devotions)

Pause and Imagine yourself with Mary. Then, Pray One Our Father One Hail Mary and One Glory Be.