Praying the Rosary with St. Paul
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For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light – for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. (Eph 5:8-9)
On October 16, 2002, Pope John Paul II encouraged Catholic faithful throughout the world to have confidence in praying one of his most favourite prayers, the Rosary. In his Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, he also entrusted the two great causes of peace in the world and the cause of the human family to our Blessed Mother's intercession.
In his letter, Pope John Paul II speaks of the fruits of being conformed ever more closely to Christ in the mysteries of joy, sorrow, and glory. His proposal of the addition of the new set of Luminous Mysteries seems to be most appropriate for the Year of St. Paul. The prayerful encounter with Christ, “Light of the World,” in his public ministry is a fitting preparation to encounter the same luminous Christ whom Paul will encounter on his way to Damascus.
Moreover, in his Apostolic Letter, our late Holy Father, seemed to point us in that direction. With only months elapsing after the release of his Apostolic Letter on the Rosary and his World Youth Day visit in Toronto with its theme, “salt and light of the world,” one cannot help but think that is what he had in mind when he included this appeal to young people:
Why not try it? With God's help, a pastoral approach to youth which is positive, impassioned and creative – is capable of achieving remarkable results. If the Rosary is well presented, our young people may once more surprise adults by the way they make this prayer their own and recite it with the enthusiasm typical of their age group. (see section 42, Rosarium Virginis Mariae)
Included are the five mysteries of light with a reflection from St. Paul. Through Paul's own words we can gain insight into the mystery of baptism, the great sign of marriage, the significance of preaching the Gospel and call to repentance, on being Transfigured by Christ, and Paul's regard for the Eucharist.
First Luminous Mystery
The Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan
A reading from a Letter of Paul to the Romans
(Rom 6: 1-11)
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore, we have been buried with Him through Baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Second Luminous Mystery
The Wedding Feast of Cana
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Ephesians
(Eph 5:24-32)
As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.
"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Third Luminous Mystery
The Preaching of the Kingdom of God and the Call to Conversion
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles
(Acts 17:22-31)
So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said: "Athenians, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, `To an unknown god.' What, therefore, you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for `In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your poets have said, `For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of mortals. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."
Fourth Luminous Mystery
The Transfiguration
A reading from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians
(2 Cor 4:16 –5:6)
So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling- if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord – for we walk by faith, not by sight.
The Fifth Luminous Mystery
The Institution of the Eucharist
A Reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians
(1 Cor 10:16-17 & 11: 23-30)
Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.